Why are the majority of great firearms maker/manufacture come from Europe?

Question

Europe has

Heckler&Koch
SIG-Sauer/J.P. Sauer&Sohn
Walther
Swiss Arms
FN Herstal
Benelli
Beretta
Steyr
Glock
CZ
ect..etc..

Why are European(especially Germany) so great when it come to making firearms? Why can't the US make great fire arms like the European?

Answer 1

Superior Engineers and Craftsmen

the same reason for Autos and Watches and most things of value and durability that have traditional value on the world stage.

German Engineers are and have always been world renowned!

Answer 2

One reason is how people think. Americans only think about the here and now so base their decisions on "how much." When an American company is given a contract to build a street, the contract goes to the lowest bidder. We end up with asphalt streets where any future work leaves a patch and bump. When we build a house, we want big as we can get for least amount of money. When we buy guns we buy based upon price.

Europeans think differently. They think about the long term and the future. When they build a street they know it will be there for a hundred years at least so often go with an expensive design that will last a long time. They use cobble stone and when work is needed, they just pull up the stones, fix the street, replace the stones and you can not tell any work was done. No bad patch, no bump. When they build a house, they more likely build it out of of brick and concrete. It may cost more but the house is going to last hundreds of years. When they buy a gun, they are thinking about leaving it to their kids. So they do not buy a low bid piece of crap, they buy a quality gun.

Americans are happy with crap, Europeans, specially Germans are not.

Answer 3

It depends on what you consider to be a "great firearm." Is it better to have a extremely reliable, simple gun like the AK47, or is it better to have a highly accurate and complex gun like the M16. or even the "inerita action" of a Benelli?

It seems that many people equate a high price to high quality. Really their is no one answer to this question. It is all a matter of opinion. Para Ordinance, Arsenal, K-rebs, Rock River, Bushmaster, these are all very well established and reliable North American manufactures.

Not to mention many Russian (I dare anyone to challange that Mr. Kalishnakov's design wasn't groundbreaking) and even Chinese (Norinco), Bulgarian, Brazilian (Taurus), Argentinian (Bersa), manufacturs who have arming the world for years.

Many European firearm manufactures are mostly known for their names. There is nothing too special about Walther other than James Bond and WW2, John Browning designed many-a-gun for FN, Steyer isn't really well known outside of Europe, Benelli's are often to overpriced for most buyers.

Opinion is what drives this. Well...that and nationalism. We all think that our area makes the best everything!

I do find it interesting that Europeans can't legally purchase the great product made in their countries...

Answer 4

Part of it is the training. I read a old book once talking about Gunsmithing. At the time it was written as an apprentice in Germany you had to take a section of round bar stock and using only files and measuring devices you have to file the round stock into a perfect square. They would spend years and years learning the trade.

I will take a Remington over any Euro gun any day.

Over engineering is a German strong point. That was one of the contributing factor to them losing WW2. The Panzer and Tiger tanks were very complex. Where as our tanks were designed to be fixed by a bunch of 19 year old farm boys. We could crank them out at an alarming rate and repair them on the fly and repair turnaround for a sherman was ten times faster than for a panzer or tiger. Plus we like to live by the KISS method Keep It Simple Stupid.

Answer 5

Because America tries to blame and sue the maker of a firearm, rather than try to control the operator of a firearm...
I agree that good weapons started out in Europe, but excellent guns were made here in the past : some still are.

Answer 6

I bet you any amount of money that my Remington 870 will shoot twice as long as any shotgun made in Europe.
Yes the Europeans make very fine firearms, but most of the American ones just seem to go bang every time.

Answer 7

I honestly have no clue what dwelling size has to do with relative wealth. Most of Europe is far more Urban than the US and therefore houses are smaller. Would you say that Topeka Kansas is wealthier than New York City because the houses are bigger? The median household income in most European countries is much higher than our poverty level.

Answer 8

Europeans have been killing each other with firearms manufactured by most of those companies for centuries. We'd probably still have the Winchester 70 and 94 if the corporate history were different and solidified by military contracts.

Answer 9

the idea that european firearms are the best is a reputation they earned in the time preceding say 1950,and at that time they were better than most of our firarms,because they were predomitly hand finished and fited .the reputation was earned through bettercraftmanship and inovation the mauser action is but one example.But times have changed and american firarms are every bit as good as any thing made in europe .the reason european hand guns have a reputation for reliablity is the angle at wich the round goes into the chamber,back when about the only american made auto was the colt 1911which was fussy about ammo with out ramp work they were more reliable with a wider variety of ammo .but like long guns we have caught up.so today there really is no differance ,just preffence in models and features.some features may appear to give them the edge such as benelli's fast cycling which is their claim to fame but in reality,unless your trying to break 9 clay targets before they hit the ground that extra speed is pretty much useless,and any american made auto loading shotgun will do the same job just as well .in todays gun world you have to get into true custom firearms to beable to tell any differance .

Answer 10

The Germans have had the reputation for the finest made weapons in the world since World War 2. They have always strived for excellence and are constantly developing newer technologies. The U.S has always had the ability to out manufacture them, but the Germans have always been focused on quality and not qualtity. Thats not to say that we haven't caught up and gained a lot of ground since, but they will always be leaders, and we will have to strive here in the U.S. to keep up and maintain our levels of production and overall quality......