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by yerasimos
Thu Apr 06, 2017 5:39 pm
Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
Topic: Smart Guns
Replies: 32
Views: 7709

Re: Smart Guns

To be consistent, I have to conclude that this so-called "smart gun" technology in and of itself is just as morally neutral as the millions of conventional firearms that are already in general circulation among criminals, police, military and law-abiding citizens alike, and that are here to stay and are unlikely to be made "smart".

That said, as others have noted in this thread, there are serious practical problems with having to punch in a PIN, or depending upon a Bluetooth or RFID token, or a battery, or whatever, to activate a personal firearm before responding to an imminent or in-progress criminal assault. Therefore, for practical purposes, this "technology" should be shunned in the marketplace just as there is no marketplace for briefcase-format, rotary-dial cellular phones.

This might come across as somewhat tinfoil-hat, but another serious problem I foresee is if any firearms, whether the "smart guns" described above or something closer to regular firearms, are equipped with wireless connectivity for remotely enabling or disabling the firing mechanism. So many companies and wannabe visionaries are caught up in the Internet of Things (IoT) trend/fad (treadlightly brought this up earlier in the thread), and I see significant problems if this is pushed into firearms or mandated by law.

I can see how IoT-linked firearms would be favored by people like Michael Bloomberg, Gavin Newsom and other wannabe dictators and micromanagers, as they would be thrilled with a way to administratively and remotely disable these "smart guns" via a simple software toggle, whether to enforce a so-called "Gun Violence Restraining Order" or to cause distress with political adversaries or anyone else they do not like. IoT firearms could also be exploited and disabled by sophisticated criminals seeking to prevent their victims from protecting themselves, or to impair a potential or in-progress armed police response.

Again, while IoT-linked firearms and "smart guns" technologies are morally neutral by themselves, I see them as presenting a misleading sense of security and prone to misuse and abuse, just as "dumb" firearms are sometimes misused by dumb or evil people.

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