I was rummaging through some of my gun-related tools today and stumbled across this one. At first I looked at it and said to myself, "What the **** is this?"
And then I looked at it more closely. It was plainly stamped with the name of one of our most revered gun manufacturers, so it must be useful and important, right?
Well, I am getting older, so I had to search my memory banks for the reason for this odd implement's existence, and what it might be good for. Ah, yezzz.....
Once upon a time I had bought a Smith and Wesson Model 642, and as a blight upon its left side, directly above the cylinder release, was this black hole, with an ugly etched arrow above it.
I thought to myself, "Aha! This must fit in that ugly hole - it must serve some obscure purpose!"
And then I remembered, and it made me see red all over again. This tool was the answer to a non-existent problem! It was the incredibly dumb key to the incredibly dumb internal lock featured on many of Smith's modern revolvers.
After I had removed that internal lock mechanism from the 642 to make it more reliable with no chance of a misfire from it engaging automatically (as some have), I had actually kept that key as a memento and a monument to politically-correct insanity. If you really want to lock up a double action revolver, a simple padlock behind the trigger will do just fine and will not adversely affect either the esthetics or the functionality of the revolver.
And so I want to nominate this implement as the world's most useless tool. Perhaps some day, when S&W comes to its corporate senses, it will be a collector's item and a reminder of a day when a large corporation scraped and bowed to politics, burying its collective nose deep in the then-current regime's nether regions and installed a terrible blight on most of its otherwise fine revolvers. I'm firmly in the camp of "hope and change" on this singular issue.
Long may the banner of freedom and personal choice wave - and this may this hoplophobe-dictated device for ever after perish from this earth.
John
And then I looked at it more closely. It was plainly stamped with the name of one of our most revered gun manufacturers, so it must be useful and important, right?
Well, I am getting older, so I had to search my memory banks for the reason for this odd implement's existence, and what it might be good for. Ah, yezzz.....
Once upon a time I had bought a Smith and Wesson Model 642, and as a blight upon its left side, directly above the cylinder release, was this black hole, with an ugly etched arrow above it.
I thought to myself, "Aha! This must fit in that ugly hole - it must serve some obscure purpose!"
And then I remembered, and it made me see red all over again. This tool was the answer to a non-existent problem! It was the incredibly dumb key to the incredibly dumb internal lock featured on many of Smith's modern revolvers.
After I had removed that internal lock mechanism from the 642 to make it more reliable with no chance of a misfire from it engaging automatically (as some have), I had actually kept that key as a memento and a monument to politically-correct insanity. If you really want to lock up a double action revolver, a simple padlock behind the trigger will do just fine and will not adversely affect either the esthetics or the functionality of the revolver.
And so I want to nominate this implement as the world's most useless tool. Perhaps some day, when S&W comes to its corporate senses, it will be a collector's item and a reminder of a day when a large corporation scraped and bowed to politics, burying its collective nose deep in the then-current regime's nether regions and installed a terrible blight on most of its otherwise fine revolvers. I'm firmly in the camp of "hope and change" on this singular issue.
Long may the banner of freedom and personal choice wave - and this may this hoplophobe-dictated device for ever after perish from this earth.
John
