Buzz, I think Gene is telling us that he's either too lazy or too uninterested to read the Venters article. After all, he knows what proof is all about. It's only firing a few proof loads, no careful examination of the gun in question before or after it's fired or anything like that. Heck, a guy with a string and an old tire can do just as well.
Gene, if it's false security, then why should anyone--foreign proofhouses, American gunmakers, whomever--bother doing it even with new guns? If it's "bad to trust it", then you'd better not pick up ANY gun, new or otherwise. And in your view, it must be OK to punch the chambers on an old gun, which was subjected to proof (but at lower pressures) and shoot modern American factory shells in it, which develop higher pressures.
I think I know one guy from whom I would not want to trust buying a gun . . .
