No Chip in Arm, No Shot From Gun

AP via Wired News ^ | Wednesday, April 14, 2004 | Associated Press

[Momaw Nadon]

PALM BEACH, Florida -- A new computer chip promises to keep police guns from firing if they fall into the wrong hands.

The tiny chip would be implanted in a police officer's hand and would match up with a scanning device inside a handgun. If the officer and gun match, a digital signal unlocks the trigger so it can be fired. But if a child or criminal would get hold of the gun, it would be useless.

[rmh47]

The chip in the arm technology already exists. It's called RFID for Radio Freqency IDentification.

I had one inserted in my dog. Any vet can do it; and almost all of the vets, humane societies, and animal control agencies have the scanners. The chip is a sealed glass vial slightly smaller than a grain of rice. It's injected with a slightly heavier than normal gage needle between the dog's shoulder blades. It only takes a few seconds to inject it.

Running the scanner over the dog's back displays a ten digit alpha-numeric number on the readout. You then call an 800 number to run the alpha-numeric in their database, which is cross referenced to the owner's data.

It cost about $50 for the chip, including putting it in the Molly Monster (my dog). Registering the number with the agency was another $12.50.

I recall reading that of cops who are shot, about 15% are shot with their own guns, so it is not a trivial problem. Of course if an officer is struggling with someone for possession of his gun, his arm is going to be close enough to the gun to activate the device.

And, yes, a gun is at heart a mechanical device. 15 minutes with a screwdriver and maybe a file will lobotomize a smart gun.

[Servant of the 9]

The chip in the arm technology already exists. It's called RFID for Radio Freqency IDentification.

I have them in my dogs too. The difference is that if a scanner doesn't get a good reading on a pet, they rescan them. If a pistol doesn't get a good scan on a cops chip, he dies when the pistol does not function.

So9

[MosesKnows]

The FBI estimated that 67 percent of the 16,204 murders in 2002 were committed with firearms

This is a little aside from the topic but exactly why would the FBI have to estimate the percentage?

[11Bush]

So, do I need 18 chips in my arm, one for each handgun that I own. How about my rifles? How about my blackpowder arms?

Better yet, how about these gun-haters just STFU?!

[Pikachu_Dad]

Now that's a good point. What is the range of the tagging device on the cops? Put reading devices all over the city and you can map the location of each cop.

"Hmmm, Fred is in the doughnut store again. Time to go rob the bank..."

No, we are not outthinking the problem. You can be assured that the bad guys will try every option from the brute force simple options to the high tech devious ones.

[2nd amendment mama]

Protect your guns

[El Laton Caliente]

The police do not even like side arms with safeties; that is why Glocks and Sigs are popular with LEO. What makes anyone think they would put up with this. Too many things that could go wrong.

I get visions of the LA bank robbery shootout with the cops having NO WORKING FIREARMS.

[supercat]

Given that police are probably at greater risk of 'weapon retention' failures than CCW holders in general, it would seem that they should get the greatest benefit from this sort of technology. Any many of the technical problems people have discussed could be worked out (e.g. using a long-enough encryption string that wrong-code lockouts would be unnecessary, and designing the implanted chip so that it wouldn't give any response whatsoever except to a transmission that was specially coded for the chip).

If the cops, who would get the greatest benefit from the technology, have to be exempted from it, that would suggest the technology really isn't very good.

[Nebr FAL owner]

Why go to all that trouble when you just by-pass the reader system built into the firearm in the first place. If need be using knowledge gained from machine tool technology classes to fabricate any small parts that would be needed to mechanically override the electronic safety.

[Nebr FAL owner]

The funny part is that the cops refuse to carry these guns ! the pro-gun rights crowd need to amend the law to REQUIRE the cops have to carry them since they were claiming that they were safer than ordinary firearms. Should make for some interesting times being able to ask the head of the state patrol when he goes to claim that his officers must NOT carry these firearms because they are unreliable & therefore unsafe if he was lying during his earlier testimony or is he lying now?

[Nebr FAL owner]

The way the law is written at present the cops DO NOT repeat DO NOT have to use the smart guns when they become available.

[Travis McGee]

They'll have to plant the chip in my dead body.

[Travis McGee]

The chip will merely activate a battery powered servo, which opens a mechanical linkage, permitting the gun to fire in the normal way.

Any self-respecting crook will be able to bypass this servo in five minutes or less, using common hand tools like screwdrivers and icepicks.

[Petronski]

Your post indicates that your 'tolerance' implant is malfunctioning. Please contact Party headquarters for instructions.

[Nebr FAL owner]

The way the New Jersey law is written the police are specifically exempt from the requirement to use the so-called smart guns this is for the sheep only the politicians aren't totally stupid pissing off the Praetorian guard of the political class is a good way to decrease your life expectancy .

[Nebr FAL owner]

The police in New Jersey are specifically exempt from the requirement of having to buy/carry the so called smart gun .If you really want to go back to school & learn machine tool technology {mill machines ,lathes ,welding } then do a web search for blueprints/machinist shop drawings of the STEN submachine gun. What you do then is up to you & it won't need the permission of the crooks in the state house or the political classes Praetorian Guard.

[dbwz]

But 100% of citizens in NJ will have no choice once its marketed. The law is already passed, waiting for the technology.

Which means anyone in the state who wants to purchase a new firearm will be undergoing a forced surgical procedure. The police are already exempt.

[steve-b]

It seems that guns are the only product that haven't followed a path of development that leads to greater safety for the user. The only real change we've seen is to make them more lethal and smaller so they can be more easily concealed

The more likely the gun is to send the thug to his eternal dirt nap, and the less warning the thug has that this is about to occur, the safer the law-abiding armed citizen is. Anyone, except a few imbeciles such as Mr. Wilcox, ought to understand that without even needing this explanation.

[adx]

The chip controlled thingy is (or will be) probably just some type of electric trigger lock or engagement piece. Just take the locking device out or permanently engage the linkage and you have a regular gun. No need to have the brainpower to crack a code and make a transmitter.

I wonder if they make solenoids small enough to fit in a firearm (slide assembly or frame) and powerful enough to actuate a firing pin? Even so, you can still get around those with the right driver.