VIDEO: What's Holding Back The Gun Industry

This video discusses some of the reasons for the lack of innovation in the gun industry. 

    In some ways, I disagree with her premise that there is a lack of innovation because we've seen a lot of development over the past 20 years including: refining the AR system; development of piston systems for the AR; a large number of new cartridges for long range shooting and hunting; the wide adoption of accessory and optic mounting systems on handguns; use of newer materials and incorporation of materials that were formally very expensive like carbon fiber; the revival of lever actions with changes to make them more useful for self-defense; the development of the stack and a half magazine designs making it possible to stuff more rounds into small carry guns; and on and on. 

     On the other hand, I can see where she is coming from: the dominant rifle and handgun designs are the Glock (or other polymer striker fired pistols) and AR and they haven't really changed all that much in the past decade. Most of the innovation is on the margins, so to speak: refinements to existing designs rather than radical departures. 

    But that is not unprecedented. In 1890 most American hunters would have been armed with a lever action rifle; and most people that had a handgun would use a revolver. In 1930--40 years later--the lever actions and revolvers would be more refined, but the majority of hunters would still be using a lever action rifle; and most pistol owners would still be using revolvers. Even as late as 1980, most people who owned a handgun for defense would have had a revolver, although the bolt-action rifle would have long eclipsed lever action rifles in sales. 

    The only period that saw rapid advancements in both ammunition and the basic designs of weapons was in the latter half of the 19th Century. The primary factors were:

• Changes in ammunition. The world shifted from black powder muzzle loaders to metallic cartridges, with the period ending with the adoption of smokeless powder. 
• New designs made possible by the development of the metallic cartridges. Repeating arms had existed before, but they were expensive and dangerous. The only successful designs were black powder revolvers. But the metallic cartridge allowed for the development of repeating rifles such as the lever action rifle, bolt action rifle, and semi- and fully-automatic rifles and machine guns. Revolvers became more reliable and more refined. The first semi-auto pistols were developed. 
• Manufacturing innovations including mass production and better steels. This made firearms less expensive and inexpensive metallic cartridges possible--the better steels allowed for the higher pressures from smokeless powder. 
• Freedom to innovate. There wasn't the laws and regulations prohibiting individual inventors from making new firearms. So if you were a medical doctor that came up with a design for a system of rapid fire using multiple barrels rotating around an central axis, more power to you. And if your system didn't quite work well, you could tinker with it and come out with new variations, until it finally worked right.  
• The new firearms represented a significant improvement over what gun owners already owned. Meaning that it was worthwhile to replace older firearms with newer models.  

 Today the world looks different:

•  In most ways, the ammunition used today really isn't all that different than that used in 1900. There are improvements in design so we have much more efficient rifle ammunition than 100 years ago but not so much that many (most) people are still using 100 year old cartridge designs and calibers. And this is possible because most of the innovation has come in bullet designs. But none of these require or even allow major changes to the basic design of firearms. 
• Radical design changes are generally few, occur fairly rapidly, and then it becomes a game of refinement. Right now we are mostly in a period of refinement. The basic designs are pretty much optimized. And unless the underlying method of propelling a bullet changes, it is unlikely that we will see revolutionary design changes in personal firearms. 
• There is little freedom to innovate. Too many laws and regulations. Too much capital investment required. Fewer large firearms manufacturers. And too many influencers ready to crap on anything that is innovative. 
• Because the innovation is at the margin, newer products offer only marginal improvements over earlier designs or models. A lever action rifle in the 1880s offered a significant improvement--really in the order of a magnitude of improvement--over a muzzle loading black powder rifle because of magazine capacity, ease of use, and ease of loading and unloading. I would even argue that the AR's rise to popularity is because it offered significant improvements over older rifles--particularly at the same time as improvements in bullet design and manufacturing made it more accurate and capable of taking larger game than would have been believed even a decade earlier. And a flattop over the original AR design with the integrated rear sight and carry handle would represent an improvement just because of it being easier to mount and use an optic. But what improvement does the AR coming out this year give me over one from last year?  

 VIDEO: "Whats Holding Back The Gun Industry"
Boondock Ballistician (13 min.)