It makes you wonder how far in the future people will be using the stuff we're building now. I can't even guess what the world is going to be like in a hundred years.
Title: Re: Greener Police Shotgun
Post by: alone on January 13, 2015, 02:59:59 pm
Clint Smith quotes and vids come to mind... As do same from Awerbuck...
Title: Re: Greener Police Shotgun
Post by: JesseL on January 13, 2015, 03:16:44 pm
It makes you wonder how far in the future people will be using the stuff we're building now. I can't even guess what the world is going to be like in a hundred years.
I have no idea what might become state-of-the-art in 100 years, but I have little doubt that what we have today will remain in use alongside it - probably including a few of those Greeners.
The only things that can make a functional weapon go out of use are to have it be thoroughly succeeded by something that's better in every way (like flintlocks vs cartridge arms), or for it to become unusable due to some other advancement (some sort of body armor that is cheap, ubiquitous, and perfectly resistant to today's weapons? Not likely).
Title: Re: Greener Police Shotgun
Post by: Nightcrawler on January 13, 2015, 04:03:11 pm
That's the reason most weapons of war get replaced a lot faster than small arms.
A fighter jet of the 1960s wouldn't stand a chance against an F-22, Typhoon, or Rafale. The new designs aren't just better performers, but their sensors are better and the weapons are a hell of a lot more accurate.
Same thing with tanks. T-55s and T-62s have faced modern tanks on the battlefield, and it always ends badly for the old models.
But small arms? A man isn't any harder to kill now than he was a hundred years ago (with the exception that soldiers often wear body armor now). New weapons may be more effective, but older ones aren't any less so. You wouldn't want to send F-100s against modern air defenses, but a group of soldiers with M14s and M16A1s would hold their own quite well. The Kalashnikov is a 1940s design, and it's more ubiquitous now than ever. The 1911 soldiers on a hundred years after it was designed, and new models of revolver are being introduced every year. When you consider cost-to-effectiveness, it's hard to beat a modern pump shotgun or bolt action rifle.
I wonder if, 20 years down the road, old ARs will be as cheap and common as military surplus bolt action rifles once were. :hmm
Title: Re: Greener Police Shotgun
Post by: luke213(adamsholsters) on January 14, 2015, 10:58:01 am
I think that until something replaces the cartridge as we know it now and does so in some sort of spectacular fashion we'll still see all the guns we have now in use. Really muzzle loaders and other older tech still see use just in different areas these days. Same thing I think will occur if something replaces cartridges.