If a lot of guns were blowing up, I could see your point. But they aren't. So what you're buying with your proof laws is exposing your gun to unsafe pressures to prove it will take these unsafe pressures, which is no guarantee it will, after being stressed, continue to be safe. I don't see the logic behind that, but if you're happy with the false sense of confidence it gives you, so be it.
P.S. A lot of our laws also predate government my centuries: The Ten Commandments, for example.
Gene, new guns made in America are, in fact, subjected to HIGHER pressures than are standard proof guns under CIP (British/European) proof laws. The only difference is that our guns are proofed by the manufacturers, adhering to our SAAMI proof standards. And that's been done for a very long time. I have an article from the American Rifleman in the 1930's, which shows the various designs of proof barrels used by many of the major American gun manufacturers.
