I'm not sure I can agree with "better". Perhaps for some people?
My iron sights work fine. I have no maintenance. They are more robust. They work in any condition. They have no batteries. Irons don't double the cost of the gun. What if the mounting method if finally standardized and your cut isn't it. Yet you want that wiz bang new Red Dot that won't mount on your blaster?
One perspective I don't hear a lot in the discussions of the greatness and necessity of Red Dots, COST! I think about the cost and the aesthetics too. If Red Dots are so essential which of my many handguns do I add them to? All of them, correct? Since Irons are obsolete there is no point in having a pistol with iron sights. Correct? It's going to cost me a metric shit ton of money to mill all my pistols and add Red Dots. Then I'm going to cry when I look at the scars and growths on my sleak 1911's now wearing a mailbox on the slide.
Another benefit of avoiding the Red Dot is staying away from Dot envy. e.g. "My Dot is better than your Dot!" "You have Chineesium on your gun!" "You know that Dot is not as reliable as my Dot." "A closed emitter is better than and open emitter." " You have to have an Aimpoint. It's the gold standard." Blah, blah, blah I've heard plenty of that on the range. Shut up and shoot!
It's probably only a matter of time before the inevitable, what's old becomes new again. I'm just ahead of the pack.
Not gonna pick on you specifically, but I have heard that argument before and dismiss it immediately as a "better to be judged by 12...Yada yada" level trope.
Getting into a violent altercation without having the means to move, fight, run etc....that's more important than what red dot you have or even what type of gun you carry.
I'd rather be the dude with a J frame who can carry my wife out of a burning building, than the dude with a Staccato who would have a stroke if I had to run a mile.
The gun community gets incredibly short sighted. Most of this shit doesn't even matter. Buy a gun, get good with it however you'd like (by being gun Amish or whatever this dudes beard makes him) and improve yourself day by day. The gun is so you can live long enough to keep getting better.
If you like the gear aspect (as I do) that's great...but not necessary.
I'd rather be that dude who could carry his wife out of burning building or run a reasonable mile. That isn't happening now. I once could, not now - so I take with a grain of salt the calls for max fitness as just as max mental acumen fails a bit in aging, so does max fitness. Yeah, he's fat and one can do something about that but not being realistic about aging is the other side of the story.
That being said, the Amish comment is just BS. Maybe I'm car Amish. I would still be happy with my 1994 Honda Civic with stick, AC and an AM/FM radio that lasted 256K miles and got me everywhere - in town, across country, etc. My EDC G26 Gen 3 is happy with night sights.
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
I think you have a sensible approach to this, and I agree with much of what you said. I don’t use an optic on my pistol and I do think they’re beneficial, but overrated. I’m also a resistance training enthusiast who had 9% body fat last time it was formally measured.
But, remember that I said “unhealthy people”, not “helpless bags of donuts”. It’s wise not to judge a book by its cover. There are a lot of prodigiously strong fat people who could carry you and your wife out of a burning building, or just pick up the building. There are also fat people who have good cardio endurance and can fight like the third monkey in line to get on Noah’s ark as it starts to rain. But, they’re not optimally healthy because being fat is not good for a variety of reasons.
It’s easy to fat shame until you have to fight this guy: https://youtube.com/shorts/9-zXqmT-e...gxlcGcSNPQ29tO
At 256K, the AC died and the radio worked only if I pounded on the dash board.
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
A fair point. I have done a lot less lifting in favor of running marathons lately and basically my body fat stays the same regardless...but only because it's obvious I like donuts and beer, but I was well familiar with the fat dudes in the gym just casually overhead pressing my max squat. Guys like Tyson Fury or Derrick Lewis would probably send me on the lightless walk with a quickness.
But I have my doubts about John's physicality, so I will still remind him to remove the plank from his eye before the speck from everyone else's.
Maybe I'll make some catchy social media video title to dog on him for not being as awesome as me? (Sarcasm)
Regardless, I'd still probably want to have a better back squat PR rather than some Aimpoint mailbox on my gat. One can be bought, the other cannot. And frankly, one of those is something I'll actually use.