The FBI has released its lengthy RFP for new 9mm guns.
One of the members of the S&W Forum has spent a lot of time examining the RFP. Quite a few makers were, in essence, designed out of the running: HK, Springfield, Walther and Beretta.
Apparently, no one gun meets the RFP, but the Sig 320. S&W M&Ps, FN's FNS and Glock 17/19 come closest. Glock would have to ditch the Gen 4 finger grooves, but given how many guns the winner could be expected to sell outside of sales to the Feebies, they'd probably happily develop new frame molds.
And that's the key market. Fiction aside, FBI agents aren't exactly street cops. A hell of a lot of them are doing investigations by sending out subpoenas and reviewing documents.[1] Most of them could carry Airsoft guns and nobody would be the wiser. The real sales will be to the hundreds and hundreds of cop shops who will figure "good enough for Jedgar's boys, good enough for us".[2] Plus all of the Cletuses who have to have the same kind of gun that the FBI uses.
(Future prediction: The same thing will happen if/when the Army gets around to replacing the Beretta M9.)
The winner of the contract can expect to sell hundreds of thousands of guns. This one will be hard-fought by the players involved, complete with protests by the losers and litigation.
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[1] Kind of like young associates at big law firms, only they carry guns. Which is one of the reasons why the Feebies like to hire lawyers and accountants as their very special agents.
[2] Or, "Why should we spend our time and money testing all of the different guns when we can just bite off of the FBI?"
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4 comments:
Any bets on how long before the RFP is "corrected" to allow a Springfield product to qualify? Or has the NRA and the Illinois delegation lost that much clout?
Why on earth would the NRA get involved?
Well, the Springfield Armory is a pretty heavy contributor to the NRA. The NRA has lots of "friends" in Congress. I'd expect someone in SA Inc. to casually mention to some NRA contacts how important it is that the FBI's RFP should be designed to favor, and include, the big "domestic" arms firms. Then they casually mention that to some "friends", while the Illinois delegation gets a personal visit from SA bigwigs? After all, they ain't paying that money outta the goodness of their hearts. Just saying, money is speech, and the NRA isn't deaf.
Glock, S&W, SigSauer, and a number of the non-contenders also advertise in the NRA's magazines.
I don't see the NRA getting involved in this. But see, I don't buy the gun-banner's claptrap that the NRA only exists to be a tool of the gun industry.
YMMV.
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