• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Smart Gun Symposium

Ranb

Penultimate Amazing
Ranb
Joined
Jul 25, 2003
Messages
11,313
Location
WA USA
There will be a Smart Gun Symposium in Seattle on January 28th. http://washingtontechnology.org/eve...wOiDhg2wjXo5zKtQ9QPPqQobTU0RYQ&_hsmi=15304550

It's on a weekday 10:30-2:30, so I guess it is not aimed at working class people. I wrote to the organizer expressing my desire to attend and asked if I would be allowed to address the panel. I got a reply which seemed to be something of a blow-off.

If you could provide some insight on your background and experience with the topic, I could propose it to our planning committee?
Click to expand...
I guess the people paying $45 to listen to the panel will have to keep quiet. Would be nice if I actually got a direct answer to my question though.

Senator Loretta Weinberg is supposed to be present. I really hope she isn't there to hold up the NJ law requiring smart guns to be sold when they are available as a good example of promoting them. If the technology is rejected by the police and military or is not good enough for them, the little people are going to reject it for the most part also. The point these people are missing is that they need to encourage gun owners to accept personalized gun tech, not have it forced upon them.

There is a link to a blog here; http://washingtontechnology.org/can-technology-reduce-gun-violence/ "...2003 New Jersey law mandating all firearms sold in the state be smart guns..."
They could do themselves a favor by being factual instead of making stuff up. The NJ law requiring that personalized guns be sold to some and leaving others exempt is not that hard to understand.

Just as I favor universal bkgd checks, I would like to own a personalized firearm. I'd like to see the tech good enough to be adopted by the police and military first though. Nothing makes a gun sell like being used by our military.

Ranb
 
Last edited:
They don't want anyone asking the question, "what happens if the battery isn't charged?"

Seriously, this sounds like an interesting symposium to attend. I think their worry is some fanatical pickup-truck-driving redneck might try to "larn" the attendees a few things.

Beanbag
 
Why not put a battery in each magazine? Then You change the battery every time you change magazines.
 
I know that many police officials are interested in a practical "smart gun". Each year a number of officers manage to get shot with thier own weapons.
As well, stolen weapons would be supposedly useless.

However, it's one of those things that's more difficult than it seems at first blush. First, we're of necessity talking about an electrical/mechanical interface which means a power source as noted above. Second, one has to be able to service and repair the device which means that it can be defeated by those who are clever enough.
How long did it take naughty people to figure out how to defeat cell-phone security?
If some sort of RFID device (which seems to be the popular technology)...how difficult to figure out something that would defeat/block the RFID signal?
"Oh, your gun won't shoot? Too bad....)
 
Beanbag said:
They don't want anyone asking the question, "what happens if the battery isn't charged?"

Seriously, this sounds like an interesting symposium to attend. I think their worry is some fanatical pickup-truck-driving redneck might try to "larn" the attendees a few things.

Beanbag
Click to expand...
Just make it so it won't fire if the battery's dead.
 
I...really don't see the smart gun thing going anywhere. Even if they work flawlessly.

I mean, it might have some appeal to the home defense market, for parents worried about their kids getting their guns. And I don't suppose that's a bad thing.

But I don't think it would really make much of a dent in gun deaths. There is a screaming crapload of un-smart guns already out there.
 
Smart guns are hardly new. The Bioengineering Center at Wayne State was tussling with the technology -- good lord, it may be twenty years ago! I recall giving the principal investigator some basic advice on primers and the drawbacks of special ammo (the gunsmith's little boy doesn't suffer from false modesty), and followed the project to the point where they were able to demonstrate laser initiation of a standard pistol primer. I don't know if it all went much farther than that.

As Bikewer says, the difficulty lies in making a tamper-proof device. With a "terminal technology" like the modern cartridge arm, i.e., a technology that isn't going much farther without some pretty basic changes, it's hard to circumvent a patient tinkerer.

And even after you'd shifted the ol' paradigm, it wouldn't take Mr. Tinker long to get around your clever device.
 
Some liberal organizer should make lots of money off other gullible liberals. Hope those attending pay their own way and not use taxpayer money.
 
Ranb said:
The magazines are reusable, one battery or six, they all have a chance of running low.

Ranb
Click to expand...

This seems like an engineering challenge followed by operator maintenance issue, not an unsolvable problem.

That said I'm philosophically opposed to "smarter guns for stupider shooters" legislation.
 
My comment on magazine batteries was only to show that it has potential pitfalls.

Gawdzilla, which proposal to remove safeties amuses you so?

Ranb
 
I normally don't use the safeties on my firearms at all. Unless I'm completing, the gun is resting on the bench with an empty chamber and action open or in my hands pointed down range and ready to fire. My revolvers and black powder guns don't have manual safeties.

Ranb
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom