How About That Smart Gun - Armatix iP1

The Armatix iP1 is a weapon designed by a German inventor.  It's a handgun controlled by proximity to a wristwatch.  If the gun is moved some distance from the wristwatch then it will no longer fire.

Cat thought I might be interested and I am.  The weapon has a whole lot of technology and even looks snazzy ... but it won't solve the problem.  Our enchantment with technology is leading at least one German inventor away from the actual problem.

The biggest immediate problem with the weapon is anyone stealing it will probably steal the watch as well.  Maybe you secure that at the same level as your weapons storage but that means now you need to secure weapons in one place and weapons control devices in some other place in your residence.  That would be so expensive and so much hassle that people wouldn't do it.

The biggest problem it doesn't solve is that the highest percentage of deaths by gun owners each year is from suicide.  This weapon wouldn't change that.

There are many criminal shootings resulting in death and the weapon won't stop those either.  Crimes of passion won't stop.

Most of all, these weapons are designed for a highly-rational gun owner and, as you've seen, a great many are rather less than that.  Irrational is someone who leaves an unsecured weapon around a kid and then the kid shoots himself with it.  Unless the weapon was under lock and key, the parent, in my view, is guilty of negligent homicide.

A potential hazard I see in this weapon is it could create a perception that a gun is 'safe' as it won't go off without the watch anyway.  Conceivably the weapon would increase the number of accidental deaths by reducing the perspective that every gun should always be regarded as loaded and ready to fire.

Cat may have been a bit disappointed at strong opposition to the weapon but that's my position and seeing it reinforces all the more to me the need for responsible gun ownership laws.  Trying to put responsibility into the weapons makes no sense to me when people are not buying them responsibly.

There are two hundred million guns in America and likely many more by now.  Is America really that dangerous that it takes so many guns to keep the streets safe.  I suspect not.