Smart Guns, Dumb Legislation By Mark “Six” James If I have small children It is not the smartness of the technology that keeps accidents from happening it is the responsible gun handling and storage habits of the owner that help avoid those tragedies. It is interesting how those who are not trained in violence think they understand violence mitigation so well. Just because I give you a rope that doesn't make you a cowboy. While the concept of smart guns sounds like a novel idea and may be intriguing to some, it is not quite the panacea that some make it out to be. While some type of biometric verification may help keep the firearm from being used against you so will keeping it secure in a gun safe when it is not on your person or in the nightstand when you retire for the evening. Most criminals who commit violent home invasions usually bring their own firearm. If I have small children It is not the smartness of the technology that keeps accidents from happening it is the responsible gun handling The Bite – “Smart Guns, Dumb Legislation”
and storage habits of the owner that help avoid those tragedies. But let me give you the dirty little down side of the smart gun. My family has limited budget and we can only afford one firearm for the house. Despite all of your best theft deterrent initiatives we have a home invasion and my wife and/or teenage daughter recognize such and attempt to retreat to the bedroom and grab our firearm for defensive purposes. But they cannot use it for their defense because there is no biometric match. Thus they are now directly in harms way and not able to defend themselves. Now all of a sudden that smart gun was not so smart after all. If I had my choice as opposed to a smart gun I would rather have the computer from the television
series “Person of Interest,” which could intervene and just tell me to avoid the pending adverse situation. If we couldn’t avoid it, it would then just dispatch Mr. Reese to handle things. You see the other things the smart gun doesn’t take into account is what if it is cold outside and the owner is wearing gloves I have now rendered by firearm ineffective. So unless you can gain agreement that all violent assaults will only take place in warm weather we may have another issue. In a time is life situation that delay to remove gloves may be extremely costly. Also in the event of an accident and my fingerprints are altered so again may be the effectiveness of the tool. There is no substitute for training, proper gun handling and nothing will ever be 100%, but what scares some people and myself included is when legislators pass legislation like they did in New Jersey in December 23, 2002. Here is what the New Jersey Childproof Handgun Law Says:
existing firearms. These laws don't dissuade criminals they only place a further burden on the innocent. So without true understanding or reality based thinking we will continue to propose and pass bad legislation. Also attempting to legislate a product that doesn't exist is just bad policy.
Mark “Six” James is Founder and Executive Director of Panther Protection Services, LLC, and an internationally published author and keynote speaker.
"The amended bill specifies that three years after it is determined that personalized handguns are available for retail purposes, it will be illegal for any registered or licensed firearms manufacturer or dealer to transport, sell, expose for sale, possess for sale, assign or transfer any handgun unless that handgun is a personalized handgun." Despite the bill's or legislators best intentions this is a bad law, and while it attempts to solve for some small percentage of issues it leaves huge exposure in others. Also when you create things this absolute soon it begs the question what next? I am in no way a conspiracy theorist and am a responsible gun owner, however I reject legislation that attempts to penalize the law abiding citizen and is not grounded in the reality of the number of traditional firearms that are currently available in the U.S. or could mandate a future requirement to retro fit any of my The Bite – “Smart Guns, Dumb Legislation”
Panther Protection Services is a full service protection agency focusing on Risk and Crisis Mitigation, Protective Services, Self-Defense Training, and Firearm Instruction. For additional information visit www.pantherprotectionservicescom or contact us at info@pantherprotectionservices.com
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