Hardly Anyone Is Buying 'Smart Guns' 814
Daniel_Stuckey writes "The technology is here. So-called 'smart guns' are being programmed to recognize a gun owner's identity and lock up if the weapon ends up in the wrong hands. Entrepreneurs and engineers have been developing technology to make safer guns since the early '90s, and by now we've got working prototypes of guns that read fingerprints, hand grips or even sensors embedded under the skin. But after 15 years of innovation, personalized guns still haven't penetrated the marketplace."
Duh (Score:4, Interesting)
They are a stupid fucking idea that are the answer to a question nobody asked. Well nobody other than those who ultimately wish to take all guns from people not employed by the government.
For those who think I'm wrong and that these should be mandatory, why don't you go lobby the government (at any level from local to federal) and have some of these technologies mandated for LEO fire arms use. Report back with your results.
Re:Boom (Score:5, Interesting)
The idea of having your kids not be able to blow their brains out with your gun seems like quite a good one...
obviously you aren't able to field strip a gun..... anybody who keeps an handgun whole, with a colocated loaded clip in a house with kids has it coming. and you can reassemble an handgun very quickly if the need arises, or not at all if the threat is so sudden that it would not have helped in any case.
when my adolescent son took to softair, I took the opportunity to teach him what he really needed to know. gun safety procedures, even if it is a toy: proper handling. unless you are live, keep the finger out of the trigger guard, and the rifle pointing down. Keep the weapons on safe all the time, until the game begins, and put them on safe immediately after. NEVER, NEVER point a gun at something you are not shooting.
It's like safety belts in cars: train until you cannot behave differently from the proper way, and you'll have an head start.
Re:Boom (Score:2, Interesting)
The idea of having your kids not be able to blow their brains out with your gun seems like quite a good one...
Even cheaper solution: Don't have a gun at all. Works in most of the world, except some violent uncivilized countries in Africa and Asia, and parts of the US.
Re:Smart guns... (Score:5, Interesting)
I also forgot to add, the old canard about the gun being taken away from you in an encounter with a criminal and being used against you is so astronomically rare that statistics have never been been able to be documented about it. That is not a concern.
guns used for defense hundreds per day. nukes nevr (Score:5, Interesting)
* bonus fact - 80% of the time they are presented in self defense, they are not fired.
Re:Personal firearms != personal liberties (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in Arizona and spend a lot of time in Louisiana. I carry my pistol almost always, sometimes concealed and sometimes openly. I often go into Phoenix SkyHarbor Airport openly carrying my pistol and have asked police officers for directions while doing so - no one batted an eye. I've done this recently and I've done it often. It is not illegal to carry a loaded firearm in the non-secure areas of airports in many states.
As to your question, "WHY?" I almost always carry and I'm not going to disarm because I'm going into an airport to greet someone arriving. The more natural question to me is, "Why not?" If I go every where else like this and it's legal why would I treat the airport any differently. I don't understand your conclusion that a "sidearm at best is NO help at all and at worst could cause a huge problem." I'd prefer to rely on my close to 300 hours of defensive pistol training over the P.O.S.T. standards of 24 hours for many police departments.
Regarding the adult conversation about what to do about the crazy people, I agree - why aren't we talking about the "crazy people" problem?
Re:Smart guns... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps the information is not available for the entire US population but it the FBI does very accurately track the information for officers. It turns out about 1 in 10 get thier gun stolen in the incident in which they are killed. About 1 in 20 are killed with thier own weapon.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/leoka/2011/officers-feloniously-killed/officers-feloniously-killed [fbi.gov]