California Rep Katie Porter
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A video clip, shared gleefully by Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA), tries to show the public that gun manufacturers are irresponsible obstructionists for not incorporating more safety technology into their products. But, like virtually all of her colleagues in Congress, she clearly doesn’t know enough about the topic to know that all she did was manage to prove herself wrong.

(You can also find the video here if she figures this out and deletes it, or view the whole hearing here.)

California Rep. Katie Porter is in the process of grills Christopher Killoy, the president and CEO of Sturm Ruger. She tries to make the killer point that smartphones come with fingerprint locking technology. And cell phones are supposedly not as dangerous as guns.

She reasons, therefore, that firearms should come with fingerprint locks also to prevent their unauthorized use. Rep. Porter then tries to get Marty Daniel, the head of Daniel Defense to commit to adding fingerprint scanners to his company’s guns.

Like so many of her fellow Democrats, however, she doesn’t seem to b e aware that this was an epic self-own.

First off, she struggled briefly to unlock her phone during her little demonstration. On the first try, the phone did not unlock. It only unlocked on the second try.

That clearly demonstrates what Mr. Killoy was trying to explain, that fingerprint scanning technology is too unreliable to be used on something as critical as a weapon you’d use to defend your life. And, that’s before considering what dehydration, sweating, and injuries can do to your finger’s ability to produce a clean scannable image.

The Honorable Member from the Golden State is also oblivious to the potential for malfunctions in the even the gun is dropped, gets wet, or experiences other extreme conditions.

Then Rep. Porter unleashed this whopper . . .

These fingerprint scanners are offered in some firearms. Some manufacturers sell this and they work. Your company and Mr. Daniel’s company chooses (sic) not to. 

That, of course, is a blatant lie.

Sorry, Congresswoman, but there aren’t any manufacturers selling firearms with fingerprint scanners now. Not anywhere.

There has been lots of hype, plenty of promises and some balky prototypes, but the lack of reliable performance in testing (which Rep. Porter partially demonstrated) and the lack of interest among buyers (as Mr. Daniel mentions) have kept “smart guns” from being marketed anywhere in the world as of this writing. Lying about it doesn’t make it so.


Finally, we need to keep in mind that the government cannot and does not mandate that people use biometric locks or any other kind of security on their cell phones. In fact, three-letter agencies would very much prefer that our phones have no security at all so they can rifle through our data whenever they choose.

Feds aren’t about to require that people lock their phones. So, it’s beyond silly to act like it’s a great idea for government to mandate fingerprint scanning on any machine, let alone one on which millions of people rely on to protect their lives.

If Rep. Porter had known her ass from her elbow — about either smartphones or guns — she’d know that she only managed to defeat her own supposed argument the other day. Sadly,  she’s too ignorant to see it.

 

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65 COMMENTS

    • I have severe doubts that this is a demonstration of simple idiocy. Occam’s & Hanlon’s being the de facto in the usual sense, that certainly isn’t the case here.

      This is a intentionally purposed with malign intent disinformation and propaganda campaign.

    • One thing that always bothers me is the member of Congress that ask a question and interrupts the answer with “reclaiming my time”. If a member of congress asked a witness/expert/person to answer a question, that person should be given time to respond fully to the answer. Several logical responses could have been given, as many of you did give good examples in the comments. Not allowing someone to fully answer a question does not allow the committee and the public to hear all possible answers. I understand time restraints, so don’t penalize the member of Congress for someone’s “wordy” answer. There must be a better way for this part of our government to function. Every angle of a topic should be discussed and heard whether anyone agrees with it our not.

      If it really is stupidity and arrogance on the part of a member of Congress, then I only hope that the next election can solve the problem.

      • One thing that always bothers me is the member of Congress that ask a question and interrupts the answer with “reclaiming my time”.

        They are not there to actually ask questions. They are there to grandstand, signal their virtues, and give a short speech. That is what they are there for.

    • “One of the notable aspects of the democratic process is that one need not know anything about a subject in order to pass laws about it.” – the late COL Jeff Cooper, USMC, founder of Gunsite Academy and notd handgun expert

    • Democrats are lying fkn’ worthless p.o.s. being in the boogalo already and let’s try them for treason!!

  1. Oh my! Poor Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA), is either ignorant, misinformed or an inept liar to make the above claims and statements. She could’ve ask local law enforcement officials why their departments have not issued firearms with fingerprint readers. She might want to wet her fingertips with water, fruit juice or blood and then try to activate her precious cellphone.

  2. The audience clapping at the view. The praiseful responses to Porters asinine claim. The 81 million votes. Morons blaming people who are not morons for them having difficulty in life by virtue of being a moron.

    Morlocks are inheriting the earth and I’m afraid nothing short of cataclysm can prevent this.

    • To compare those morons to the Morlock is giving them WAY more credit than those weak minded sheeple deserve, they are more like an infestation of plague carrying rats permeating civilization with their ignorance and intolerance.

    • “81 million votes” quote unquote. More popular than Obama. Where are those “people” now? I hope the Puppet runs in 2024 so I can see how many people show up to his rallies. They won’t be able to get away with hiding him in the basement again.

      • You have obviously not paid attention to their ability to create a crisis out of thin air at will. There is plenty of time to whip something up between the CDC, WHO and the KUNGFLU group. And The Fouci is still passing out Biden Bucks to ALL of those players that brought us the WooFlu. Stay tuned.

    • “Morlocks are inheriting the earth and I’m afraid nothing short of cataclysm can prevent this.”

      Some 30+ years back, a guy called “The Blind Sheik” tried to bring down one of the world trade center towers with a big truck bomb. The bomb wasn’t big enough, and he was caught. Not long after, he was being moved by helicopter in NYC. An FBI agent in the helicopter said to the ‘blind Sheik’ “The tower is still standing”. The Sheik reportedly smiled at the FBI agent said something profound :

      “You have to be lucky every time. I only need to be lucky *once*.”

      He was right. The next time “The stars align”, as Obama said right before he signed the “(Un)affordable Health Care Act”, when they control the legislative and the judicial (the SCotUS), ‘Bruen’ is gone, and that utter fuckwit gets her way with crap like fingerprint readers… 🙁

  3. In most cases I believe these people are faking ignorance or stupidity. In her case, she is not faking.

    If she is was the best her district could offer, God help us all.

  4. She will get a “Pass” from the Media, her Progressive / Liberal constituents and the Far Left trolls inhabiting TTAG on her ignorance and lies because “she meant well” and “because, well…guns and shit!”.

    • Manse, I’m *almost* glad I’m old enough where I won’t be alive to see it happen… 🙁

  5. I worked as a Senior Engineer in Defense Weapon Design, Production and Test.
    Military Weaponry Stuff only works a limited portion of the time after it has been exhaustively (Shaken, Vibrated, Frozen, Boiled, Zapped, Dropped Hard) tested.
    Add human errors and foul ups, and stuff works correctly even more seldom and then, more erratically.
    Please install these optoelectronic space gadgets on ALL of our CongressUtopians’ Asthma Inhalers, Epipens, Toilets, Cellphones, Liquor Cabinets, Birth Control Meds and Heart Attack Medication bottles.
    I will take charge of this, as YOU ARE NOT QUALIFIED TO DO IT, BUT I AM.
    REPORT TO ME after ten years, and I will correlate the data and give my recommendation in writing, to Congress.
    Then, and ONLY THEN will we discuss your lunatic proposal…

    • Delete birth control meds – we want them to work 100% of the time on these disingenuous morons. We don’t want them reproducing!

  6. Add breathalyzer blows to all newly manufactured cars. Preventing drunk driving will save thousands of lives a year.
    Federal background checks for all prescription drugs. The Fentanyl epidemic is the leading cause of death between ages 18 and 45.

    Until you have these up and running don’t even talk to me about fingerprint readers on guns.

    • They’ll eventually get around to that. You’ll have to show a need for private transportation before they’ll issue a license. They’ll decide if you really need it or if you can make do with public transportation. The amount of fuel you can buy will be rationed.

  7. This nasty bitch Porter is why we’re armed and have the 2A to begin with. It protects us from those fools and frauds that get in to office in spite of not belonging there to craft and pass our laws. Absolute horrifying.

  8. How many morons does this country have? When I say moron I mean democrats. What kind of low information, birkenstock wearing, whole foods eating, smug, arrogant, “be quiet I’m having an emotional crisis right now”, Dunning-Kruger “I’m a liberal arts major so therefore I’m smarter than your phd in physics”, “get out of the way black man I’m a white progressive liberal and I’ll speak for you”, golf clap pseudo affirming liberal democrats do we have in this country? Have we reached peak idiocracy yet? Or is there still more wiggle room for future growth of this subset of the population? That’s the only way I figure that people like her land in office.

    • Her election is strange considering she is the first Democrat to EVER be elected in Southern Orange County CA and both the 2018 and 2020 primaries involved 4 or 5 Republicans with her the lone Democrat the same scenario has played out in the 2022 primary and as in the two previous runs she once again carried over 50% of the primary votes. I lived in Orange County in the mid-70s to late 80s (at that time it was considered the John Birch Society center of Southern CA) and you couldn’t even get a person to ADMIT they were a Democrat never mind putting their name on a ballot.

  9. One would like to think those in Congress would if not themselves, have a staff member do a quick google search, or better, a few minutes research on the smart gun concept and how such prototypes and test beds have fared in real world conditions.
    Of course, most Marxists/Leftists/Democrats have made up their minds beforehand and facts and honest information would only serve to confuse them.

  10. Politicians should not discuss things they have no knowledge of… and they certainly should not be vote on them. Those politicians who take action deemed unconstitutional and/or against our rights… whether direct or indirect… should be presumed guilty of insurrection, sedition and treason. As such they should be imprisoned under horrid conditions. They should be denied food, medical attention, medicine, and visitors while being denied all communications with attorneys and family until the completion of an investigation and trial by a bipartisan citizens committee with power to issue subpoenas and imprison dissenters.

    • “Politicians should not discuss things they have no knowledge of”

      Go listen to elected officials discuss any topic you’re familiar with, even if it’s from a local commission. It’s scary how so many just run on emotion and prejudice, even when they’ve had ample time to educate themselves on the topic. How long have firearms been a topic for Congress? They don’t want to educate themselves because they don’t care. Incremental or complete bans is all that matters to them. They’ll take what they can get for now.

      • Same thing goes for news reporting. Read any “news” regarding a topic you are intimately familiar with and it becomes quite clear immediately that reporters have no idea what they’re writing about and neither does any party being interviewed by the reporter.

        Whether it’s malicious deception or innocent stupidity is debatable but the reality is news should not be treated as factual representation whatever the subject may be. Thinking otherwise gets you these lowest common denominator fools who disregard your statements based on 30 years of schooling, training and working in an industry as “conspiracy” or “Russian propaganda” while their statement which is simply parroting last night’s news-for-profit talking point as irrefutable, absolute, permanent fact.

        Until these clowns can be safely ignored, forcefully dragged to the truth or viciously eradicated the future of human civilization is at risk of collapsing back to cave-dwelling pre-historical status.

    • Politicians should not discuss things they have no knowledge of

      They are not just discussing and voting on shit they nothing about, THEY are actually WRITING legislation in all their glorious ignorance for other morons to discuss and vote on perpetuating the ignorance and to keep the ignorant sector of the general public in awe of their awesomeness.

  11. Hah , hah, hah,
    To late mutherfckers.
    You want my gunms come get some of Us. ……
    That sounds quite fatalistic doesn’t it,?
    Reality says: – I hide in the corner till the bullets stop flying. Dead.. if I can get three of yours.
    Bloomberg needs a tune up.
    How about that you elf bee eye’s watching these gunm sights.
    Come get Some…..
    The Scorpio is Ready……
    just fcking around, possums are humble.

  12. This woman is a blithering idiot. She’s so stupid she thinks “manual labor” is a Mexican! The last time I saw someone that mentally challenged, they were being fed inside of a padded room, through a tube.
    “Fingerprint scanners”… What an imbecile!

  13. No person in their right mind that has any real knowledge or interest of self-defense with DGU would add another delaying step in the process of that split second timing that’s possibly left to live or not when it becomes necessary to draw and fire. Its like making it necessary to use a finger print scanner to have your air bags deploy in a car accident, a delay that increases chances of serious injury or death.

    her “40%” figure is a lie as well. Its predicated on that the technology might work quickly enough maybe up to 40% of the time, not that it would “prevent up to 40% of accidental deaths”. The data is based upon ‘how quickly’ its ‘predicted up to’ to work the first time not that it will work. She doesn’t understand the data enough to see this big fallacy in it and apparently drank the ‘smart gun’ folks kool aid.

    In other words there is an over 60% chance that it will not work quickly enough for a DGU, and a 100% chance it will delay DGU if it does work. In terms of ‘likely hood risk’ (risk assessment for the use of a firearm in the average actual DGU scenario) in terms of the fingerprint scanner … there is an increase of over 145% risk of serious injury or death to the defender who must make the decision within one second to pull the trigger or not — and without the fingerprint scanner a less than 9% risk of serious injury or death to the defender who must make the decision within one second to pull the trigger or not

    • “The CEO of a major gun manufacturer said he’s unwilling to add safety features to his company’s guns because “customers are not interested.” That puts us all at risk. That’s like saying Americans should get to buy faulty appliances even if they’ll burn down the house next door.”

      No Rep. Katie Porter. Its not like saying “Americans should get to buy faulty appliances even if they’ll burn down the house next door.”

      1. The CEO said that because “customers are not interested” BECAUSE customers see the false hood in it. A false hood you indirectly pointed out your self with your ‘faulty appliances’ reference. The ‘smart gun’ finger print ‘so called’ technology is faulty in that it is not suitable for reliable use of a firearm for defense purposes and customers see this and “customers are not interested”. The CEO was being honest, you weren’t Rep. Katie Porter.

      The firearms are not faulty by their self, the finger print scanner is.

      2. “That puts us all at risk.” really? That put you at risk while you were pontificating from your high and mighty perch of lies? Today, 400 million firearms in the United States held by law abiding gun owners that will not put anyone at risk and they don’t have finger print scanners or any other type of ‘smart gun’ technology and the firearms are not faulty.

      But since you mentioned putting “us all at risk”…. Today, nationwide there will be:

      * Over 5,500 victims put at risk (collectively) of serious injury or death due to car accidents.

      * ~1,300 victims put at risk of serious injury or death by violent criminal use of a knife in attacking them

      * over 1,200 adult victims put at risk of serious injury or death by violent criminal sexual assault on them using hands and fists

      * over 3,000 victims put at risk of serious injury or death by violent criminal ‘domestic abuse’

      * ~2,300 put at risk of serious injury or death by use of prescribed medication used according to doctors instructions because the doctor pushed a medication on them that is not suitable for their condition for them because the doctor was getting kick backs from a drug company

      * Over 4,000 victims put at risk of serious injury or death by violent criminal attackers using blunt objects in attacking the victims

      * over 1,500 victim children under the age of 12 put at risk of serious injury or death by being criminally violently sexually assaulted by use of hands and fists. Another over 1,000 between the ages of 12 and 15 put at risk of serious injury or death by being criminally violently sexually assaulted by use of hands and fists. Another over 1,500 between the ages of 15 and 21 put at risk of serious injury or death by being criminally violently sexually assaulted due to being drugged.

      * over 2,400 victims put at risk of serious injury or death due to drug overdose suicide attempts because they could not get the mental health treatment they needed.

      * over 1,000 victims put at risk of serious injury or death due to tobacco use.

      * over 5,000 victims put at risk of serious injury or death due to alcohol beverage use.

      * over 6,000 victims put at risk of serious injury or death due to use of marijuana.

      * over 9,000 victims put at risk of serious injury or death due to use of non-firearm defective products the manufacturer knew were defective.

      The list goes on and on of all the ways and victims that today, and every day, will be put at risk of serious injury or death. Over 10,000,000 victims per year put at risk of serious injury or death, and firearms are involved in less than 0.5 % of those.

      • Note: My use of “serious injury” in the above also includes any physical harm of any degree of such physical harm.

        • “Weapons shouldn’t have fewer safety features than cell phones. Today, I asked firearm manufacturers why they won’t put fingerprint scanners on all their guns”

          First, a finger print scanner on a cell phone is not a ‘safety’ feature. its a ‘security’ feature ‘supposedly’ to protect the contents of the phone. No one has ever been saved from risk of harm by the presence of a finger print scanner on a cell phone – sure, maybe someone was saved from having their data disclosed or accessed and in that sense we could say ‘saved from harm’ but its not really the same thing when a person is facing a violent criminal act in which they will be harmed or killed if they don’t stop the attack immediately.

          So what do anti-gun do to stop such violent criminal acts when that violence is visited upon them? Do they hold up their cell phones and scream “I have a finger print scanner!”? Yeah, that’s a little ridiculous to ask – but the point is do you call in your personal ‘professional’ armed security to stop that threat and how many of their firearms have finger print scanners and were you at risk from them with having them around you armed because they did not have finger print scanners?

          That should tell you something stupid … the professional doesn’t intentionally of their own free will use finger print scanners for a reason, even they know that placing that slight delay (even if it happens to work) in that moment of decision to fire can result in risk or serious injury or death to them selves or the ones they are protecting.

          Well, most of the rest of us out here don’t have the luxury of professional tax payer funded armed security to be with us. Most of us out here don’t have the luxury of ‘idealism’ like you do in your neat little delusional world that you craft from lies. What we have is the reality that its pretty likely no one is coming to save us or defend us, especially an anti-gun person, when we have seconds left to stop that violent criminal act threat that will seriously injure or kill us if we do not stop it definitively and completely.

          Second, the rest I already said in the above this post.

          Third, you are comparing apples to bananas to claim they are all oranges. You don’t know anything about this subject, you think you do because you probably heard or read something that seems to fit with your confirmation bias … but you really don’t know anything about this subject.

  14. As soon as any politician makes a claim you should demand they put their hand on the bible and repeat it under oath and threat of a prison sentence. Then see how much they have to say.
    Congress and the house would become very quiet, or very empty really fast.

  15. ANY Democrat not spewing lies are willing participants in spreading them. But then, there ARE plenty of Republicans doing the same thing. THAT is where we get RINO’s.

    Just simply for the fact that The Second Amendment is part of the American Constitution, ANY anti-2A anti-gun Democrat (by definition) becomes anti-American.

    Democrats are NOT for the poor. It’s that the poor are easier for Democrats to control, manage, and lie to.

    • It’s that the poor are easier for Democrats to control, manage, and lie to.

      yep, Vote for ME I’ll get you “free” stuff!! Famous utterances, “Obama gonna pay my rent”, “Obama gonna get me a car”, “I’m gonna get me a Obama phone”. “If you don’t know whether to vote for me or Trump then YOU ain’t black”.

  16. Notice how she has to touch her cell phone twice for the screen to come up then she looks at it to make sure it worked, Then she claims ‘its instant’. In other words, she had to touch her cell phone twice to get it into an operating condition that was functional.

    In the average DGU the defender has less time then she expended to touch her cell phone once, to decide to pull the trigger or not.

  17. We have a “perfect storm” of idiocy happening, mostly (but not entirely) in Congress.

    1. Their ignorance of firearms and all things related thereto is as complete as that of MajorStupidity and dacian the demented dips*** – they literally have NO FREAKIN’ CLUE of what the hell they are talking about. Since the have no actual knowledge, they substitute lies that support their narrative.

    2. The tide is against them (record-setting numbers of ‘new’ gun owners, particularly in demographics not traditionally seen as “pro-gun”, SCOTUS finally getting off its collective lazy arse and making the Heller decision “real” – Bruen is going to put some dents in the anti-gun bus, their implicit and EXPLICIT support of BurnLootMurder and two years of rioting, arson, murder, and theft along with “defund the police”), and they know it.

    3. They know what’s going to happen in November, and many see this as there “last chance” for years, if not longer.

    In short, they are going even more insane than they usually are. There is, apparently, no end to the supply of lying, Leftist/fascist Dimocrats. And since they have all the voters they need (dead folks are reliable Dimocrat voters), they are just going to keep doing their Thelma and Louise, right off the cliff. I hope to see Beto “Fake Mexican” O’Rourke and Eric “Fangbanger” Swallowswell at the front of the stack when they get ready to do seizures of AR-15s.

  18. The problem here is the MSM plays up the accusation, not the refutation. The average reader/watcher sees only the “fact” that Ruger; et. al. “refuses” to follow Porter’s “common sense” request. They, the “press” never mentions that the technology doesn’t work. These “hearings” accomplish little of their stated purpose but give the Congresscritters their desired face time in front of the cameras.

    • Cool. Congress should require the Capitol police, all federal agents, and their personal security to exclusively use this gun. Let them put their money where their mouth is. What are they waiting on?

  19. Smart gun technology advocates would make more progress if they didn’t try to mandate features that don’t work or don’t exist. Far better to let the market innovate and features evolve.

    The New Jersey state legislature effectively killed smart guns ten years ago. They mandated smart gun features be applied to all guns as soon as the first such model hit the market. They politicized innovation, thus guaranteeing that gun owners would attack any smart gun design that came to market. This is not the way to encourage technical innovation.

  20. What I do not understand is just why these people continue to go for such complex and expensive solutions when the answer is to bring in legislation ONE to completely ban other than BOLT ACTION rifles and ban owning more than ONE Rifle and hangun per licensee. Sooner or later that’s exzactlt is what will hapne and a limit on ammunition as well.
    After all nobody actually NEEDS anything other than a5-Shot bolt action Rifle for any legitimate purpose and certainly not any type of Semi Automatic which have but nONE purpose and that’s to kill as many people as quickly as possible – that’s why the Military use them! . Added to that ANY Semi-Auto apart from maybe a.22 rimfire IS of military spec.
    Nobody needs anything other for any legitimate purpose anything other than a decent 9mm or .38 calibre for any legitimate purpose and certainly not for any situation that could be considered as ‘self -defence. Additionally nobody needs any more than 25 rounds on ammunition for immedicate to-hand use either.
    I am aware that there are a few nut cases out there that seem to be gearing up for a bloody war of some kind and that those nutters will always seek to circumvent each and every piece of legislation and that thise with criminial intent will still get their hands on firearms but there is no bloody need to make it so easy for them.

    • What I do not understand is

      And THAT is YOUR problem. 90% of your dumb shit starts out with “I do not understand” which makes you a MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS. You have absolutely NO clue regarding the way things work in the US. Those idiots write legislation that they KNOW has no chance of ever becoming an actual law, but they write it so as not to piss off TOO many of THEIR voters and then they go home and say, “hey I tried” to the gun grabbers and “hey we tried to get through the minimum that we felt we could get passed and still leave most of you alone” to their gun owners. It’s called “politics” and OURS do NOT concern you. So just run along and play in you soshulist bliss and leave our problems to us.
      “legitimate purpose and certainly not any type of Semi Automatic which have but nONE purpose and that’s to kill as many people as quickly as possible” YOU should be the poster child FOR Pro-Abortionists, what a bona-fide (brainwashed) moron

    • What you are stating does absolutely nothing to solve the problem or address the true root of the issue.

      It is unconstitutional, unjust and only would make the law abiding citizens even more vulnerable to crime than they already are.

  21. It has been shown that many people buy guns based on what is used by law enforcement in the us so start with mandating this reliable, instant and available tech for police and see how well it is adopted.

  22. One could make an argument that a cell phone is a weapon and one far more dangerous and nefarious in this day and age than a firearm.

  23. I don’t even have to read the comment section to know that a whole bunch of butthurt fragile little boys got their feelings hurt and probably first thing they did was call this incredible woman ugly or fat or some other insult based on her looks because that’s what little boys with tiny little dicks do. she is a boss and you wish you had as much everything as katie.

    • Really: this article is from July 2022… Anyway, perhaps you SHOULD read the comments, a lot of informed individuals pointing out the blatant lies and obvious lack of knowledge of this “BOSS”. She might be YOUR boss but to me she’s just another intellectually challenged politician spreading falsehoods in an attempt to disparage an industry that she obviously knows nothing about… Missed those “ugly and fat” comments as well as ANYTHING else about her “looks” must have been removed (not)… Maybe that tiny little dick comment hits closer to home than you care to admit as you are the only one even making reference to her looks… OBTW: are you implying the SHE is packing a bigger dick than most of us?

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