Would you buy a “made in Pakistan” weapon?

If someone was to ask me this question, I would say, short answer “no” and long answer “yes”. The short answer No is something I have been writing about for a long long time now when I write about guns, that is. The reasons are simple and basic, and its not about the cost, its about your own safety, and more importantly about your life. A weapon that is a copy of some famous known brand, like Glock, Beretta or some Turkish Zigana, is made of God knows what material, has not passed the quality control checks except for firing it once with half a magazine and thence declaring it a “Go” is not a standard that could in any way rate a weapon as reliable or safe. In fact both Darra and Kohat road Industrial area companies are busy churning out copies upon copies of famous brands. There is no R&D to speak of, those making these guns and those owning these businesses are uneducated, and all focus is on making good lookalikes. Well then how can one trust a weapon with his life if the weapon’s reliability is not guaranteed? and is not even safe to shoot. The only attractions for the public at large being “copies” and “cheap”. That is how the industry is thriving.

And then there is just one company Daudsons who had the temerity and gumption to design a gun from scratch, well not one but two guns, made of quality materials with proper quality control checks and launch them, only to see them barely making a dent in the over flowing imported weapons market and the local copies. Off course they had some issues when it comes to ergonomics and design and features, but then considering the price and quality it wasn’t a bad deal after all. The same Daudsons have been making export quality shotguns for UK market. This only goes to show that its possible and workable. And if the folks from yester-years remember the famous Sikander shotguns, that almost attained a cult following in the country and still do, too bad that they stopped making them, for God knows what reasons. Gun design and R&D is serious work, it needs money , patience and knowledge, lots of it. Something which the local industry has not, save for the lonely gun maker form Peshawar. Then there is POF who despite having everything required to make it, have not been able to make a pistol. The closest they came to it was a pathetic Beretta 92FC which some say was made by Darra people for them. And hence a big failure. And then a few imported Sarsilmaz B6 and ST9 with POF stamped on it.

If the industry were to do anything worthwhile, the last 5 years was enough time to do it, with a ban on imports, the likes of you and me kept waiting for lifting the ban while the so called industry was busy in making copies. Had there been a few more companies like Daudsons or a consortium of them, things might have been different. So coming back to the subject, YES I will but a Pakistani weapon, if its well designed, if its not a copy, if it is safe to shoot, if it is reliable, which so far doesn’t seem happening.