Smart guns probably provide the last chance for gun control advocates to have their way. After trying and failing for decades to completely eviscerate gun rights in America, their last best hope is to simply let defiant gun owners have their weapons, but with conditions. They’ll try to compromise with gun owners, and tell them that they can have any firearm they want, so long as it is a smart gun, which is supposedly safer since it can’t be used by unauthorized individuals like children and criminals.
But as we all know, everything gun control advocates propose is a slippery slope. How long before these smart guns, like all smart gadgets, begin to spy on their owners? How long before smart guns can be disabled by authorities from a distance, which would effectively defang their role in society as determined by the Second Amendment?
There is of course, another reason why gun owners should never embrace smart gun technologies. Despite claims that suggest these guns will be safer (but still reliable in an emergency), it turns out that like all electronic devices, they are easily hackable. An anonymous hacker recently got a hold of the German made Armatix IP1 smart gun, and took it to a gun range in Colorado. There he revealed just how easy it is to bypass the security mechanisms in the gun.
The idea is that the gun will not fire if it is more than a few inches from the watch, according to an in-depth report by Wired.
However a hacker who goes under the pseudonym Plore has showed in a Colorado firing range that he can make the smart gun fire without the security watch anywhere near it…
…By placing $15 (£11.50) magnets by the barrel of the gun he could bypass the security watch.
‘I almost didn’t believe it had actually worked. I had to fire it again,’ he said.
‘And that’s how I found out for $15 (£11.50) of materials you can defeat the security of this $1,500 (£1,150) smart gun’, he said.
But that’s not all. Not only can anyone use the gun with the aid of a cheap magnet, it’s also quite easy to make it completely inoperable.
As well as allowing the gun to fire when held by someone else, Plore also used radio signals to make the weapon completely useless.
From ten feet away a $20 (£15) transmitter device could emit radio waves that jam the gun – regardless of how close it is to the user’s gun.
According to Plore, a phone could trigger this to happen.
‘The iP1 system had been designed to increase the safety when using the weapon. It had been focused on suppressing the ability to shoot, when a third person (e.g. a child) accesses the weapon in the heat of the moment and tries to use it’, a Armatix spokesperson told MailOnline.
‘There was never the demand to avoid the usage by a well prepared attacker or a skilled hacker.’
‘If you have access to a safety device for a sufficient time, you are able to modify it and probably can misuse it’, they said.
In other words, it would be a terrible idea to rely on this gun for your own protection. Anyone with ill intent who knows that you have a smart gun, could walk right up to you with a $20 transmitter, and turn your fancy pistol into an expensive brick. If gun owners ever decide to capitulate and adopt smart gun technologies, it will open the door for the gun grabbers and the government to roll back gun rights in subtle ways, and it won’t provide a lick of safety of return.
Friggin control tech junk. I’ll stick with what I have.
Hopefully this revelation will chill all investors and potential consumers of this and other companies pimping for the gun banners.
A gun that won’t work after an EMP.
Sounds like a preppers dream gun.
Hehehehe…That’s a good one…LOL!
Just make them mandatory for police use to perfect them before they are offered to and required for the general public.
Menzo and JS, Braveheart totally agrees. “Smart” guns? One of the biggest jokes I’ve ever seen in my life. More like a “dumb” gun to me. I’ll stick with what I have also. My weapons won’t operate without a human hand touching them. THAT’S my idea of a SMART weapon. They also require a human hand to touch them for disassembly and maintenance. And then reassembly.
The ‘smart’ gun sounds more like a troll to me, LOL!
The majority of child deaths from firearms are suicides. I hate to say it, but for lack of a firearm, suicidal people will just use a rope, poison, asphyxiation etc, it’s not the guns fault.
For home defense I really like my .45 Sig P227. It requires nearly 20 pounds of pull and sufficient grip to pull back the slide to cock it. Even some adults have trouble doing this. It’s just not possible for a small child. If you train for it, not having a round chambered is no problem. Israeli defense forces went to never chambering a round until drawing to fire, and off duty accidents vanished, all with no on duty performance issues. IDF training techniques can be found on YouTube.
Loaded, chambered and decocked is my preferred condition, but when small children are about I make necessary allowances for safety. When certain less than sensible family members are present, firearms are carried concealed, or locked up in a fast access box.
PTPO, my Taurus 9mm PT111 stays secured in a handgun safe except for at night when I’m asleep, then it’s loaded, chambered, and safety off. The parents of these kids who manage to get their hands on these weapons should be punished for NOT buying a proper handgun safe to store the weapon out of their kids’ reach. They only cost a fraction of what the handgun cost new. You can get one for under $100. You can get them with the electronic lock and key lock combined. I just use the key lock for mine. Hide the damn thing real good where no one else can find it and hide your keys for it very well. If you use the electronic lock, NEVER give out the combination to anyone. I don’t have the worry since there are NO kids in my home and I don’t even allow kids into my home. Better for them, better for me. I only worry about POS trying to break in.
Its a good idea to at least lock your bedroom door and bar it so one can hear forced entry. It amazes me how many murders happen with someone just walking into someone’s bedroom while they’re asleep. Got SG AR and handgun all available to me right there.
I have several firearms extremely well hidden around the house. I can always reach one or more.
My number one for home defense, a full size .45, livesin in a fingerprint safe until I get home, when I walk into my house, my wallet and keys go in the safe and the weapon comes out, it’s always within hands reach. I like a Remora sticky holster. I can grab the weapon and it’s safe until pulled from the holster. The Remora lets me tuck it into the small of my back and answer the door, weapon totally concealed, but very ready to be available. The Remora holster lets me tuck it under a pillow next to me as I enjoy an evening with the family. The family all know right where it is.
One thing I added a couple years ago is a front screen door with the slide down window feature. If you come to my door and I don’t recognize you, I only slide the glass down enough to speak to you and stand off to the side. The storm door remains closed and locked. I have the advantage to slam and lock the glass, then the inner steel door, or react appropriately if the threat is greater, and the bad guy still needs to get through the first set of glass.
My town has a permit ordnance for door to door solicitation. I’ve turned in a few already that received summonses. If your town has such an ordnance, challenge salesmen and if they can’t produce their permit, shut and lock the door immediately and call the police. It’s great fun and soooo satisfying to watch them get busted.
Lets make the badged terrorist use only these first for live trials.
Smart tech is designed to be used against you as much as for you.
You do know that your ROOMBA has been mapping your house for years and transmitting the location of those hidey holes you have, doncha?
My Roomba knows exactly where I hide all my cookie crumbs……
Sorry but if your house was sold in the last ten years, the online pictures of rooms etc are all in the cloud for all to see, the three letter agencies have it on file.
Have to agree with ‘smart’ technology denouncements. In the end, it’s not all the smart. I shy away from anything labeled “smart”–it all ends up doing something really dumb or making me look like an idiot. Much prefer manually controlled items; you know what they are going to do and even how they are likely to fail.
I like learning how to use the various tools of our lives and doing so effectively. Maybe people have become too mentally lazy. Can you imagine something like a “smart” hammer? By the time it’s plugged in and the on switch discovered, you could have found a rock and pounded in the nail. LOL Or what about a smart table, a smart sofa? Or the ridiculous–a smart toilet? Actually, we have those auto flushers at work and when they don’t work, phew! find another rest room.
Smart stuff always fails expensively, too. Wonder if it’s another scheme to separate us from our hard earned money. New boards for the range or dishwasher or what-have-you tend to be rather pricey even if you can do the repair yourself.
One of my pet peeves is “smart” cards; those chipped annoyances foisted off on bank account holders (yeah, no choice) along with claims they are more secure. I don’t believe that at all with RFID readers easily available to crooks. It’s kept in a protective sleeve for that reason. And, I’ve had too many chipped cards from work fail on me leaving me in a mess. I keep some cash handy.
One Bat Flattery latter and at the worst time and its a Brick again.
Analog instruments for me……
No real surprise there since the so-called Smart Gun is simply the promoters scam
All “smart guns” fail on the basic level when you think of those situation where a good guy needs to use it and is not authorized (i.e. assisting downed officer, a relative visiting, a stranger who comes to your aid).
Add to it unreliability, hacking, governmental shut downs, and low batteries and it is the stupidest gun ever invented to solve a nearly non-existent problem (irresponsible parents will still let their kids play with guns and gun grabs are rare with police due to retention holsters).