Smart holsters

None for me thanks.

How many of us have had an issue with a "smart" phone?

I'd hate to have to power-cycle my holster to draw from it.

So-called smart technology isn't always the answer and certainly isn't in this case. In an age when the smart phone and other smart devices are part of most people's everyday lives, I think it's easy to get caught up in the "gee whiz" aspect of it all. It's equally easy to forget that for all the problems smart tech "solves" it ends up creating issues of its own as well. In short, I can't see this going anywhere but down the drain.

Kendal Black said:

The cool thing about a smart holster is that you do not have to put your gun into it. You have the choice to do so or not. You do so only when the benefits outweigh the risks; where the smart gun concept falls apart utterly is you have no choice but to trust the technology.

My smartphone will usually work and be available in an emergency, or so I judge from its everyday performance. Yes, I have had to bounce the power or even take out the battery for a few moments to make it work, but those have been rare events.

Click to expand...

That works until laws are created forcing it upon everyone. Better that we leave that stone unturned.
Meanwhile I can GUARANTEE that my dumb holster will work every single time.

Who the hell would have time to type in a PIN number before accessing their firearm?

I have drawn my firearm twice in my life and from what I gleaned from the article, this smart holster would have cost me those valuable seconds and possibly my life .

Who in the world trusts fingerprint id to work with ANY frequency?
The fingerprint function on my phone is nearly useless unless my ha de are perfectly clean and dry.

What happens if you are wearing gloves?
Isn't this thing just a very obvious target?

Look at me! I have a gun! Don't target me mr bank robber/mugger.

Then there's the fact it is susceptible to all the caveats of any piece of electronic equipment.

Or the fact that it could, in theory, be remotely controlled, monitored, or even turned off by any number of people or agencies.

So, we have an expensive, clunky, obvious, protectionist device that introduces several new fail points.

No thanks.

KISS and Murphy's Law still apply. I'll pass.

If you needed to carry an Epipen, would you carry it in a "smart holster"?

As much as I have had to practice with dumb holsters to get to where I need to be to make things happen (remember- you have the rest of your life to get it done), I don't care to overcomplicate the task.

airplanes have a lot of redundacies to keep things safe and reliable. Planes still crash once in a while. I have a mechanical lock on my safe to avoid the battery issue. It has never needed a battery change. Never heard of a dumb Holster needing a reboot, battery change or failing in that capacity. my opinion on a smart holster is "NOOOPE"

Let we, the people, be the powers at be.

Compromise is death of liberty.

For the young, there is such a thing as the Magna Trigger that came out in the mid 70's. Basically a special ring was worn and unless you had the ring on you couldn't fire the handgun. It worked mostly, but was spotty enough that folks didn't take to it. Mas Ayoob was a big supporter of it if I recall correctly.

I like electronics for weapon storage when I am at home. When I am out carrying, the only thing I want to worry about between my hand and firearm is my shirt.

Nah I'm good. I prefer dumb holsters and guns. It's the operator that needs to be smart.

The North Koreans have already threatened an EMP nuke. I don't want my gun locked in a "smart " holster for 100 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

Kendal Black said:

I seem to recall Mas wearing several of the special rings, not just one, to be sure he had enough magnetism to unlock the doohickey.

I could be remembering this wrong. It has been a very long time.

Click to expand...

I seem to recall he worn one on each hand on the odd chance he would need to use his off hand. For a cop whose firearm is out there and a potential target for a gun grab it makes some sense. I think it failed to catch on due some reliability issues.

Chaos theory: "The more complex the system, the faster and easier it breaks down."

I think the first smart holster was an attempt by Uncle Mike's.

Everyone else was wasting money on smart guns, but were having major reliability problems. Seems it's hard to get the electronics and mechanics into a pistol and have them function 100%.
Sometimes the gun would fire when it shouldn't and would not fire when it should.

Uncle Mike's idea was a smart holster.
This locked the gun in place until you put your trigger finger into a pocket on the outside during the draw.
Inside the pocket was a fingerprint scanner.

They had the same problems, the holster wouldn't read the finger print if your finger was oily, dirty, bloody, or you were wearing gloves.
Also the holster would unlock when it shouldn't and remain locked when it should release.

Bottom line, no sane cop or law enforcement agency would buy any gun or holster with electronics that wasn't 100% reliable and like the gun makers, Uncle Mike's quietly dropped the idea.

Kendal Black said:

We can work on the reliability problems. Not everything electronic is a CFG. Ever ride on an Airbus airplane?

Click to expand...

I'm damned sure not going to pay Airbus prices for a holster. Paying $100-200 for a holster makes my brain hurt bad enough as it is.

It sums up really easily for me, coming from a product developer - Smart holsters are dumb.