Posted on 12/10/2004 10:07:54 AM PST by neverdem
Associated Press
BAYONNE, N.J. -- Researchers are making progress in developing "smart gun" technology, but it will still be at least five years before a New Jersey law requiring it can take effect, officials said Thursday.
Using sensors in the grip, the technology would prevent a handgun from being fired by anyone but its owner.
Scientists, politicians and police officers attended a demonstration Thursday of a system being developed at New Jersey Institute of Technology that identifies a gun's authorized user but does not control the gun's firing mechanism.
Donald Sebastian, NJIT's vice president for research and development, said it would be another year before "Dynagrip" technology would be accurate enough and another year after that until it could be fully merged with firing technology to prevent an unauthorized discharge.
New Jersey's 2002 smart gun law _ requiring the technology on handguns sold in the state _ is written to take effect three years after the state attorney general certifies that the technology is available for retail sale.
Dynagrip uses 20 pressure sensors mounted inside the handle of a gun to distinguish the particular characteristics of a user's grip.
During the demonstration at a Bayonne Police Department firing range, elected officials watched as NJIT police officers squeezed off rounds from a handgun with Dynagrip. The guns were wired to a laptop computer, where a green light indicated the gun had been fired by an authorized user, and a red light indicated the user was not authorized.
Before the demonstration, officials announced a $1 million federal grant for continued research to refine the technology. NJIT received a $1.1 million federal grant in January.
U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, a Democrat who has helped secure funding for the research, said that 17,000 of the nation's 30,000 annual deaths related to handguns are suicides...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Bump for later
BANG!
Do we really want guns that are smarter than some of the users?
Even if it works as promised, it will not placate the gun grabbers. It's the acquisition of the power to negate a constitutional right that drives them-safety and lives are irrelevant. It's the same as with the abortion supporters-it all boils down to power.
How do gloves effect this?
How will this technology prevent suicide from your own gun?
Yes, and criminals have never developed techniques to circumvent technology before, have they?
I propose that the police be forced to use these "smart guns" for 7 years to test their efficacy before forcing the general populace to submit to this new technology.
After all, if "smart guns" are everything the Liberals claim they are, then the government shouldn't have any problem putting its money where its mouth is, right? RIGHT?
No kidding. I wonder whether every police car in NJ (and maybe nationwide, later) will have a radio transmitter that will deactivate all of the "smart guns?" No, strike that, I don't wonder - I'm certain that they will.
Thankfully, there are over 250 million guns in this country, with roughly 5-6 million new ones being produced or imported annually - those bastiches will have to wait a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time before any significant percentage of those guns become inoperable due to corrosion or the wearing out of parts. Oh, and the fact that there is now shall-issue on the books in 34 states says to me that there will be LOTS more "dumb" handguns sold before this type of a law could ever reach those states (and in many of them they wouldn't even be introduced, let alone passed).
Phuck the PRNJ. I am VERY glad to be out of there and living in Texas, Free America.
Just wait for the first lawsuit where an authorized user can't fire his/her gun, and is either injured or murdered because of that. That's one products liability suit against a gun-maker that I would support wholeheartedly.
So, are all the handguns going to provided with a laptop computer?
Or a tense situation, such as when someone breaks into your house at 2 am?
The day the President's secret service detail is exclusively armed with these guns will be the day that I consider adding one to my curio collection.
But for serious carry, it is a Colt 1911 with the grip safety pinned.
I can guaranteee you that the government is looking at ways to disable these "smart guns" from a distance. They will probably have GPS tracking in them like the new cell phones do.
Violent videogames are not the only things about which to be leery. The SSRI class of antidepressants just received a black box warning mandate by the FDA for the possibility of suicide, mainly for the time period after initiating treatment or increase in dose.
ANYTHING ELSE IS BS.
My idea of a smart gun is one that is guaranteed to hit the target.
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