I had a chance to sit down (well, lean against a wall actually) with the incoming CEO of TrackingPoint to discuss the small kerfuffle that erupted after it was announced that their scopes would come with password protection built in. According to the man in charge, it was an option added to assuage the fears of those who believe the technology might fall into the “wrong hands,” and allow some control over the advanced features. The gun will work properly when “locked,” as in be able to fire and even use the scope, but without the tagging capability. As for being enabled from the factory, the word is that the passwords will NOT be enabled by default and will require the end user to enable them before they are functional. Kind of like how computers come from the factory these days, with optional passwords.