Has This Teen Created The World's Safest Gun?

[1monster]

#t=367

[PoliticAverse]

1. No. n/t

[-none]

2. A better idea would be to keep deadly weapons away from most people in the first place, you know

know, like civilized countries do.

A guy with a gun is only a good guy with a gun until he is not. Then it is too late.

[1monster]

8. He acknowledged that his project would not prevent all problems with guns, but might keep children

from accidentally killing others.

[4Q2u2]

28. Civilized? Top 15 ownership

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

List of countries by number of guns per capita



Country Guns per 100 Residents (2014) Rank (2014) Notes

United States 90.0 1
Serbia 2
Yemen 54.8 3
Switzerland 45.7 4
Cyprus 36.1 5
Saudi Arabia 35 6
Iraq 34.2 7
Uruguay 31.8 8
Sweden 31.6 9
Norway 31.3 10
France 31.2 11
Canada 30.8 12
Austria 30.4 13
Iceland 30.3 14
Germany 30.3 15
Finland 29.1 16


From the small armssurvey.org

Table 1 Civilian gun ownership for 40 countries, in descending order of averaged civilian firearms2


Country Rank Civilian firearms per 100
residents


Estimated civilian firearms (rounded)



Country Rank Guns/Hundred Pers Total Pop.

United States of America 1 89 270,000,000
Yemen 2 55 11,500,000
Switzerland 3 46 3,400,000
Finland 4 45 2,400,000
Cyprus 6 36 275,000
Saudi Arabia 7 35 6,000,000
Iraq 8 34 9,750,000
Uruguay 9 32 1,100,000
Canada 13 31 9,950,000
Austria 14 30 2,500,000
Iceland 15 30 90,000
Germany 15 30 25,000,000

[Travis_0004]

3. I guess you better remember to charge the battery

Otherwise its not that useful. What about winter when I want to wear gloves, what if I have a friend shooting with me?

[1monster]

7. I guess the gun wouldn't fire at all in that case...

And for the second question, take your gloves off or wear the kind that allows one to uncover the finger tips without taking off the gloves?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. The safest one doesn't exist.....

As in, it's not there.

You don't achieve that as long as you have guys walking around claiming gun ownership is synonymous with being an American Citizen.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. I really hate liars.

I mean, its nice to work for a good cause and all, but it would be nice to do it with passion AND honesty. Adam Lanza was authorized by his mother to use those firearms. She would take him out shooting. Therefore, had the weapons been equipped with that tech, his prints would have been authorized. So no, this technology wouldn't have had any effect on that shooting, and it is massively disingenuous and crass to claim that it could have.

He'd be better going the honest route, and selecting any other number of shootings in which the user was not authorized to use the weapon. Children accessing a firearm would be one. Weapons used in shootings that were stolen from a Source that would never have authorized use would be good as well. There's no shortage of examples, and doesn't require lying.

[1monster]

6. Is he a liar or or someone who didn't know that Lanza's

Mother took him out shooting? Because I didn't know that either...

At least he is trying to do something to make the world a better place. What are you doing other than harshly criticizing a teenager on a message board to do the same?

[AtheistCrusader]

9. I'm surprised to discover someone who didn't know that, here.

It was a topic of much discussion at the time. It is impossible that he would know enough about the issue, about that attack, and about the technology, to be unaware of that data point.

Moreover, it was disingenuous of him to say it couldn't have helped at Columbine. Most of the firearms Klebold and Harris used, were stolen. Impossible that their biometric data would have been input in the weapon at any time. Granted, that does nothing for the pipe bombs and propane tank bombs they made, but the tanks didn't explode anyway, because they were stupid and didn't know how to build it properly.

What have I done? Well, I've spent a lot of time advocating for laws, public policy, and technology that can actually work to curb gun deaths. How about you? Step one is being informed about the actual problem.

[1monster]

11. I'm sure you are a model citizen and nothing I do or the subject of that video does could measure

up.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. If you insist.

Especially, if you insist on sarcasm, when I was being perfectly honest and earnest with you.

[1monster]

22. Perhaps you were being perfectly honest and earnest, but not very tactful...

Most people don't enjoy being talked down to. All of your posts on this thread have been harshly critical with no constructive value at all.

[AtheistCrusader]

24. I have pointed out multiple actual gun control policies that have utility from a practical and legal

standpoint.

There are three questions that must be solved.

1. Does it work and will people see the benefit and adopt it? (This method does not under a ridiculous number of circumstances*)
2. Is it legal to require it?
3. Does it get an appreciable number of guns into a safer condition?

His method fails all three. For the first one, you can't even fire the gun in your off-hand. In a world where gun manufacturers often tout concealed carry firearms that are ambidextrous, and have large trigger guards so your finger will still fit even with a glove on, this tech is a no-go. It would need a sensor on both sides to allow for ambidextrous, and left handed use. It has no workaround at all for gloves. My carry gun has 3 separate safeties. All three of which are disengaged without operator effort simply by going through the steps of securing the weapon in your hand, placing a finger on the trigger, and firing it. (Grip safety that is disengaged by a good weld to your hand, a trigger safety that your finger must depress to move the entire trigger, and a hammer drop safety internal, so if the weapon falls to the ground, it cannot discharge.) Firearms are built, first and foremost to fire each and every time the trigger is pulled, without fail. Adding a biometric safety is problematic, because the safety prevents it from firing under some conditions. Those conditions are much broader than the potential failures of the three safeties found on my springfield. If it has no power, dead. If the sensor is damaged, dead. If your HAND is damaged, it may interfere. Clothing may interfere. Technical glitches may interfere, etc. The only worse thing than needing a gun for protection, is needing it and having it on you, and it fails to work. That's actually worse. Most gun owners seek reliability as the first and most important feature. And as individuals, we don't have a dedicated armorer on staff in the house. That right there is telling about police departments. There are production smart guns. No police department in the country uses them, even with dedicated gunsmiths and IT to support the implementation.

That is why making access control to the weapon OUTSIDE the firearm, is a prime solution. A safe. Very simple. Can be quick access. Interferes with the function of the firearm in no way whatsoever. It can also be mandated by law. D.C.'s overturned safe storage law was overturned because it went too far. It required not only the gun be secured, but it be secured in a non-functioning state. Action open, mag removed, ammo locked in a separate storage system. That's why it was overturned. I store loaded firearms in my quick-access safe. It is no impediment to self defense, but it keeps my six year old safe. If he takes up safe-cracking as a hobby, I'll probably notice.

The whole thing is also a little bit ignorant of previous engineering solutions that people have attempted to build into a gun to make it 'safer'. Like revolvers that had a 5lb trigger pull, that the manufacturer advertised (I think this would be in the 60's) showing children handling it, 'safe', because supposedly they would not be strong enough to pull the trigger. (They could.)

And worse than all that, this requires the sales of NEW guns to implement. It does nothing to safe the status or condition of existing firearms, and in fact, represents a new dimension of gun sales. Whereas a safe, and safe storage laws, and criminal negligence laws for those that fail to secure their weapons, applies directly to firearms of any age, technology or type.

This is not a difficult problem to solve, when you take political obstructionism out of the way. It does not require a new class of technology-enabled firearms to be sold on top of the hundreds of millions in circulation.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. An aside but

the kid has been pimping the video, and the same prototype mock-ups for a year now. No closer to production.

That was posted September of last year. Notice the prototype has not advanced one iota.

There are reasons some people post vaporware like this. None of them good reasons. (Edit: the kid/poster of the video to youtube, I don't actually question your motives. I doubt you were aware this has been around for a while, and that video is simply a spiffier version of the same video I linked.)

[1monster]

12. The video I posted was put on YouTube April 15, 2015. Am I supposed to go through

all the YouTubes to find if something has been posted before?

I found an interesting video about a kid who was trying to do something about the number of children being killed (often times by themselves or other children) every day by guns that can be fired by children.

To misquote a famous villian: I find the cynicism displayed on this thread most disturbing.

I haven't seen anything on this thread about this kid trying to do something that sounds like anything other than naysayers. Negative criticism without a hint of constructive advice is worthless.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Secure storage laws and prosecuting firearms incidents as criminal negligence will give

A lot more mileage against the Lanza's and situations when children gain access to a firearm.

For some reason, most people oppose prosecuting parents who leave a gun out, and a child is killed because 'the parents have suffered enough'. To hell with that noise. Felony. Criminal negligence. Already a handy dandy law on the books.

Safe storage targets children gaining access, criminal theft/misuse, etc.
Registration targets straw purchases.

That's a much bigger chunk than a high tech doodad built into a new gun, ignoring the 300+ million already in circulation.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. You DO know the NRA fights against locks for guns. Right?

[AtheistCrusader]

18. I do.

One of many reasons I don't join the NRA. Gun locks and safes solve a great number of deadly problems. Making firearm safes sales tax free is a futile gesture. Loss of a firearm into a Childs hands needs to be a criminal offense.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Hell, the NRA wants kids to have guns too.

[Damansarajaya]

31. Yes, and the NRA used to be in FAVOR of safe storage laws,

back when they were a sporting and education institution before they became paid political lobbyists for the "everyone needs to carry a gun all the time" nut-cases.

I'm a gun collector. I like the history and engineering the gun represents. You can learn a heckofalot about a country by studying its guns. But my guns are locked behind steel and unloaded. There's not going to be an accident at my house.

However, if I find a gun left in the men's room . . . heigh ho, it's mine now.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. You want some constructive advice?

Find someone willing to get licensed to become a firearms dealer, and have them sell one smart gun. That will trigger the New Jersey law the NRA hates.

[RBInMaine]

17. He's a high school kid. Maybe he needs more time.

Maybe he just needs more time. He has another life. Do you really know the WHOLE story?

"Pimping"?

My god, how hateful and shameful. This kid is obviously trying to do something positive, and here people are on DU cutting him down. That is just awful and shameful.

[AtheistCrusader]

20. I like solutions that work.

A national registry would work. It's proven to work. Only two crimes committed with NFA registered fully automatic weapons since the inception of the registry in 1937. Two. We don't go an hour without two non-NFA gun related deaths in this country.

Vaporware sucks. Let me know when he invents a spine for our politicians.

[Damansarajaya]

32. I tend to agree. Several simpler versions of this idea

are available, and they've never caught on.

The trouble is, people that carry weapons to protect themselves, rightly or wrongly, don't want anything that is going to foul up when they need it to fire.

I admire his attempt, but he might try experimenting with non-lethal protection devices. Microwave heat guns or something.

[RBInMaine]

15. Shame on you for calling this good kid a "liar."

First, maybe this kid didn't realize the full story about those guns and Lanza's experience with them. It was most likely just an honest mistake.

Next, perhaps this technology can be set up so that if you take a teenager to a range, you can deactive the sensor for those sessions, then reactivate it when the guns are in storage thus preventing the accidental shootings.

Think please.

[AtheistCrusader]

19. I dont buy that for a second.

Anyone with a passing interest in Sandy Hook should know full well how he acquired those guns and why.

Lockout times, and access restrictions are an innovation well beyond what he's talked about, and increases the likelihood of finding a bug or exploit in the system. All you have to do is defeat the real time clock, of the parental control. 300+ million guns in circulation. This solves nothing.

Calling it now; vaporware. And he most certain did lie.

[Darb]

23. You're right, he was a full fledged, well trained gun humper.

Law abiding right up until he killed a bunch of 7 year olds.

Where's your banana clip?

[AtheistCrusader]

25. He was.

His mother was a right-wing crank apparently too. What are the odds someone like her would replace or refit existing firearms with a smart trigger/safety system at all?

Encouraging people to use a safe, instead of piling them in a cardboard box by the bed, is a smaller hurdle.

[Damansarajaya]

30. Agreed. The way our legal system lets people store firearms is a joke.

You can keep a loaded 1911 Colt on your kitchen table, racked with the hammer back, if you want.

If anything happens, the worst you face is negligence, but most of the time, prosecutors let it go as an "accident."

[longship]

26. Obviously this is a new meaning to the word, "safe" nt

[Damansarajaya]

29. I like it, but we could do much the same thing with safe storage laws. nt