Researchers Get A Grip On Smart Guns

Star Tribune ^ | 11/16/2003 | Steve Twomey

[ServesURight]

NEWARK, N.J. -- The piece is a Beretta 9-millimeter, model 92FS.

It rests -- Italian, gray, unloaded -- in the right palm of Michael Recce, although the professor is such an un-gun guy he can't remember what the weapon is. It's a gun; enough said.

Affixed to either side of its handle are 16 raised, dime-size sensors. Recce's team has done the test thousands of times now, either in its lab in Newark or at an Army facility elsewhere in the state: A hand picks up the weapon. An index finger starts to pull the trigger. The sensors start working on a riddle.

[ServesURight]

BUMP

[ExSoldier]

Okay...so when the batteries die....so do you....

[Atlas Sneezed]

When you post
to the bang list
don't forget
your ass-to-risk!

[Skibane]

In the most ambitious designs, the gun would compare a biological trait of the person holding it with the stored traits of the rightful user or group of users, such as a squad of police.

Ya, right – Mark my words, the police will be exempt from being required to use them – unlike the rest of the population, which, according to the politicos, have no business owning guns anyway. (If you can't ban guns outright, at least you can make them so complex and unreliable that most people won't want to use them, right?)

Let's face it, folks – Smart guns are a solution in search of a nonexistent problem.

[paul51]

Just what I need. A pistol that works as well as my cell phone.

[11B3]

And when it's winter outside, and one is wearing gloves, then what?

What part of RKBA is it that they just don't understand? I know. ALL OF IT. These people are trying to fix a problem that causes relatively few deaths per year. Why not solve some real problems? (Like where to get rid of all these leftists.)

[Rodney Dangerfield]

I've been in a fight with an intruder. He had a knife. Cut my gun hand. It's bleeding. I reach for my Pistol. Now what happens?

[supercat]

What these people don't realize is that if a person really needs a gun to fire and it doesn't, that person is apt to end up dead or at the very least severely injured. What would these people think of adding anti-vandal hardware to a fire extinguisher so it could only be deployed if there were an actual fire?

[Dr.Zoidberg]

If memory serves me correctly, thats called a funeral, Mr. Dangerfield.

[harpseal]

Readings stream through wires to a processor on a tabletop. The machine sifts its memory. Not for fingerprints. It's asking itself if the holder's grip is familiar. That's Recce's ace premise, that a palm and fingers trying to squeeze off a shot create a "pressure signature" distinctive enough to serve as personal identification. If the situation were real, the Beretta loaded and the grip lodged in memory, the processor would tell the gun to fire. If the grip were alien, it would instruct nothing. The trigger-pull would unleash nothing.

So in a life and death situation if the grip is stronger because of the adreniline pumping through the veins then the gun does not fire in a crucial situation. Or perhaps one can not get a good grip on the gun in a life and death situation but just enought to squeeze off a round in an insinct shot at near contact range. Nothing happens because the grip is not the same.

[Squantos]

Well then we'll just have to hope mommy is'nt retaining water on her period when she needs her pistol. But really should women with PMS even have access to a gun.....maybe this is a good thing ............< / SARCASM > < NOMEX MODE >

Stay Safe Harpseal ! (What'ch doing up this late ?.... bobbin fer wimmin in yer hot tub again ?)

[Mulder]

He had a knife. Cut my gun hand. It's bleeding. I reach for my Pistol. Now what happens?

Or what if you have to use your weak hand?

Or fire from an ackward position?

Of fire with lots of adrenalin flowing?

Or what if your spouse needs to fire the weapon?

[Edison]

I guess I will have to purchase handguns for everyone in the house now and hope that the right one is the first one grabbed.

Edison

[fiscally_right]

Whatever, no way a law would pass requiring this. I think there's a good reason to explore these technologies, doesn't mean anything useful will come of it. Imagine for a second that they work perfectly, wouldn't you get a gun with it? If it meant no one could turn your own gun on you?

Of course, it's 99% likely that this technology will never be perfect, and therefore not practical, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be explored.

[harpseal]

Just up late.

[Squantos]

Hope yer feeling OK.........Stay Safe !

[backhoe]

He had a knife. Cut my gun hand. It's bleeding. I reach for my Pistol. Now what happens? Or what if you have to use your weak hand? Or fire from an ackward position? Of fire with lots of adrenalin flowing? Or what if your spouse needs to fire the weapon?

All that-- Plus, do we really need weapons whose screens ask

Abort, Retry, or Fail?

Gives new meaning to "The Blue Screen of Death..."