Yesterday, I blogged the Washington Post’s love letter to smart gun technology (i.e. guns that won’t fire unless a computer chip recognizes the owner’s fingerprint or palm print). I missed this: “New Jersey passed a hotly contested law in 2002 requiring that only smart guns be sold in the state within three years of a smart gun being sold anywhere in the country.” Guess what? A smart gun is now for sale in California (‘natch). “The N.J. law requires the state attorney general to certify that the gun is for sale, whether it meets the definition under the law, and to notify the governor and legislature.” NJ Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D) sent a letter to the AG John Jay Hoffman asking him to start the doomsday clock for “dumb gun” sales. He wouldn’t, would he?
If these guys were true Christians or really faith based they would go into the inner cities and try and end poverty and gangs. Saving a few kids from the gang culture would go right to the source of the violence and poverty problem
This gun looks like it will actually make a “PEW PEW PEW” noise.
Lol reminds me of laser tag.
Sunday January 1st 2017 12:03 am local time Trenton, NJ – Local Chevron Gas station is robbed by a criminal with a smart gun. The smart gun in question was reported stolen earlier the day before.
Just because it may not be able to fire does not mean that victims will be aware of that fact. Any number of robberies have been committed with airsoft guns.
Just thinking out loud here, but it seems to me that if the cost of these new “smart” guns is high (say $1000.00 or more), it will definitely have a disparate impact on the ability of minorities to keep (i.e. buy) and bear arms, and may be found to be unconstitutional on that basis. (much in the same was as literacy tests for voting registration were found to be discriminatory in effect). I’ve often thought that the NFA was vulnerable on that grounds as well, but the fact that the NFA imposes a “tax” makes it is a more difficult case.
But that’s the point of gun laws. Keep them out of the hands of the minorities
Non-smart guns is a “class” of weapons in common use for lawful purposes. Banning an entire class of weapons in common use for lawful purposes violates the Constitution. See Heller Vs. D.C.
I believe the guns branded as a armatek or some such. Its german. And fires a 22lr round (see pic in article above)
So the technology is available, but the ammunition isn’t. Nice.
It should be mandatory for the police/Law enforcement to convert to these guns. Now. Anybody in NJ- write your representatives, form groups.
Its for the police officer’s own safety. Never again can their gun be seized and used againt them!!!
The pushback from the police unions would be the best publicity about the stupidity of this.
You raise a good point. It would be great if Republicans, once they regain power, would pass a law that subjects all law enforcement to the same rules applicable to civilians in that state. If done on a federal level, such a law might have significant constitutional problems (related to Federalism, 10th Amendment, etc) but it would send one hell of a message.
My thoughts exactly. After all, if the safety arguments being made apply to the common citizen for use in a defensive situation in their own home then wouldn’t we want police and law enforcement who carry publicly to have this technology as well? It could save the life of the officer should s/he lose control of the firearm.
There’s no way I’m wearing a watch that ugly.
Now we know when the laws requiring only smart guns to be sold will be ruled unconstitutional, by 2017 at the latest. The one aspect of this that is good news is the smart guns will not be in common use, and will almost certainly not be in 2017, which in turn will make it very difficult to hold up the law in the courts.
My thought exactly.
The biggest flaw here is that a truly SMART gun wouldn’t be caught dead in New Jersey.
Wouldn’t this violate Heller… dumb guns being “in common use” and all?
I’m still in the beginning stages of planning my exodus from NJ… As much as Christie sucks, once he’s gone (and Sweeney is potentially in) it will get 10x worse here.
I know man. I’m going to school at Rutgers Law in Newark, and more and more I look at 2015 as the year I graduate, pass the bar, and get the hell out of here.
Go somewhere a pro-2nd amendment lawyer is wanted.
It is not a law on possession, but a law on sales. Heller said that such laws are presumptively valid and do not infringe the 2A right. This law, though, could change all of that. Moreover, this law, like the microstamping law in California, applies only to dealer sales of new firearms, and does not ban the old ones.
Slippery slope, though, right?
Okay, so it’s 2018, and NJ is only selling smart guns new. Violent crime and gun accidents have not magically gone down, so what is the next hue and cry?
“It’s all those dumb guns. We TRIED to make guns safer and it has not worked. Now we need to round up all the dumb guns so that are Smart Gun technology can actually work!”
You don’t see that coming as the next step?
The common use thing doesn’t mean that you can’t use guns that aren’t in common use, it just means that you can’t ban ones that are. As conventional non-electronic guns are clearly in common use, they have absolutely nothing to stand on.
Too bad that the Jerry Miculek model 9mm cannot be used in IDPA, as the barrel is too long.
FTA:
“The company also has technology that would render guns inoperable if they approached electronic markers — for instance, near a school.”
Prevention of “accidental shootings and suicides” indeed. Prevention of accidentally defending yourself against government oppression, more likely.
So since the law makes no mention of the gun being offered in a caliber suitable for self defense, and this gun is only offered in 22lr, does this translate to a de facto ban on useful calibers?
Another good reason to push the NJ legislature to mandate only smart guns for their law enforcement/government personnel. Demand the legislature do so:
– Keeps the criminal from using the officer’s firearms against them
– Keeps criminal from being able to use weapons stolen from the police in other crimes.
Make the police forces themselves argue against the law and its stupidity.
For example, see:
http://oag.ca.gov/firearms/exemptpo
You don’t need 9 millimeters to kill a deer! Wait, I’m mixing my stupid quotes…
The “Tea Cup” grip is now “wrong”, but I’ve always used it (and I am at 20+ years younger than R. Lee Ermey). It allows the left hand to act as a “bench” for the handgun.
Also use a stance that puts left foot forward and right foot back with the left shoulder slightly forward and the right shoulder slightly back, because that way you can run forward or backward if you need and the body presents a smaller profile. About 20+ years ago that was the way some folks in the Army taught pistol marksmanship.
The last time I was at the range, the guy in the next lane was using a squared-up stance and a more “modern” grip on his gun, and was making no discernible grouping on his target – his shots were all over the place.
Of course, I have never competed in any sort of pistol match.
Thoughts and opinions? Should I change? What is the practical advantage of one grip over another?
Can you put rounds on target, repeatably and reliably? Then don’t change a thing. If you get into competition, and you think something else might serve you better, then try it and see. But if you’re just talking about self-defense, do what works for you. It’s not like most people take the time to square up to the target and check their stance in a life-or-death situation, anyway.
If PETA stood for “People for the Eating of Tasty Animals”, then I’d sign up
If only terrorists and gangsters need 15 round magazines, we need 30 round magazines. It’s simple math:
terrorist + gangster = 15 + 15 = 30
Therefore it is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that we need 30 round magazines….
I am a FAR better wing shot than a marksman. If it wasn’t for a 12 Ga. shooting skeet to get me started I probably wouldn’t be reading this site now….
The price isn’t outrageous for something that could help a lot of people, but I wouldn’t be in the market. I can usually tell where my misses are and adjust accordingly without a visual…
I believe that most of the guns being smuggled into Mexico are .22 rifles and single shot shotguns. They are bought in the U.S. at garage sales or flea markets or from “grey” market sources, because uncle Juan told his nephew, working in Los Estados, that he needed a gun on the farm, so his nephew Jose, smuggled it down to him.
That is the bulk of the guns being smuggled into Mexico, and lots of those were made before 1968, without any serial numbers.
It is easier to get shotgun ammunition now, than it is to get .22 ammo!
2nd year law student looking for a new place to live and work after he graduates in 2015.
Do not want to live here anymore.
[email protected]
Definitely sit for two bars. Do something like NJ and PA. Just remember that you need to take the MBE in PA if you do that.
Nice. Gratz to the winners! 😀
There were a LOT of great entries. Congrats to the winners.
I look at the first two and mostly think “Thank God I’m not the only one left that shoots Weaver….”
PETA = practically everything truly awful
I would say the smart thing to do is for all gun manufacturers to stop selling guns of any kind in New Jersey including to all law enforcement agencies. Get a jump on it now, starve the pigs (NJ politicians) as they will be the ones that will have to answer to this. Dreaming I know but it would serve them right.
Congrats to the winners. There really were a lot of great entries. Usually there at least one or two standouts in stuff like that is that I’m pretty sure are going to win from the moment I see them. With this contest, my opinion updated with nearly every photo I saw.
“Seamless transition from AR to sidearm…”
Oh, and if that didn’t seem to make sense, it’s because that photo of Erin was one of a series of 4 that came together, only one of which went up on the Facebook page. Quite a few folks sent in more than one. Yes, including that one.
Did anyone else notice on the web page for this “smart gun” it says the gun must be within 10 inches of the watch to function? I think that might complicate weak hand shooting.
Armatix is not unknown in Germany.
Search and you should be able to find:
Contribution to the anti-gun lobby,
Lawsuits against demonstrations to defeat their locks in under a minute,
their business report (several millions in the hole),
despite being the only authorized manufactorer of deactivation locks in Germany for a long time.
The point isn’t for this to be “ergonomic” or. “Effective”. 22lr – yes, that’s the point. Wouldn’t want “civilians” to have anything more powerful than that.
A future of .22lr being the only “legal” caliber and guns that have to be fired with your “watch hand” (and you have to be wearing the watch?)
To the antis , that sounds like “respecting our 2A” to them.
Kind of a nice break to the normal parade of stuffy politicians and frothing activists. I typically start my days surly since I started reading TTAG. With an occasional post like this, surly gets nudged aside in favor of … I dunno. Something else.
I try to keep the Digest light, in part because depressing is, well, depressing, but also because since it doesn’t go up ’til 10 p.m., more than half the views come the next day. I know some people are starting their day with it, and it wouldn’t be nice to drag them down.
Actually, I really dig the digest, too. It’s a good end of the day compilation because it tends to be light and there are several bits in there to chew on. You guys have good structure around here. Great balance.
—————————-
.22 LR calibre, 10 round magazine
electronic magazine disconnect
different operating modes
an operating distance of up to 10 inches
integrated grip and drop safety
color-coded operating mode, patented mechatronic
interface for additional applications (e.g. camera)
tested and approved by ATF
——————————————-
Looks like it has a light in the back… presumably that strobes bright orange at night so everyone knows the gun is activate (i.e. scary)
Armatix: building a gun to export to america which is fully safe for everyone but the person trying to shoot it.
I think there’s been too many gun grabbers watching the Judge Dredd movies…
I just don’t see the appeal of this kind of hunting…
The blonde DADD t-shirt girl often seen on the right side of these pages aught to get…something…just sayin.
Good for her. 🙂
Detroit local stations don’t generally use the term “assault weapon”, they also don’t seem to be shy about running stories on defensive gun use. Especially not wxyz.
Two rules:
1. Always keep your muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
2. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
Break one of those and we’re probably all still ok. Break both and someone’s having a real bad day.
Any more rules are largely superfluous, outside of inspecting or cleaning a firearm.
1. Remove or empty the magazine
2. Clear the weapon
3. Clear the weapon again
That’s how I roll.
hmm. Looks like a good one for a drudge report submission
That gun looks scary as shit. Does she have her tetanus shot? 😀
I maintain that all a warning shot does (besides expose you to financial risk) is convince the goblin that for all you posturing, you are not serious about shooting them.
Awesome story. Makes me want to go there with my camera.
Reminds me that I need to get on with the hunters safety course and get my license. Not that I’ll start with bear, of course.
Well hopefully they will adjust the nuclear facilities so the actual barriers won’t be “unnecessarily high”.
. . . waiting on Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to ask why it had to be a Black Bear??
Just kidding – great story. Would love to take my little girls hunting like this one day . . .
Just plain sad…
If you don’t find this in the least bit disturbing, you may have a dangerously low ability to emphasize with suffering, which is what makes people sociopaths.
At the same time, setting emotions aside, sometimes this kind of stuff is the only way we can get things done (ditto for medical testing etc). So long as proper protocol is followed – animals anesthetized before subjected to trauma etc.
Good grief.
If they can buy uniforms, shoes and ballistic vests in different sizes, then they can buy guns, helmets and knee pads in different sizes. Any claims about cost or procurement issues are BS. The cost to outfit an officer is a small fraction of his/her first year’s salary.
There is logic behind having standards for physical ability, and there is also great value in having women in law enforcement. Somewhere in there is a reasonable compromise, but making them shoot guns built for a man’s hand is just stupid.
Wow, seriously? That’s maddening…
I don’t know about “fail”; methinks the LAT knows exactly what they’re doing.
The job is the job. The agency buys the firearm that gets the job done and gets them the lowest up front cost and lowest total cost of ownership. If they have to give everyone personalized models of sidearm, then that drives up procurement costs, maintenance costs, spare parts costs, and compromises readiness for not everyone being cross trained on each other’s equipment.
Over at the fire department, they aren’t stocking twenty different sizes of fire hose are they, to match up diameters with hand size and grip strength? No. The job is the job and the equipment is the equipment. If you can’t do it, well, then you can’t do it. Go find something else which you can do.
I note that many people here poo-pooed my suggestion that mass civil disobedience was the way to go because in end the government was not willing to arrest, prosecute and possibly kill otherwise law abiding citizens. It is clear that the current Governor is not willing to do that.
My son hosted some Polish and Chech chemists at a conference and the subject of guns came up. You would be surprised what Eastern Europeans had buried in the back yard even undet Soviet occupation.
Hi-Point carbines shoot great, are NOT assault weapons of any kind, and are guaranteed for life at a very reasonable price. I’ve shot them, and they flat-out work. I don’t own any Hi-Points, but the carbines are great. I may just buy one now. I do have a Mech-Tech Carbine Conversion Unit for 1911’s, and it’s approximately the same thing. These carbines will get more accuracy and are easier to be accurate with than pistols for those who don’t shoot on a regular basis.
Woody does look like one mean hombre, you can’t be too dilligent. I’m sure tsa watched Woody very carefully the whole trip.
The study says race isn’t a factor, and then claims the victims of murder are split 50/50, between blacks and whites. Am I missing something?