Steve Clolbert's Show from yesterday just scared the living crap out of me

[Xipe Totec]

He talked about the tracking point rifle; a breakthrough in skill free killing.

It is a sniper's weapon, no more, no less.

Forget about magazine size; this is a one bullet, one kill death machine.

[randome]

1. Yes but it costs $22,000. So there's a deterrent value in that.

But it is disturbing that any 'real' hunter would want to coldly kill with virtually no skill involved.

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[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
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[Bucky]

2. Said the swordsman to the musketeer

[Xipe Totec]

3. I'm sure Al Qaida can spot the 22K. nt

[JHB]

10. I'm sure for the same price they can get several military sniper rifles...

...and training.

Keep in mind that what Steve was showing for the ol' Boombah there was from its advertising campaign. Don't be so quick to believe what its salesmen tell you (even if it makes for juicy mocking by Colbert).

[Xipe Totec]

13. With this rifle, they don't need training

Don't be so quick to minimize the threat and let's not derail the issue by delving into the quagmire of the economics of training + regular rifles vs high powered rifles + one untrained disposable trigger man. That's irrelevant.

The point is that this extends the radius that the secret service has to cover to protect any high value target.

Pi*r^2 works against you.

[JHB]

5. This is just the biggest toy for the DickCheney-style "canned hunt" crowd...

...and the places that cater to them.

I expect that the main market for these will be guides and hunting ranches where they'll be time-shared as part of "deluxe packages", making it easy for guys with money to burn and a need to burn it doing something "macho" (but without putting any work into it).

[backscatter712]

12. Like Lewis Black said "turning a petting zoo into Auschwitz!"

I'd like to see Dick Cheney's explanation when he shoots a guy in the face with one of these smartguns...

[backscatter712]

11. In another couple of years, they'll be selling these for $1,000.

Better killing through science and computers!

[Initech]

4. I like his comment at the end:

"Now you can take a picture of yourself in duckface, while blowing the face off a duck."

[JHB]

6. Meh. Elmer Fudd didn't need a wifi gun to do that...

[JaneyVee]

7. I wonder if Apple knows they're using their products on their guns.

[backscatter712]

14. I'm a huge Linux geek, but I'm ashamed to say that TrackingPoint runs on Linux.

Which makes this killing machine extra-reliable!

Ars Technica has an article on this rifle:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/17000-linux-powered-rifle-brings-auto-aim-to-the-real-world/

[JaneyVee]

18. I read somewhere that it came with an ipad mini attached.

[backscatter712]

19. According to the Ars Technica article, it comes with an iPad Mini...

...which communicates with the rifle over wi-fi, so you can share your kills on YouTube and Facebook.

The rifle itself has an embedded computer that runs Linux.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Cool, now a wanna be can be a highly skilled sniper

[Xipe Totec]

16. That's the nightmare. nt

[chowder66]

9. disturbing

why not just implant all animals and humans with an explosive device and give a remote trigger to any joe blow on the street.

22k is not a deterrent to criminal orgs w/ money and I bet that people would pool money to buy one gun and share it. And then there are those who will do anything to steal one or one hundred.

Irresponsible Death Device

[Xipe Totec]

15. I'm not really worried about the animals.

As Colbert pointed out, it's cheaper to take out a Mafia contract on an antelope, and real sportsmen would sneer at this high tech toy.

A sniper on the other hand, can do some really serious damage with this from a distance.

Remember the Beltway Sniper Attacks?

Imagine what they might have done with this rifle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_sniper_attacks

[Ruby the Liberal]

17. That is horrifying.

Colbert did his usual awesome sauce job with it though.

[csziggy]

20. It's the ZF1!

[backscatter712]

23. All it needs is the red button! n/t

[Savannahmann]

21. For now it's $22k

In five years it will be half that. In ten, it will be down to a bit more than a top of the line rifle of today. The knock off copies will be almost as good and cheap as any other scope.

While the price is prohibitive today, that won't be the case for long.

[Xipe Totec]

22. The global drug trade generated an estimated US$321.6 billion in 2003.

A couple of hundred $22k rifles is well within their budget.