GarySTL
Member
60 minutes has a segment on smart gun technology scheduled for tonight, 6/5.
If anyone's interested.
If anyone's interested.
No such thing.
I carry a hammer at work all day. Never seen a smart OR stupid hammer, only users.
Same logic applies.
I predict that in five to ten years, every police officer will have a gun that only he can fire.
It's bad enough when the police can shut down your car's computer and scan your credit/debit cards and seize all your money just because you "might be" a drug dealer even though you are not carrying drugs ("if you want your money back get a lawyer and sue us"). And the manufacturer who sells them this equipment gets a "cut" of all funds seized or fines enacted (just like the traffic camera makers) And now they want to be able to switch our firearms "off"
This will never happen in any widespread way. Sure, someone will invent a "smart gun" but no professional agency will use them and no one who needs a gun for self defense will buy one. This is pie in the sky thinking that is not grounded in reality.
Let me explain why: There are really only a few technologies that could be used. Radio waves of some sort, fingerprints or magnets.
I'll start with fingerprints since that is the easiest. People wear gloves. A lot of us live in climates where gloves are needed many months out of the year. Cops tend to wear gloves when they know they are going hands on with a suspect. Then let's say someone found a way to make gloves work; you still have the fact that at most, this is a basic system that could be removed. It can also fail with a bad battery, bad solder joint, bad component. I know of no professional or responsible gun owner who would accept another failure point.
Next up is radio waves. This could be RFID or BlueTooth. Neither is an option that would be 100% reliable. Both are subject to interference and jamming. If cops had guns that relied on radio waves, criminals would be buying signal jammers by the truckload. Yes they already exist and yes they are dirt cheap. Who cares if they are illegal? These are criminals.
Magnets could work in theory, but I have no idea how you would make it 100% reliable. I also don't know how specific you can "tune" them so that only one person can use them. This would also mean the user would have to wear a magnet at all times. I don't know how you could possibly make this work in the real world.
I could turn my Glock 19 into a smart gun right now. I have all the equipment and parts that I would need. I would never dream of doing it because there is no way it would be anywhere close to reliable. Having a discussion about smart guns right now is like having a discussion about photon torpedos. Yes, its a cool idea. Yes, we could probably make something that kinda worked. No, it is not viable in the real world.