I'm sure the 'want to believe' thing is generally true about anything unknown that they own... but in John's case I would make an exception and expect he'd be as happy to see this gat proved to be homemade as a prototype. As we all know, John's an academic of many decades' standing - as well as being the world's foremost expert in all things spring air pistol - and like every scientist takes the 'prove it's not true first' approach as the best route to estimating authenticity.

There's nothing like holding the disputed gun in your hands, as I know from my Walther 'LP52'. I doubted it's authenticity until I looked at it 'in the flesh'. Now I'm still not sure but think on balance it's genuine and not a fake.