NJIT's smart gun moves closer to completion with $1.1 million grant

[benEzra]

"For the first time, interchangeable and multiple barrels can be made available to fire a range of projectiles of varying caliber from the same handgun."

The reporter obviously isn't familiar with guns...

Metalstorm. The prime corporate sponsor of this farce.

Yup. Obviously they never heard of interchangeable barrels and magazines for 9mm/.357/.40 platforms...

Also, to reload the (Metalstorm) gun you have to change the whole barrel. How quick an operation will that be? Will you be able to "speed reload" in 1.5 seconds, or do you have to essentially field-strip it? How expensive will it be to buy the spare preloaded barrels from Metalstorm? Betcha you won't be able to buy 100 rounds for $9.95 at Wal-Mart.

Bottom line, you're making really ridiculous comparisions (ignoring tech in medical fields, for example, not everything is about weapons...).

As one who has had a LOT of contact with medical equipment (my son is a special-needs kid)--do you know how EXPENSIVE those triply-redundant certified exhaustively tested medical electronics are? And they generally don't have to endure things like recoil accelerations, hot combustion products, wild temperature swings, etc.; are regularly inspected and maintained; and if one DOES fail (and I have seen them fail), there are spares immediately available.

 

[Daniel T]

sendec, if by "Closing Comment", you mean "I'm going to ignore anything that refutes my points", then cya. The point is not that the technology is being researched, it's that the technology is being researched with the prime goal of forcing it onto the gun owning people of New Jersey, who will not have any other option for a new gun. Maybe this is fine with you, as someone that is exempted and who considers "civilian" owership of guns as only a "hobby".

 

[sendec]

Look, if you guys want to jump to conclusions, dont strain anything. But the incessent blubbering over something that isnt even finished in the design phase is childish. Go ahead, convince yourself it wont work. Maybe the researchers should be burned at the stake for consorting with the demon electricity.

Minds & parachutes.......

Sheesh, now back to stare at the magic box that makes light and noise....

BTW, over the course of a career the electric lock that secured my shotgun failed exactly 0 times. The manual typewriter in the squadroom was a different story.

 

[Highland Ranger]

Ahhhh, "squadroom", there's the answer!

Comrade Sendec isn't one of us lowly citizens!

We're sorry for bothering you with our lowly concerns for freedom . . . . please let us live; we're sorry for aspiring to your station in life.

 

[AZ Jeff]

I think it is hilarious that a discussion about the perceived negatives of current technology being applied to firearms which have changed little in the last hundred years is taking place via computer over the internet

Sendec, while I see the point you are making, you are forgetting that ANY new technology needs time to mature, be it the internet, computers, or smart guns.

An excellent anecdote to the situation with smart guns is the situation we had with "emission controlled" automobiles
back 30 years ago.

For those of you who may not be hold enough to remember, Congress mandated emissions regulations on cars starting in 1968. By the early 1970's, the regulations were such that some significant technology was needed to meet those standards. Most all cars built in the later 1970's and early 1980's had SIGNIFICANT reliability and performance issues, due to the fact that the government imposed standards were virtually beyond the commercial technology of the day.

This situation eventually changed, and modern cars have technology in them that not only meets the government regulations, but does so with very acceptable reliablity.

I see a similar potential situation here with smart guns. Early smart guns would probably be VERY prone to malfunction, fail, etc. As the technology matured, their reliability and performance would rise to match that of "non-smart" (dumb?) guns.

The problem is that legislative bodies (like the one in NJ) will MANDATE these smart guns BEFORE the technology will be mature enough to match the performance of dumb guns. (They did exactly this with cars, and drivers suffered through some abysmal products during this "teething" period of about 10-15 years.)

The main difference here is that when an early technology low emissions car fails, someone cannot drive it. When an early-technology smart gun fails, someone can die.

That makes mandated technology legislation a "bad thing".

 

[Andrew Rothman]

With regards to why there's a law enforcement exception, that speaks nothing to the technology being inherently flawed, only to the fact that it is new and inherently experimental.

So let the "civilians" be the guinea pigs?

I am disgusted.

 

[jefnvk]

I'm still surprised that no one else is concerned with who programs these? What if they can only be done by the state police, who require a $100 charge to do it? Or, if the legislators decide to put in law that they need to be re-programmed every year, to make sure the person is still capable of owning the gun? What if they made it nearly impossible to get one programmed, similiar to some state's CCW? Or made it that a simple traffic violation could keep you from having it programmed?

 

[SB88LX]

"we have a public uprising on our hands sir, they don't like the laws we've passed"

"Charge the EMP, they'll be defenseless"

 

[saddenedcitizen]

Um - anyone considered this line ?

1) We live in an INCREDIBLY litigious 'society' (sue anyone for
for anything anytime - do it enough and hit the 'lawsuit lottery'
WHOPEEEE - megabucks for ME)
2) LEO' exempted from this lab rat/beta test in 'how complex can
we make a coat-hanger' line of thinking.
3) One of these contraptions is gonna fail at some point resulting
in one or more people killed/injured (don't worry LEO's - it won't
be one from your ranks !!)
4) Manufacturer is sued from H*!! to breakfast and is out of
business for good (the wet dream of the anti's)
5) Other manufacturers say - 'We're not building those POS's, we're
only gonna build plain old mechanical firearms and the ONLY
market left is - TA DA - Law enforcement/militaryi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

X Yrs later -

One firearm manufacturer left in business supplying ONLY
LEO's/military.

Beretta, Rugar, S&W et all now make meat scales and postage
machines (if any are still around and diversified EARLY on)

Only firarms left are antiques, tightly controlled. (Don't THINK for a
minute that IF this technology is deemed 'sucessful' by BEAURACRATS,
that it won't be extended to long guns).

Utopia attained (according to some)

This whole thing is to assist in the demise of firearm manufacturers
through lawsuits !!!!

 

[Highland Ranger]

Well if you're one of the uber citizens, maybe it doesn't matter . . . LEO's might like it if the only guns left were in their hands.

What's that line from Blade Runner when the head cop is trying to make Harrison Ford re-join the police force -

There's cops - everyone else is just little people. And you can do whatever you want to a little person . . . .

 

[Nightfall]

It's scary how little imagination it takes to think of all the ways this could screw us over.

Moisture seeps in, dead gun.

Dead batteries? Dead gun.

Too much shock from too many +P loads? Dead gun.

Software/hardware fails to recognize user due to gloves/grip/all the other possibilities? Dead gun.

Glitch? Sure, they'll reprogram it. Bad juju for you if you don't hear about the recall, or you're the chalk-outline that's the REASON for the recall.

Can't find the special chip-embedded watch/ring/whatsit that sends the user ID signal you need to fire your SD firearm? Dead gun.

Bad guys/criminal hackers figure out how to send out signal to freeze up the electronics? Dead gun. Of course, since criminals don't care about the law, they still have their ‘dumb' guns.

Doubtless there will be a special tool that sends out a signal to freeze firearms, for LEO use. Sure hope no bad guys get ahold of one. Not that gov't having them is any better.

The absolute worst part is, if NJ succeeds, it will spread like cancer. Kali will get it next. With the huge "for the children" BS appeal it has, and the sadly lacking depth of thought your average American will give the issue, it'll be an easy sell in most every state. Maybe it'll become a Federal issue. Next up, ‘dumb' guns become special items like sound suppressors, or machine guns. Eventually they stop allowing their registration, ala FOPA. Costs will rise no matter what happens, reducing the number of potential owners and mfgs.

I need some tin-foil, ASAP!