Gunnie Guilty Pleasures...

We've all got 'em. That one gun that you absolutely lust for that no one else has ever heard of. Even worse, it's the gun that everyone makes fun of. Or it's a tired cliché from Hollywood that's just been done to death. In any case, here are some of my "gunnie guilty pleasures" - guns that I either own, like, or want to get that just make no sense whatsoever.

But I want 'em anyways...

Beretta 92 - this is the gun I had in mind as a cliché. John McClane carried one. So did Martin Riggs. For a good chunk of the 1980s this was the gun to have - it was to the cop movies of the 1980s what the Colt Detective Special was to the cop shows of the 1960s. Looking back, it was probably the switching of the US Armed Forces from the 1911 to the M9 that was responsible - the Beretta got a LOT of press from the switch and filmmakers capitalized on that newfound popularity.

NAA Mini-22 - Yes, it's a five-shot, single action .22LR revolver. Yes, you do have to take the cylinder completely out to reload (although rumor is that there's a top-break in the works). It is utterly impractical as a defensive arm; totally out of the question as a target gun; even as a plinker it's just not very good. But you know what? You take this teeny little gun out at the range and every person there will want to put a cylinder's worth of .22LR through it.

Desert Eagle - ah, the Deagle. This is another gun that Hollywood helped popularize; however unlike the Beretta 92 the Deagle was not exactly a reliable firearm - I think the most common quip about the Deagle was that it served best as a boat anchor... The niche was that it fired revolver rounds - .357, .41, and .44 Magnum - as well as .50 Action Express. Yes, it was the first .50 caliber handgun, years and years before Smith & Wesson launched their .500 Magnum.

Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum - the new and undisputed (for now) "most powerful handgun in the world", the S&W 500 Magnum makes the list for sheer audacity. It's big - huge in fact. It's MA compliant - yes, you can buy these in MA. Ammunition costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 - $4. PER ROUND. And yet, you hand one of these monsters to someone at the range, they're going to need a jackhammer to get the smile off their face...

FN5.7 - oh, sure, from a pistol it's barely more powerful than a .22 Magnum. The pragmatist in me knows this. But the sheer PSH displayed by the gun-grabbers around this gun (ZOMG! It shoots through bulletproof vests!!!11111) make it a must-have for any gunnie that wants to piss off the forces of evil.

Tec-9 - see pretty much everything I wrote about the FN5.7, except that the Tec-9 was (almost) single-handedly responsible for the wording in the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban that dealt with handguns. The available firearms at the time of the ban precluded all but a very small handful of actual pistols - yes, there were some AR-based pistols then, but not many - and the Tec-9 was mentioned by name. That's some serious anti- hate cred goin' on there.

Thompson - the Thompson in semi-auto guise doesn't get a lot of press, mainly because it's quite expensive, insanely heavy, and requires modifications to existing USGI Thompson magazines if one requires pre-ban magazines or does not wish to pay AutoOrdnance's exorbitant price for factory magazines ($70 for a 20 or 30 rounder???). With the serious lack of competition in the .45 carbine entries, though (what's out there besides the Beretta CX4?), the Thompson is one of the only games in town despite the heft and cost.

Coach gun - oh, sure, they cost more than a comparable pump-action shotgun. Sure, they have lower capacity, too. Sure, they're pretty much useless for anyone other than CAS types. But damn, there's just something about a double-barreled 12 gauge with a short barrel and exposed hammers that screams badass. Personally, I blame Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in "Tombstone" for my unnatural affectation for the coach gun.

SUB2000 - Well, the concept was intriguing... a pistol caliber carbine that folded in the middle so it could be transported in a backpack. Most folks aren't too keen on a rifle that comes apart right after the action, though; combine that with a small aftermarket for accessories and it's a great concept that never really clicked. I'd still love to have one set up for use with Sig P226 magazines, though...

Mini-14 - probably the two biggest drawbacks to the Mini-14 have been that it takes proprietary magazines (rather than the ubiquitous AR-15 magazines) and the accuracy issues. It seemed like a real winner of an idea - take the M-14 platform, make it smaller and lighter and chamber it for the .223 Remington cartridge rather than the .308 Win, and you'd have a rifle that many soldiers were comfortable with and wouldn't scare the white people like that eeeevil black M-16.

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So there's my list of guilty pleasures - now what are yours?

That is all.