So, what exactly is "a piece of junk"?

They passed around the 9mm Ruger that was used in the shooting. Each of us got to heft and inspect it through the saran wrap as it nestled in its cardboard bed. It was shiny and seemingly well-cared-for. So it surprised me to hear three witnesses refer to it as "a piece of junk."

One described staying in a trailer on the defendant's property and being wakened from a sound sleep with the muzzle of that gun in his face. "He didn't like my snoring, told me to sleep outside. So I went and slept in the bushes that night."

"Describe the gun."

"It was a piece of junk, that one there."

I figured he was just saying what the prosecution wanted, and it was a different gun he'd seen. But a tall sad-faced man in prison orange, a defense witness serving time for felony drunk driving, referred to the gun the same way, and so did Michael Peacock.

It wasn't until we were deliberating that a young buzz-cut Mexican-American man, "C," said, "I'd call it piece of junk too."

Middle-aged and illiterate in firearms, the majority of us hung on his words. "Why is a piece of junk?"

"It's old," he replied. "What is it, 1980s or something? It's heavy, and the barrel is long. Now they make 'em this big" (he spread the fingers of one hand to demonstrate) "and way lighter. Yep, definitely a piece of junk."