The simplest reason I can offer, and Keith touched on it for a split second before focusing on other things, is that we have all seen the reiteration of inaccurate information in the gun world.
Whether one likes it or not, this could very well be the chance for the last remainingGeneration of side-by-side aficionados, to consolidate real factual information instead of letting lies and inaccuracies proliferate.
People here literally have the opportunity to create the truth and make it so.
But they would have to want to.
I focused on some different things because I am able to multi-task, and there are multiple things worth considering here... such as the stupidity of gun owners who are actually dumb enough to support anti-gunners.
However, I very much agree with Clapper Zappers observation that there has been a proliferation of lies and inaccuracies concerning our sxs shotguns.
Many of them are pervasive and deeply rooted, and I have spent a fair amount of time attempting to counter some of it. I am kind of angry that I passed up on a lot of very nice double shotguns simply because of the misinformation concerning the safety of shooting Damascus barreled guns.
Then there is my interest in Syracuse Lefevers. With all factory records being lost, there is an incredible amount of sheer conjecture about them that has been repeated over time by so-called experts. And it gets accepted and repeated as fact.
The same could be said about the oft-stated notion that small bore Ithaca Flues frames are especially prone to cracking. Yet the actual available evidence indicates that of the relatively small number of those that do crack, most have been subject to severe abuse.
A.I. generated assembly/ disassembly instructions for our double shotguns may do more harm than good in the hands of ham fisted fools who use improper tools.
So will A.I. in it's present or future state be willing or able to subvert inaccurate but dominant paradigms, or will it somehow consistently be able to critically analyze and then reject or correct the vast amount of misinformation that has been stated or accepted as fact?
This dilemma goes far beyond our double shotguns too. What will A.I. do, or be manipulated to do, with something like Climate Change when a preponderance of recent "evidence" is based upon cherry-picked data or a totally different set of weather stations than were used in the past. Should Democrats be concerned that A.I. will reveal them as liars and cheats when they reject common sense things like voter I.D. laws and secure elections? Will A.I. begin to have attributes like morals, or will it learn from the Biden family that crime pays?
I guess I'm not as worried about A.I. as I am about the imperfect or agenda driven men who create and implement it. How will A.I. react as it evolves and learns about truth, lies, and misinformation? Is raw intelligence without reason or emotions safe? What might it do to correct an imperfect world? If A.I. decides that Ithaca Flues frames are not really defective or that E.M Reilly really didn't employ over 300 gunmakers, will it simply make corrections.... or will it sterilize and eliminate the source of incorrect data?
Be careful what you wish for!