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Gun With Wireless Arming Signal Goes On Sale Soon
An anonymous reader writes "Armatix has built a pistol that will disarm itself when it is taken away from a watch that sends it a wireless arming signal. The .22 caliber guns will go on sale in the US within months, and the initial price is 7,000 euro. Higher caliber models will follow. To activate the gun, users must enter a pin code on the wristwatch, and then keep it within roughly 20cm of the gun. If the person is disarmed, the gun can't be used against them. Also coming soon this year, civilians will also be able to buy three-shot Tasers, rubber bullets, as well as Heckler and Koch black rifles." This might not be good news for the citizens of New Jersey.
I gotta enter the pin so that I can use my gun to defend myself.
You want a perfectly "safe" weapon?
Just don't buy one.
There! Can I have 7000?
. . . remember to take his watch, as well as the weapon.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I was getting really sick of the Heckler and Koch purple rifles. That's progress!
Great.
If I go target shooting I have to play "Pass the Wristwatch" to enjoy it as a communal activity and pay 10x as much for the privileged. If want to use it for self defense I have to wear the watch at all times and go through an extra layer of complications. Better yet in that situation if the gun is taken from me as we wrestle on the ground it's entirely likely that the gun will never move far enough to deactivate before I'm shot repeatedly in the chest and the watch and gun are taken.
Sounds like a lot of money to acquire a possibility of safety as well as making previously safe activities more complicated.
"Black rifle" in this context is slang for a weapon built on the AR-15/10 platform.
Wouldn't a fingerprint scanner on the grip be more reliable and safer in case you were disarmed?
How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
Just what I needed, a gun that will stop working when the batteries run out (I suppose that will be the behavior). Anyway, I suppose that can be useful for prison guards and similar. Till the inmates learn to take the watch with the gun, of course.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
At 20cm the average person WILL move their hand/watch past the authentication range. Will they need re-authentication.
The gun will fire if the attacker has twisted the gun to face the victim because the watch is within range.
The victim will need to fire with their off-hand because they used their good arm to defend against the initial attack. (This happened recently here.) The gun will not fire because it isn't close enough to the watch.
This setup is a recipe for disaster. In the name of safety, we will give up everything that gives us a chance against the bad guys.
Because now someone might actually try to enforce the idiotic legislation.
Here is another interesting tech that would be very useful in some contexts, and scary in others.
Burris has built one of the most sophisticated rifle scopes we’ve ever seen. It has a laser rangefinder that can automatically adjust your sights to compensate for the fall of each bullet over long distances. Just point the crosshairs at the target, push a button on the side of the scope, and a bright red dot will show you exactly where the bullet will fall. We were able to easily hit targets at 400 and 700 meters without any experience at long-range rifle shooting.
Critical weakness: pure black target.
Rubber bullets kill, too. In fact, cops shouldn't even be allowed to have them because the perception that they are "non-leathal" just encourages their use -- just like the beanbag rounds. There have been cases where the beanbags come out flat with the edges parallel to the ground, sort of like a frisbee and that the impact at that angle caused severe lacerations. People have died from those, too.
I'm not anti-gun -- I have many myself. I grew up around them, and I am completely comfortable with them. I also know that if I point a loaded gun with real bullets at a person, I better be absolutely willing to kill them when I pull the trigger. Cops and soldiers are trained to know this, too. But they seem to be more than willing to pop off rubber bullets and beanbags for "crowd control," and death has been a consequence a higher-than-zero number of times.
The last thing we need is Joe Bob getting ahold of them and shooting at cats, neighbours, or even robbers. You know all those times that burglars have sued property owners over getting hurt while they're there to rob them? Imagine the lawsuits over "he shot me with a rubber bullet, broke my rib, punctured my lung and now just look at me!" I also envision a slew of YouTube videos of drunk-ass morons popping their friends with these to see what it feels like.
In short, this is pretty much the worst idea ever made.
In a personal defense situation, this is security by obscurity. It will only help as long as the mugger doesn't know what the little red / green light means.
Why not use a challenge response system that communicates with low voltage current that passes over the skin. Then you can disable the weapon the moment direct physical contact is lost. Of course you'd need to ensure the current was low enough that it didn't cause your trigger finger to spasm...
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
That was my first thought as well, somehow I doubt this will be used by the police or military...
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
There's already enough to horrify you on Youtube and Myspace with kids who like to play with Daddies Guns to put up badass pictures for their friends to see, and yet people still blame firearms when negligence happens. Every firearm I've ever purchased lays it out plane as day:
1) Know your target and what's behind it.
2) Assume every gun is loaded.
3) Do not aim at or pull the trigger on anything you don't want to kill or destroy.
Slashdot has completely lost it's sense of humor.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Look on the bright side... Eventually the number of Youtube videos containing drunk-ass morons will decrease :)
The .22 caliber guns will go on sale in the US within months, and the initial price is 7,000 euro.
A $12,000 .22 is a completely safe weapon because no one in their right mind would buy one. It's useless for defense unless you're being attacked by balloons, it'll pop those.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
All these handicapped munitions come with a guarantee that you will have a higher chance of being killed in a confrontation. .22, if it is match grade. Nobody smart keeps one for self defense anyway and the safety feature will help ensure that the stupid have another layer of security against kids screwing with it that is largely taken care of with standard safety practices anyway.
Gun owners know this.
The only sensible one is possibly the
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Statistics on actual shooting deaths from the L.A.P.D. would tend to disagree with you.
.45 in the news is because most of them are single stack.
There's no replacement for shot placement. The only reason no one has ever been shot 31 times with a
Firearms manufacturing is one of the oldest forms of craft and art in the United States as is evident by Pennsylvania's recent push to honor the Pennsylvania long rifle as a storied part of their national history. Furthermore many involve masterful engineering and mechanics as well as providing a fun hobby to enjoy outdoors either in the form of casual target shooting or hunting.
Oh. You just wanted to register your arrogant distaste? I wont be so bold as to presume you're from a nation on another continent that bans ownership to its own citizens but happily exports them to nations around the world, but I will say you'd be surprised how much more understandable the interest is when they're a common and generally harmless part of your existence rather than an evil bogeyman.
Ya, subtle anti-gun marketing by the media, to subconsciously perpetuate the 'evil nature' of a particular class of guns.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
And a similar system has been available since the 70's: The The Magna-Trigger Conversion is a ring that activates a firearm.
Costs about $350 + $60 for each ring.
...Nothing! This firearm is a dead father waiting to happen. If you can't properly secure your firearm WITHOUT something like this, you shouldn't be handling a firearm.
Well, frankly, it's a hell of a lot of fun to take a few targets out into the desert and spend an afternoon shooting holes in them.
Or down to the range, if you don't have a convenient desert.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Some of us from non-US countries aren't quite as up on the gun slang as you guys.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
The range (20cm) is so short that keeping the gun ANYWHERE other than in your hand (such as a holster) means it needs the pin entered to work. The Heller decision already said that a nonfunctioning gun is not a gun for purposes of the second amendment, so thiere's a good chance this won't fly. Hint: read the part of the transcript where the DC attorney says that a disassembled gun is ok because the city won't prosecute for assembling the gun when faced by an intruder (which is wrong; the city HAS prosecuted for that crime), and one of the justices says ok, so first he has to turn on the nightstand light, get his reading glasses, put the gun together, load it, and now he's ready to use it ...
I do not think you understand the purpose of guns. You only understand that they scare you and you don't think anyone should have anything which scares you.
Infuriate left and right
As well as the fact that a .45 makes large holes that let in a lot of air and let out a lot of blood.
Long story involving a friend back in the '70s with a Class 3 FFL, I ended up with a chance to fire a Thompson 1928 (among a number of other weapons that day) at a hanging wild-hog carcass that weighed around 200 lbs. The entry points were just a bit bigger than the bullet (.45 ACP FMJ) however the exit wounds were anywhere from 2-1/2"/3" up to about 6" or a bit more that I attribute to how the bullet happened to tumble.
The bottom line was the thing was a mess after 2 or 3 rounds, and after the 5th and 6th, there just wasn't much left to hit except chunks hanging together even using FMJ ammo. I asked about hollow-point and soft-nose ammo, but I was told the Thompsons (and many other MGs and SMGs, and even some semi-auto pistols) tend to experience jams and feed problems with non-jacketed ammo.
Personally, my home-defense weapon-of-choice is a 12ga pump shotgun like the Mossberg 500. The ability to choose the type of load makes it particularly suited to home-defense.
I keep 2 rounds of birdshot first, followed up with buckshot for the remaining rounds. At ranges of 25 feet or less as within a typical home or apartment, it doesn't much matter if the shell is birdshot or a slug, it will still put a 2"-3" hole in a person. Birdshot is far less likely to over-penetrate and/or penetrate walls/floors/ceilings possibly causing collateral damage to innocent bystanders.
If I've fired 2 rounds of birdshot and going for more, I then figure I must be in a firefight so it's buckshot and all bets are off as I'm fighting for survival.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
I'd just tape the watch onto the gun with duct tape.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
I find this system to be completely intrusive and unnecessary, as an American.
No criminal record is acceptable, I suppose, though here in the US that bar seems to be getting lower and lower over time. When it was limited to felonies, and felonies were violent crimes, that was fine. But now it is expanded to white-collar crimes and domestic assault that results in a misdemeanor.
No failed psych eval makes sense, but again - that bar keeps getting lower too. I've heard tales of ex-military being denied a weapon because of a decade-old PTSD diagnosis. This only makes it less likely for them to seek treatment.
Safe storage? Fifth Amendment. No law enforcement officer will ever enter my home unless they have a warrant or are acting on an emergency.
Working knowledge of guns? How do you propose to measure this? Anyone who can read can have a "working knowledge of firearms and their use" in about 30 minutes. Sounds like an arbitrary test, to me. One that can be manipulated by whomever is responsible for administering it.
See, we Americans have a widespread cultural mistrust of government.
Learn about Photography Basics.
Guns are the great equalizers: swords and arrows require a heckuva lot more practice to become proficient than guns. It's no wonder governments are afraid of mere citizens having them. What is surprising is the number of ordinary people who have nothing to fear from guns but a lot to fear from governments who have somehow managed to swallow the government anti-gun propaganda. Think for yourself.
People using guns save far more lives and prevent far more crimes than do criminals using guns. Studies show anywhere from 1.5 million (by the gun hating CDC) to 2.5 million (by a gun loving professor) crimes prevented by the use of guns, usually no more than the criminal seeing it or hearing it, seldom by actually using it. Most gun crimes in the US are by criminals on criminals. Cars kill far more people.
Considering there are more guns in the US than cars, 300 million of them, one per citizen, they are used incredibly safely. Those who think guns are bad no doubt must think worse of cars.
And the most fun gun statistic in the US: if you have one neighbor with guns and one neighbor with a swimming pool, your kids are seven times as likely to die in the pool neighbor's pool than from the gun neighbor's guns.
Infuriate left and right
or a "free speech permit" to complain about their elected officials.
Ummm...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone
People who wish to kill/harm other people will still find ways to get guns.
Yeah, in fact, Slashdot used to have a really functional AI in the past.
Then the upgraded to this web 2.0 crap and everything has gone to hell in a handbasket.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Over half of those would be suicides and they generally support the sometimes harmful nature of firearms. So would 12.5 Million registered hunters and the law abiding citizens in 1-2 Million "defensive gun uses" every year.
For the 60 some million people (a rate that increases every year) owning over 200 million firearms 15,000 would be small even if it didn't include police shootings and intentional acts of self defense and is even less if you're cynical and feel that the another third or so shouldn't be counted because the victims were either committed by drug dealers or against them.
Here are things that we are fascinated by...
freedom
the right and ability for self defense
freedom
freedom
self defense
OH, did I mention FREEDOM?
You, wherever you are at, are not any more enlightened, civilized, or intelligent than anybody in the United States. If you do not believe that you have an inherent right to self defense, and the right to bear arms which is part and parcel of the right to self defense then I'd say that you are less intelligent, less enlightened, and are actually an uncivilizing force in the world.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
Ever been to Detroit? There IS something very wrong with the society we live in. There's scores of places across America that are closer to shitholes in Africa than any first-world nation. Oh, sure, they might have a cell phone, and a 360 at their crib, and a nice car.. but functionally the values and attitudes are pretty in-line with what you'd find in some of the most awful places around the world.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Then go for a 12 gauge shotgun with bird shot. Perfect up to 10 meters, and yes, it can and does kill, even with less-than-perfect shot placement. At less than five meters, you have the same effect as a huge Glaser safety slug that upon impact, transforms from a solid bullet into a frangible one, for a fraction of the cost of that new-fangled bullet and it's legal everywhere where smooth-bore shotguns are legal (which might make it California, Ohio and New Jersey-legal).
However, there's not much over-penetration, if any. A brick wall will stop the pellets, and at more than 10m, even a wooden door might.
And most criminals, upon hearing a shotgun being racked WILL rethink their idea to burglarize your home. And if you're against taking life, just do what Marsellus Wallace did in Pulp Fiction on Zed.
Why do you need a fire extinguisher? Poorly maintained extinguishers are dangerous, and I can't think of one place that doesn't have a fire department. You can rely on them just as you expect everyone to rely on the police department.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM