what would you say is the most influential innovation in handguns from the past 20 years?
They say there is nothing new under the sun, and I suppose if you set your parameters broadly enough, it's true. Nearly everything I can think of is (or could be) considered a refinement of an earlier concept.
Controlled expansion hollow points? Maybe, you can make a fair case for them, BUT they are still hollow points. and that goes back way beyond 20 years. Influential? absolutely. Innovation? yes in detail, but not in principle.
Laser sights?? Innovated in the 80s made PRACTICAL within the 20 years. Remember the Terminator's ".45 Long slide with laser sight"?? At the time (84) it was Hollywood magic (the sight's "small" size), laser sights existed at that time, but were about the size of a carton of cigarettes. Now? Some are the size of a bump on the grip, and there are even some that fit inside the gun.
Tritium sights? Again, not new within the last 20 years, just new and better application. I was removing (and tossing in the trash, per orders) bent and broken tritium night sights from M16A1s in the mid 70s.
My vote for the most
influential thing falls just outside the 20yr range in origin, and on the edge of the 20yr range when they began hitting the streets.
Again, not a new concept, the innovation I'm talking about here is the compact and subcompact duty pistol. While the Colt Commander (and a few others) had been around for decades, the smaller "duty" class pistols were only a fairly small segment of the market. A solid segment, but not the majority by any means.
So, how did they get to be such a large share of today's market? How did the smaller size guns get so
influential?
Thank the govt. The 10 round magazine limit from the 1994 AWB (now just outside the 20yr range).
The smaller, compact 10rnd (duty class) pistols are a direct result of the AWB. An
unintended consequence of the mag capacity law.
Rather ironic in a way, that gun control law created the popularity for smaller, more easily concealed pistols. Why carry a gun that was built to hold 15 or 17, etc., when the law limits you to 10? Gunmakers began making models of their main duty pistols scaled for a 10rnd mag. Smaller, and a bit lighter, they became very popular, leading to even smaller designs the "subcompacts".
VERY influential, how many designs fit in those classes today? a dozen? more??
Even though the AWB expired in 04, the pistols it accidently created and popularized are still a major market share today.