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Smart Guns are Coming
wikinerd writes "Eurekalert reports that smart gun technology actually works. According to the press release, smart guns demonstrated by the NJIT, can recognise authorised users utilising "sixteen electronic computerized sensors embedded in the gun's grip" and "Under New Jersey law, passed in Dec. 2002, only smart guns can be purchased in the state three years after personalized handguns become commercially available. Lautenberg said New Jersey's legislative effort to introduce smart gun technology should be a national model for the country"."
On the other hand, if your firearm works at an inopportune time (about 10-15 times more likely than it working at an opportune time, from the wdie variety of statistics I've encounterd over the years) you, a family member, or a friend is dead.
Seriously, look it up - there are far more people killed in firearm accidents in the home than are protected in any way, shape, or form by those firearms.
The whole firearm-for-protection argument reminds me of people who for a long time (for all I know, still do) championed not wearing a seatbelt in a car as being safer than wearing a seatbelt, based on a very few cases, while ignoring the vast majority of cases showing that seatbelts greatly improve your odds of living through a crash.
It isn't that I'm anti-gun, it's just that I find it ridiculous to have someone say they don't want a feature on their gun that would virtually eliminate accidental killings on the basis that it might malfunction and prevent their gun from working (never mind the huge number of electronic devices we all depend on daily that don't fail), or that they might encounter an EMP-toting villain. Own a gun if it makes you feel safe (which it probably shouldn't); just don't be an idiot about the whole thing.
Armored steel doors: $16,000.
Steel bar windows: $9,000.
Alarm system: $500.
Shooting a criminal trying to mutilate a family member: Priceless.
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. -Ayn Rand
"No where else in the whole fucking world do people say shit like this."
Yeah, but they don't have football, apple pie and constitutionally protected rights, you communist peacenik.
Oddly Draconis
Too cynical to live, too stubborn to die.
I've never understood where this idea that Apple Pie is American comes from. After all, we've had apple trees in England for thousands of years, and have been making apple pies from long before Columbus stumbled across America.
Anybody know where this comes from?