We’re told artificial intelligence (AI) could eventually eliminate every job. The trades will be last to go, but a pair of experts dedicated to training gunsmiths we contacted have a different opinion on the fate of their graduates. They explained keeping firearms in repair, or customizing one, requires mechanical diagnostic skills that binary “brains” find difficult, perhaps impossible, to master.
AI will indeed touch all trades to some extent, admits Jarred McNeely, vice president of academics at Sonoran Desert Institute (SDI)—a Distance Education Accrediting Commission online gunsmith and drone college. Those jobs won’t be displaced anytime soon, if at all, however. His reasoning is simple, and swims upstream against a media blitz that claims binary “brains” are somehow instantly smarter than the human counterpart.
“This is because of the diagnosis portion of the job,” he explained. “The knowledge and skills that a good gunsmith or other tradesperson uses have not been documented in an open forum, like the medical industry has with case studies, patient charts and other records. What this has developed is a reduced amount of written or virtual knowledge to train AI with, which means the tradesperson or gunsmith is still the expert.”
Gene Kelly, president of American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI)—established in 1993 to teach the gunsmithing arts—agrees. “If it can be taken care of digitally, it is at risk,” he said when asked about jobs at risk. “The trade skills are the most insulated. Robots don’t have critical-thinking skills. They can only repeat the instructions they access.”
Has that fact and the widely advertised AI assault caused more youths to pursue a career in gunsmithing, rather than taking out expensive college loans in a risky post-graduate job market?
Changing Enrollment
“There’s more interest in gunsmithing than I think there ever has been,” Kelly said. “We’re getting younger and younger people looking to start this as a career.”
“Enrollments have remained steady,” McNeely noted. “One of the things that is interesting about the industry is that when a student decides to attend the school, they are all-in. Our students continue to be working adults, either changing careers or looking to provide additional income.”
A Crowded Job Market?
Kelly said with the number of guns owned, there will always be a need for qualified gunsmiths. Unfortunately, the number of people offering the service is dwindling. “For every gunsmith we train, it seems like two are retiring,” he said. “What good is 5 million guns if they don’t work?”
McNeely’s observation is similar. “The two trends that I look at are the continued increase in firearms in the U.S., along with the other ancillary systems like air guns and muzzleloaders, which show a continued need for gunsmiths. I also consider that the gunsmith population seems to have a higher average age, like many trades have been reported to be, so that means we are losing gunsmiths and need to fill those positions appropriately.”
Different Goals
Not everyone who enrolls in a gunsmithing course, or single class, is pursuing a career. Kelly’s company, for example, has complete courses online and with hands-on opportunities to become a professional gunsmith at AmericanGunsmithingInstutute.net. For hobbyists and armorers who aren’t interested in attaining that credential, his company offers different courses at AmericanGunsmith.com.
“We see a split between those wanting to open their own business, those who want to work or are working in a shop currently, and those who want to apply or shift their position in a law-enforcement or government role,” McNeely said about SDI’s students. “Having those different avenues makes the industry available to various people with a wide range of goals or ambitions.”
What About Classics?
Both firms provide the training beyond fixing modern guns. Graduates also receive everything required to address problems with heirloom guns or create customized classic.
“One of the interesting things that you see with firearms is that most were not built with a wear-out date, so a gunsmith needs to be prepared to fix that firearm, whether it was produced yesterday or 200 years ago,” according to McNeely. “What that may require is woodworking skills, machining skills or metal finishing skills, along with the diagnostic and testing skills that all good mechanics maintain. SDI has courses spread across our programs that present these skills to our students with the unique addition of hands-on projects to hone those skills as they go.”
AGI also covers classics and customization. Kelly cautioned, however, students, “…don’t do that until the foundations are learned.”
Plumbers, electricians and carpenters are often cited as the likely last survivors of AI’s employment onslaught. A gunsmith’s skills and knowledge also deserve a place on that list. Add the field's attrition due to age and, whether you're looking to open your own business or attaining a credential to fill an existing slot, the future for budding gunsmiths looks a lot brighter than many of the tech jobs that dominated for so many years.
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