{"id":7279,"date":"2014-02-25T13:06:58","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T18:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=7279"},"modified":"2014-02-25T13:06:58","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T18:06:58","slug":"smart-gun-technology-skirts-common-sense-and-second-amendment-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=7279","title":{"rendered":"Smart Gun Technology Skirts Common Sense and Second Amendment Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Armatix\"<\/a>Armatix GmbH<\/a> of Germany is selling a new .22 cal. handgun that is slaved to a radio frequency identification (RFID) wristwatch.\u00a0 The pairing makes the gun active when the watch is within ten inches of the firearm and deactivates the gun when the watch does not have the proper PIN entered or is more than ten inches away from the pistol.\u00a0 I am skeptical on several fronts.<\/p>\n

Other than having to shell out nearly $2,000.00 for the Armatix Smart System ($1,399-gun,$399-watch, add taxes), I can think of a number of defensive scenarios in which this “smart” alternative would be ill-advised<\/del> stupid.\u00a0 I am addressing the shortcomings of this product from the defensive firearm scenario, since the iP1 is clearly not a competition or range gun.\u00a0 Strike one:\u00a0 .22 cal. long rifle rimfire.\u00a0 Moving on.<\/p>\n

Trusting your safety and that of your loved ones to the functional integrity of a plastic wristwatch may be my biggest reservation.\u00a0 Armatix says the watch is waterproof.\u00a0 Grand.\u00a0 Well, how shockproof is it?\u00a0 If the watch could withstand my running over it a few times with a ’71 Ford Bronco and still be electronically viable, I may feel a teeny bit more confident.<\/p>\n

Battery life is for the watch is reportedly a minimum of one year on stand-by.\u00a0 I am not convinced that a battery powered pistol (because that’s what it essentially is) ranks high on my reliability score sheet.\u00a0 Coincidently, the batteries in my Apple Magic Mouse died an hour ago.\u00a0 My computer became useless.\u00a0 I felt let down…and the Mac was not even defending my castle.<\/p>\n

\"Armatix-s-Smart-Gun-Won--t-Fire-If-Its-Smartwatch-Isn--t-In\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Sweetie, quick get my Armatix!\u00a0 I’m fighting a burglar!\u00a0 Oooof!\u00a0 Oh yeah, get the watch somewhere in the nightstand drawer!\u00a0 Oww!\u00a0 Keep looking!\u00a0 No problem, I got him for now!\u00a0 Grrrr!\u00a0 Hey, where’s that firearm?\u00a0 He’s getting mad!\u00a0 Honey, honey?!”<\/p>\n

A bad guy can still shoot you with your own Armatix if he keeps your weapon within ten inches of your watch.\u00a0 In a grapple for the gun, everyone’s hands would be in close proximity.\u00a0 No less danger than with a normal handgun.<\/p>\n

\"smartgun_2010_internet_0013\"<\/a>The Oak Tree Gun Club in Newhall, CA is the only retailer selling the Armatix iP1 in the United States.\u00a0 But the fact that the Armatix is even being sold at all has ramifications in New Jersey, where a 2002 law mandates that only “smart guns” could be sold in NJ three years after the technology becomes available–in any state!<\/p>\n

Other legislatures have considered smart gun mandates.\u00a0 In Connecticut, Colt Manufacturing could not quite seem to get their microchip technology to work, despite throwing millions of dollars at the engineering problem.\u00a0 Reliability issues could not be satisfied.<\/p>\n

There are others in the smart gun race.\u00a0 TriggerSmart<\/a>, which deactivates its gun with an RFID ring, goes one step further than Armatix.\u00a0 TriggerSmart Technologies says the second step in ensuring child safety with firearms is their product’s ability to create gun-free zones, like around schools, where smart guns would be prevented from operating.\u00a0 Ruh-roh.<\/p>\n

At this point in development, the smart gun is more a novelty than anything.\u00a0 If you want to shell out a ridiculous amount of money for a .22, I am not standing in your way.\u00a0 If you think that trigger locks and safes are too much of a hassle<\/em> to take to keep your guns safe from children, then buy a Armatix.\u00a0 No sweat.<\/p>\n

What does bother me is the potential misuse of smart gun technology to curtail our Second Amendment rights–the same way California is circumventing gun owners’ rights by mandating microstamping for semi-auto pistols.\u00a0 That move prompted Smith & Wesson and Ruger to stop selling semi-automatic handguns in California.\u00a0 So the “bad” guns are eliminated without a single vote cast by a citizen.<\/p>\n

While it seems that technology is driving much of our society nowadays, the implementation and ramification of these advances may not be the silver bullet some people think they are.\u00a0 Cool new product adaptations are fine.\u00a0 Let’s just slow down on using them to push partisan political agendas.<\/p>\n

Randall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armatix GmbH of Germany is selling a new .22 cal. handgun that is slaved to a radio frequency identification (RFID) wristwatch.\u00a0 The pairing makes the gun active when the watch is within ten inches of the firearm and deactivates the gun when the watch does not have the proper PIN entered or is more than ten inches away from the pistol.\u00a0 I am skeptical on several fronts. Other than having to shell out nearly $2,000.00 for the Armatix Smart System ($1,399-gun,$399-watch, add taxes), I can think of a number of defensive scenarios in which this “smart” alternative would be ill-advised stupid.\u00a0 I am addressing the shortcomings of this product from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,349],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-firearms","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28xkp-1Tp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7279"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7324,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279\/revisions\/7324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}