All right. Let's get down to the brass tacks here:
Rip-Off:
There is not a handgun manufacturer who has not borrowed or out-right copied technical and aesthetic designs from other manufacturers. Do you think that all those 1911 manufacturers just happened on the same design as the original by John Moses Browning? Were you aware that even Glock ripped off Sig Sauer in their 1st generation pistol trigger mechanism. Or, the latest Sig Sauer P238 is a Xerox copy of the Colt Pony? Oh... How about all of the Walther PPK clones out there? How did that happen? If Kel-Tec had anything that could be patented in their design, they would have done it.
The Recall:
It amazes me that a company that does the right thing without government intervention gets a black eye for it. The hammer mechanism that was the issue of the recall is being fixed for free at great expense to Ruger. The part that you gloss over is that Earlier P-3AT's have the exact same design flaw. Kel-Tec has modified their P-3AT to address this same issue by making an in-production change. The difference is that Ruger is recalling all of the guns because they consider it a safety issue, while Kel-Tec simply made a running change and isn’t offering to fix any of the guns already on the street. Niether Kel-Tec nor Ruger has had anyone injured or killed by their "fatally-flawed" original designs, but only one company handled the issue properly.
If you are going to hold up Ruger to this kind of myopic scrutiny, then you should probably be equally critical of every other firearm manufacturer.
I could throw up some silly emoticons to emphasize my point, but I'd rather do it with facts.
Ruger LCP
NAA Guardian 380
Colt Mustang/Pony Pocketlite
Kahr P380
Ruger LCP
NAA Guardian 380
Colt Mustang/Pony Pocketlite
Kahr P380
AMT Backup
[AMT Backup] Local gun shop has one for $200. I've put about 1,000 rounds through mine and never had a problem...
Forgot about them! The single-action models are decent, but the trigger pull on the double-action models is among the stiffest/heaviest I've ever had the displeasure of trying. Being of all-stainless steel construction, they aren't lightweights by today's standards (nor is the Guardian, for that matter).
Also bear in mind that AMT has been out of business a long time now; getting parts and/or service could be problematic.