California store’s sale of smart guns prompts furious backlash

Washington Post ^ | March 6, 2014 | Michael S. Rosenwald

[Second Amendment First]

The California gun store that put the nation’s first smart gun on sale is facing a furious backlash from customers and gun rights advocates who fear the new technology will encroach on their Second Amendment rights if it becomes mandated.

Attacks in online forums and social networks against the Oak Tree Gun Club have prompted the store to back away from any association with the Armatix iP1 smart gun. The protests threaten the nascent smart gun industry, which received a jolt of support recently when a group of Silicon Valley investors offered a $1 million prize for promising new technology.

The vitriol began almost immediately after The Washington Post reported last month that the Armatix iP1 smart gun was for sale at the pro shop. Electronic chips inside the gun communicate with a watch that can be purchased with the gun, making it impossible to fire without the watch. Gun control advocates, who believe smart guns could reduce gun violence, suicides and accidental shootings, marked the moment as a milestone.

[Second Amendment First]

The protests echo what Smith & Wesson endured after it signed a landmark gun control agreement with the Clinton administration in 2000 that called for the company to research and introduce smart guns. Boycotts of the company’s products nearly put it out of business.

[Politically Correct]

Cops are the ones that have their guns wrestled away from them.
All cops should have one of these guns.....when they do then I'll think about getting one.

[G-Bear]

Let ‘em sell the silly things. I’ll be waiting for the first person to get killed because something failed and their gun didn’t “unlock.”

(If California mandates these things for the police, look for somebody to come out with a jammer that will prevent the police guns from firing!)

[Chode]

trust your life to a battery??? not me...

[Ken H]

Good!

[Vendome]

I would never shop there and if the owner were a friend I would let him know as much.

[Jack Hammer]

Difficult to believe that anyone would even buy one of these pieces of crap.

If/when the SHTF, you’re going to be fumbling with this horse manure technology all the way to the morgue.

Keep It Simple, Stupid is the high sign in moments of intense stress.

And that’s all to one side when considering the political issue; once it’s established that The Government can tell you what sort of weapon falls within Second Amendment purview, your freedom is gone.

[Vendome]

So let’s say I buy this wonderful safety package.

Why would it be necessary for me to lock it up and why couldn’t I leave it loaded.

The device that makes it possible for me to fire the weapon could be locked in a drawer or safe.

Sumpin like that of thinking.

[iontheball]

trust your life to a battery??? not me...
__________________________________________________

Plus, you have an electronics device that can fail or be covertly fried or a frequency wave that can be jammed. When your life depends on it, keep it simple and mechanical and stay away from electronics.

[slouper]

The thing is a battery powered 22lr, seriously? If I had to choose a weapon, I’d arm myself with a baseball bat before I’d break that thing out.

No thanks.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

If it’s “smart”, it wouldn’t take much more to enable it to: record where and when you shoot it (or even handle it); record the direction it was pointed when fired; record the calibre of the ammo you used; and, to transmit reports to the “authorities”.

[Pollster1]

Mitchell (the shop owner) told The Post earlier this month: “I walk in a delicate line because I am an extremely pro-gun conservative type person. But I’m also logical, you know.” He said the technology, if accepted, could “revolutionize the gun industry” and provide a compromise between gun rights advocates and gun control supporters.

Mitchell is a moron. Decent people cannot compromise with those who see meeting halfway as the first of many steps toward getting their way completely. My right to keep and bear arms is not negotiable, and I will not compromise my rights in any way with those who want me disarmed.

But if we're talking compromise, what I'd like is a compromise in which we identify the 15,000 (out of 30,000) most useless gun laws in the country and repeal them all. Then we could compromise and identify the most useless 7,000 remaining gun laws and repeal them . . . Oh . . . the left isn't interested in that sort of compromise, only in compromise that turns the ratchet in their direction? That's what I thought.

[CaptainAmiigaf]

I’m a watchmaker. Today, among others I finished the repair of 2 watches. One is a Waltham pocket watch made in 1873, and it now and STILL running like it was a month and a half old. At its current rate of wear, I estimate it will last more or less another hundred years.
The other was a very high grade Swiss made BATTERY powered quartz day/date man’s watch. It was purchased and given as a Christmas gift in 2013!!! Tuesday it stopped and was brought to me. Gee—something in the circuit died and the watch stopped. This high quality movement is seen so often I keep a couple of circuits in stock, just to save ordering time. Any electronic circuit can and will eventually fail. The company will, of course, back up its warranty. Not a big deal.. HOWEVER—
Question....You want to have you very life dependent on that somewhat fragile thing on your wrist?

[Billthedrill]

Marginally less snark than we've become accustomed to on the part of the Post but it's clear they still don't get it. Still, there is this: (1) the gun's a .22, (2) it costs $1800, and (3) to shoot it you need the watch, which has to be bought separately and costs $400. Yeah, right, I'll get right on that.

It isn't so much that gun owners are "afraid" of a mandate, those poor silly people, because it isn't fear that is being shown here, it's outrage that someone would go along with the scam. The Post missed the significant part of the story. It was the rage. We've had enough, we really, really have.

[Second Amendment First]

What’s funny is the owner thinks he can scrub the internet of his previous comments and photos. It’s pretty hard to undo stupid. I would almost feel sorry for the idiot if he hadn’t been such a stooge for the state of Kalifornia.

[Second Amendment First]

It doesn’t say but maybe part of the cost is that it includes microstamping. Can they do that on a rimfire?

[Pollster1]

This product's self-proclaimed supporters (obviously fakers because no real gun owner wants their firearms to be less reliable) treat it like a free market decision. They are all over the article saying "if you don't want one, don't buy one", and I agree with them. Almost.

The problem is that "SmartGun" supporters don't want one. They want us to be compelled to buy one and to retrofit our existing firearms with "SmartGun" technology. That is not in any way okay. Given the existing laws and support for laws that would make "SmartGuns" the only legal guns once they are available, I'm going free market all over anyone who makes or sells "SmartGuns". I'm boycotting any business involved in the whole process. Consumer boycotts are part of the free market, and this is going to be an expensive (and probably permanent) mistake for any gun dealer who carries "SmartGuns".

[Billthedrill]

I don't know what the current status is, but Ruger has already stated they're not playing. In California the firearms manufacturer has to give the state free samples to see if they'll put it on the "approved" list, which has been grandfathered with respect to microstamping...for now. That could be rescinded at any time by some state bureaucrat, with no appeal allowed. If the Post had bothered to do a little investigating they'd have found out that's why Californians are angry. It isn't what they "fear", it's what they know is coming first chance the antigunners in the state government get their chance.

[Billthedrill]

This process is, I was just told by a Californian FFL holder, for each model number of every gun. Smith & Wesson, who is very profligate with model numbers, is, he says, volubly upset and threatening to quit the state.