Handguns

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Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
Let's start with the positive aspects of this magazine, but I'll quickly follow with negative criticism. A subscription is dirt-cheap. There are a lot of pictures, most color and many decent but not what I would call professionally done. Several photos look like they were taken on the range with a point-n-shoot camera, which is disappointing for a professional publication, as the point is to make it look like something the average reader could not do on his own. The best photos are in the numerous advertisements. _Handguns_ is a great magazine on the subject if the reader is pressed for time. The magazine spans about 75 pages an issue, which is pretty thin compared to other gun magazines, especially since this is a bimonthly publication. Articles are short and rarely have much depth to the specific subjects, so individual handgun reviews tell a potential buyer little about the gun and not anything more than every other major handgun/firearm publication available at newsstands. As I look through the October/November 2005 issue, an article on the Glock 38 (in .45 GAP) has two of the four pages (these are pages mostly filled with ads and Glock photos) on a poor history of the .40 (off the subject, of course) and the basic Glock design, which, after over twenty years of immense popularity, is fairly well-known to gun enthusiasts and novices alike and unnecessary here. It wastes a further two paragraphs on the .45 GAP cartridge itself ("Why .45 GAP?"). The conclusion begins with, "The best way to evaluate whether the Glock 38 fits your particular needs is to first examine the Glock system of operation" (20). Ugh. We don't need this verbiage in an article on a gun whose design is the most popular in law enforcement today. Readers need to be told about reliability ("...performed as expected..." [19], a testament to the Glock's renown), shootability (i.e., the "snap" of the .45 GAP round), and usability (e.g., concealability and "reloadability"). This one article is the typical _Handguns_ fare, falling far short of the mark of completeness. The quality of the writing, grammar-wise, is decent. I'm a composition professor, so I'd rate this aspect as B-, although there are plenty of fragmented sentences and, yes, even the occasional misspelling. Hey, it's not _Harper's_, okay? There are many, many ads in this magazine, to be expected, of course, but there are some that are not appropriate for this subject, such as ones for "male enhancement" products (steroid alternatives and sexual boosters) and "fine timepieces" and other worthless kitsch. Again, UGH. Lastly, Rick Hacker, who writes "Final Round" opinion pieces, is not only one to fly the extremely-conservative flag (to be expected in a gun magazine) but also a bit, how can I say this...childish. The Oct./Nov. 2005 issues final thoughts are on his "Snail-Safari Adventures," in which his gloats about how he used to shoot snails with a pellet gun. So, it's a mollusk that "serve[s] no purpose" (72); I'm not going to defend animal rights here. So what if it's fun to shoot a pellet gun? I think that's a hoot. Hacker writes joyfully about killing for killing's sake, complete disrespect for life, and shooting a firearm in his Los Angeles backyard, which itself is dangerous, irresponsible, and, now, illegal. It's just plain dumb to voice an opinion that paints gun owners as bloodthirsty killers with such elation, as it gives the anti-gun lobby just another reason to outlaw tools that responsible gun owners enjoy. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)