No, not at all: I agree that much government intrusion stifles individual innovation, not just in firearms design. But you stated that it was the government that designs weapons, and I disagree with that completely. The government puts forth requirements, and private companies then submit their designs. Examples include the M9 handgun competition and the example I cited, Stoner's M16.
Mark
If you have to work within specs given by the purchaser, who is your employer and your market, you are not free to innovate. Since there is no market other than the state collective....truly a Soviet system, there can be zero private innovation.
It is impossible to tell where a product can be improved or what new things could be invented from whole cloth, by using the greatest computers or HIRING the greatest minds. Those in control do not allow these human minds to dream freely, and computers are no more than inferior versions of the human mind with the same problems, they do only what told to do.
In conclusion I reiterate, that there are no consumers to impress and dazzle, other than the government. This distorts the market, since owning a machine gun is both expensive, open to only a few, and frightening to those that are daily told by the government media complex, that they are evil. The current crop that is considered “state of the art” is inferior to anything that can be dreamed of in the basement of a free teenager, or a skilled craftsman with a love of the “gun culture”.
The very guns that could better win us wars, protect our homes and give hours of enjoyment to law abiding citizens, are just not built.....end of rant....well thought out one, but a rant nonetheless.