THE Gun Thread

[Thumpalumpacus]

Since you acknowledge that no testing will be able to identify all dumbasses, what objection -- if any -- do you have for mandating smart guns going forward?

Several reasons.

1. I can' t see forcing people to rely on vaporware.
    " smart guns" that can discriminate a legitimate 
    firearm user do not exist - on a high enough.                    reliability. When you see police and military being issued such weapons then it will be a different story.

You wouldn't want to issue smart weapons to your soldiers anyway, because it would prevent a disarmed soldier from picking up a casualty's weapon and continue fighting. I can see your point about police.

2. Anything built in can be built out. Criminals and people with bad intent are always going to be able to do a work- around. As usual the gun legislation only affects the law abiding citizen - who is not the problem in the first place.

So making it more difficult for a stolen gun to be used illicitly should not be attempted because it may be hacked? Isn' this a perfect-the-enemy-of-the-better argument?

3. There are already more guns than people - in the USA. Anyone who wants a gun for ill intent will have no problem buying a "dumb gun". All you are doing is adding an unnecessary expense to new guns. 

True. I think with grandfather clauses we could take dumb guns off the streets in three generations or so. There is no immediate fix.

4. Many mass shooters bought firearms legally - shortly prior to the shooting. How would " smart gun" technology stop ANYONE from using a gun illegally if it is purchased for that purpose???

While mass shootings are obviously disturbing, the issue I'm thinking of is the fact that many "mundane" -- for lack of a better word -- violent crimes are committed with stolen weapons, and those murders far outnumber deaths in mass shootings.