Honor Defense Opens Up On Drop Controversy

While the Honor Guard’s issue with drops isn’t nearly as widespread a controversy as it was when Sig had a similar issue with the P320, it’s still a thing. How big of a deal it is remains to be seen.

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However, when a popular blog that allegedly failed to act on a story regarding the failure has two editors “retire” just hours apart, one can’t help but wonder just how significant that part of the issue is.

Honor Defense, who makes the pistols, however, remained silent. Now, they’re not.

Georgia-based firearm maker Honor Defense is standing behind their flagship offering, the single stack Honor Guard 9mm pistol, amid calls that it is unsafe.

In response to a round of YouTube videos circulating this week which show Honor Guard pistols discharging after being dropped or hit with a hammer at certain angles, the company says they have always complied with industry testing standards to include drop and jar tests performed internally and by an outside lab.

“Any firearm can discharge when dropped. Like any user of a firearm, users of Honor Defense’s products must handle firearms in a safe manner,” says the company, going on to warn that, “No one should attempt to perform a drop test outside of a professionally-controlled environment.”

The company has also distributed a video showing their own testing of an Honor Defense pistol while mounted on a table rest, hitting it with a steel hammer until the frame broke without the pistol firing.

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Here’s the problem, however. Their testing says it doesn’t happen. However, we’ve also seen the video showing the contrary. Further, The Truth About Guns ran a similar test, videoed the results, and the outcome was the same.

Now, I get Honor Defense being…well, defensive about this. No one wants a recall, especially for a small gun manufacturer.

Unfortunately, what we see is that there is an issue with the gun. Two different people replicated the results, and I’m sure if the Honor Guard were as common as the P320 was, we’d be seeing a lot more videos on the topic.

It’s a thing. I’m sorry, but it is.

That’s not to say that Honor Defense didn’t test the weapon properly or anything. There’s no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of the company, and I’m not going to imply that there was any such thing taking place. None. Sig did all the same testing on the P320 and still had an issue.

But the problem is that not only do we see this issue happening, we’re now seeing Honor Defense outright denying there’s any kind of a problem. Well, guess who the average consumer is more likely to believe in this scenario, the company or the guys who get no monetary gain from saying the guns aren’t drop safe?

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Here’s a hint: It won’t be the guys who stand to lose money over this.

This is especially true when both videos showing the problem also show that the weapon was loaded, but the video that is supposedly Honor Defense’s evidence to the contrary shows no such thing. While I am personally sure it was loaded in a similar manner, the fact that it’s not shown to have been loaded will likely be used to discredit the video.

Frankly, I do think there’s a problem. It certainly looks like it’s something that wouldn’t be noticed during normal testing, but probably should be, and that means there’s an issue with the testing protocols.

However, Honor Defense isn’t helping their case here. Take a page from Sig, own the problem, and make it right. Period.

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