4.  ME AND CENTURY INTERNATIONAL ARMS:
    A CAPITALIST RESPONSE TO PRODUCERS OF JUNK
    by Patrick K Martin 
    Exclusive to TLE    http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/>     Issue 217

I have decided to destroy a company. It's not a decision which I have made
lightly, nor do I believe it will be easy. I may not succeed, but I will
try, and at the very least I will do them major damage. I do this not
simply because they sold me a defective weapon. I do this not because they
made me mad, which they have. No, I do this because I feel that it is my
duty as a capitalist. I know that sounds funny, but I will explain that in
a moment.

This story starts back around Christmas of the year 2000. I got a rifle,
not just any rifle, but a Spanish CETME rifle, the kind of evil black
implement of destruction which haunt the nightmares of the statist vermin
who currently infest the halls of power in America (and with a damn pretty
set of wood stocks, ta boot). Unfortunately, living in the People's
Democratic Republic of Michigan, just spitting distance (I ought know, I do
it a lot) from that den of Socialist inequity known as Detroit. There is
almost no place where one can
shoot a rifle. Most of the ranges in this area have been shut down by the EPA.

Yes, that's right, the Environmental Protection Agency, for those of you
who don't know the scam, I'll explain. The EPA goes to the owner of the
range and informs them that their property is contaminated with lead
(gasp!). The owner is then informed that they can continue to operate but
that they need to tear down everything on the range, dig up the ground to a
depth of six feet and have it hauled off to a toxic-waste dump, all at a
cost of several million dollars. However, if the owner agrees to close
down, then they only need to dig up the backstops and it can go to a
low-grade waste dump which only costs a
few hundred-thousand. Guess which option the owners take? I happen to know
one indoor range which, despite having been completely rebuilt mere weeks
before, with not one round having been fired, was ordered to gut the whole
place and rebuild it again.

But I digress. Between the lack of available ranges and available time and
money on my part, it was almost a year and a half before I managed to fire
my weapon. Now, shortly after I got the rifle, I had to send it back for
repair as the magazine release was defective, but the company, Century
International Arms, fixed it and returned it. Then came my day on the
range, and a cold rainy day it was, typical of a Michigan summer, just
before it gets hot and muggy. I paid my eleven bucks for an hour of
shooting and proceeded to hit absolutely nothing. Now lest you think that I
just can't shoot, I fired 40
rounds at a pistol target (that's a fairly large target for you less
informed readers) 50 meters away from a shooting rest. I could have thrown
the bullets and hit the damn thing.

I got home and checked my rifle. That was when I noticed that the rear
sight was not as it should be. For those who have never seen the CETME, the
rear sight is referred to as a 'Paddle Wheel', it has a 4-position wheel
like this +, each position has a range from one to four hundred meters. My
sight however did not stand up straight like it was supposed to, so I
decided that this was the problem. I further decided that, instead of
having Century Arms replace this unit, I would just have it replaced with a
better sight. So there it sat,
waiting for me to scrape up the money to fix it. Until last week, when I
received my new copy of "Boston's Gun Bible". Where I discovered
that this sighting problem is by no means unique. According to the author,
the front sights of these weapons are very often canted to one side,
rendering the sights totally useless. So I snatch up my weapon and find,
surprise! My front sight is canted. Well, this put a whole new gloss on the
situation.

I went to the Century Arms website and discovered that they only have a
2-year warranty! Well that shouldn't matter, I thought, after all this is a
manufacturing defect and one that is apparently not uncommon, they should
fix it anyway. So I called them the following Monday, and after the usual
runaround (which seems to effect every customer service center in America)
they told me;

"Sorry sir, you are out of warranty."

"But it's a manufacturing defect." I said.

"Well, what do you want us to do?"

"Fix it," I replied.

Well, I'll spare you the repetitious details, the bottom line is it's all
my fault. I didn't find it soon enough. I'm an idiot for not identifying
the problem correctly, and Century International Arms could care less
whether or not this rifle works because they only fix their screw-ups if
you catch them inside of their two-year limit. Well, that's fine, let them
hide behind their warranty instead of standing behind their products.

Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware you say? True, but what does that truly
mean. Should I hire a gunsmith to inspect a weapon before I buy it? Should
I hire Wolfgang Puck to go grocery shopping with me? Do I need to e-mail
Martha Stewart before I buy new drapes? Of course not. Reputation is the
key. Good reputation follows the superior product, the better producer. It
is reputation, and it's offshoots, trademarks and Brand-Names which are our
guideposts to quality. Century International Arms had a decent reputation,
as far as I knew. Hell they sell to governments (which should have been a
tip-off, now that I think about it), surely they would not sell junk,
right? Only recently have I learned that CIA has had more than its share of
defective products. My CETME is just the latest in a long line of shoddy
goods, pawned off on the firearms buying public.

And that is how I intend to destroy Century International Arms. Not with
letters to the mass-media, or my congress-critter. Not by demanding that
the government step in with senseless regulation. But simply by informing
my fellow consumers. The process has already begun. Right now on a dozen
pro-gun forums, people, gun-owners, are reading my little tale of woe and
more will follow. This article is only the first of many that will appear
on the Internet in the coming weeks, and months, and years. I have only
just begun my campaign to educate the gun buying public about Century Arms.
Soon I will be
found at gun-shows handing out fliers and talking to my fellow firearms
enthusiasts. I won't forget the gun magazines either, most of then have
e-mail now so it will be easier to send them letters and articles about
CIA.

Hell I cost Colt firearms 280,000 dollars by just hanging out at gun-shows
and convincing people to by their AR-15's and .45's from better companies,
and Colt just irritated me (another long story I won't go into), CIA, on
the other hand, has flat pissed me off! And I don't
think I'm the only one. How many others are out there? How many people have
lost money on the junk this company sells? How many of them will join me in
protecting our fellow consumers from this company? Well, we shall see.

Do you hear me out there? Do you hear me Century International Arms? Well,
you will! You have pissed off a man with a computer, bad move.

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