Tinfoil hat time - "Don't send it to a gunsmith 'cause..."

[Brad Johnson]

Just finished talking to a, well, not quite friend but still good acquaintance. He is successful, respected, and even-tempered, the epitome of a level-headed law-abiding American. That's why what he said floored me all the more.

We were talking about trigger jobs and I mentioned sending one of mine to a local gunsmith. His reply, in exact words, was, "I don't send any of mine to a gunsmith. If a gunsmith gets it the ATF makes them put a chip in your gun so it can be tracked".

He was dead serious.



I asked him about it - where he'd heard that and such. He says it's an "unwritten mandate required by the ATF" and that no one would have a record of it, but "everyone knows about it". I tried dancing around the subject with some observances and questions. I wanted to see if I could get some justification, any justification, for his reasoning. No dice. He has no proof, firm or otherwise, just a firm belief that it is so.

Brad

*EDIT TO ADD* -This is not a discussion for RFID, that's already on another thread. That it happens to deal with RFID is a coincidence. This is about unrealistic unsubstantiated beliefs. Also a quick thanks to Justin for listening. -Brad

 

[simmonsguns]

I know for a fact that if i use anything that is electronic, it is going to fail quickly.
Therefor he is welcome to send his work to me.

 

[X-Rap]

Dang he wasn't supposed to pass that info on now the whole program is ruined.

 

[BryanP]

Just tell him "That's okay. I run mine through 30 seconds in the microwave when I get it back."

 

[OMGWTFBBQ]

Well, you are in Lubbock .

All kidding aside, speaking from a scientific standpoint embedding an RFID chip in metal so it isn't visible would make it useless, as it would act as a Faraday cage.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Well, you are in Lubbock .

Still doesn't hold water because around here we don't embed them. We duct tape them to the combination beer can/snuff tin holder that's JB Welded to the forearm.

Brad

 

[moooose102]

jessh, some people are so paranoid. and i thought i was bad!

 

[FullEffect1911]

if nothing else, it's a pretty creative reason to justify that tin foil hat of his.

 

[nplant]

Did your acquaintance give you any indication of where he got this information?

 

[GEM]

Don't go to the proctologist. They use the same chip.

 

[bakert]

hell, there's a number of people that post here on the THR, that are just as, or more paranoid than your acquaintance

 

[Dain Bramage]

hell, there's a number of people that post here on the THR, that are just as, or more paranoid than your acquaintance

Hey! You're talking about me, aren't you?

 

[ZeSpectre]

I'm reminded of the Stephen King poem "Paranoid: A Chant"
and the great art project some guy did based on it.

 

[B.357]

This is likely true!
HK already puts them in their new pistols!:banghead:

 

[Grizfire]

I agree there are severely more paranoid people out there. At least he's not sitting in a bunker wiping a rifle with a towel waiting for the yellow horde to arrive.

 

[Chester32141]

I'll bet he's a salesman ... I think he had ahold of your leg and was pulling for all he was worth and you were believing him ... Sometimes I like to tell a whopper just to see if I still got it ...

Chester

 

[Eyesac]

hell, there's a number of people that post here on the THR, that are just as, or more paranoid than your acquaintance

Hey! You're talking about me, aren't you?

Hahaha! This is why I read THR every day!

 

[Gator]

HK already puts them in their new pistols!

That's a joke, right? You are just making fun of people who believe things like that....RIGHT???

 

[revjen45]

Remember- your tinfoil hat won't do any good unless it's grounded.

 

[Spyvie]

The funny thing is, if you're really worried about this a tinfoil holster might do you some good...

 

[guntotinguy]

Shades of Scully and Mulder...Guntotin GPS,think theres a paton on this yet?

 

[p2000sk]

HK?

About the trigger job,
maybe he has a mild trigger job
and doesn't want you to be better than him!

 

[Jubjub]

I heard that, but the countermeasure is pretty easy.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

ATF ha! Everyone knows it's the Roswell Greys who are implanting those chips.

 

[BlazingAngel01]

Did my homework on this.

H&K Pistols have a chip in them. Take off the grips and it will be on the right side of the Spring. All the new models have them.



From someone that works at H&K

No need to be scared. I've worked on a few RFID projects for both Walmart and DoD mandate. These are "dummy" RIFD's which essentially are nothing more than barcodes. They simply only have the information that tells the serial # and that's it. (Once they read the serial #, they could connect to a database and extrapolate information such as make, model #, if they had such data, or match it to a purchase order that the DoD purchased in bulk to make sure they have what they ordered). It's a contactless reader, but because it's a dummy RFID it requires a high powered antenna and very close proximity to pull that serial number. If you have an office that has those cards that you wave over something (it usually has to be pretty close) those are the same type of dummy RFID's except older.

Since these firearms are also going to be sold to the DoD, it has to fulfill the DoD mandate that anything being sold to the DoD have RFID so that they can inventory faster.

These RFID's also can be disabled easily using a traditional degausser (like the ones they use in the store to deactivate RFID tags - but the general public call them antitheft stickers). Did you know that your credit cards all now have dummy RFID on them? Visa and Amex have been advertising it on TV (that thing where you tap your credit card to pay).