If you can’t go through it, then go around it.
When it comes to the elimination of your rights, the left has had to get creative since the Constitution is a pretty difficult document to overcome. For instance, the left can’t stop you from saying things that are inconvenient or challenging to them thanks to the First Amendment, but they can use its influence within big tech to stop you from being heard.
The same can be said about your Second Amendment rights. Leftist leaders would love to ban firearms and stop you from having access to the best means of defense against both bad guys and an overreaching government, a concept Democrats tend to salivate over.
So they go into the nitty-gritty details.
“Sure, you can have a gun, but you have to wait a few days after filling out unnecessary paperwork. Sure, you can buy a gun, but not this type of gun with that type of magazine. Sure, you can have a semi-automatic, but it can only hold so many bullets. Sure, you can keep a gun in your home, but the magazine and the firearm have to be in separate places, etc., etc.”
But another oncoming threat will come in the form of technological progression. Guns have been a pretty analog device since time immemorial, but with the digital age infecting everything, it was only a matter of time before “gun safety” went from being something responsible gun owners were educated and practiced with, to being something that is controlled by a computer.
The “smart gun” isn’t a new concept, but it is one that gripped the imagination of many and is now coming to full fruition. According to the New York Post, two smart gun companies are ready to roll out their first models in the very near future:
Four-year-old LodeStar Works on Friday unveiled its 9mm smart handgun for shareholders and investors in Boise, Idaho. And a Kansas company, SmartGunz LLC, says law enforcement agents are beta testing its product, a similar but simpler model.
Both companies hope to have a product commercially available this year.
The concept behind a “smart gun” is simple. The gun can read the fingerprints and palm patterns of a gun owner, only allowing the gun to fire when being gripped by its owner.
The concept sounds like a great idea, but when you step back and consider the drawbacks for a moment, it becomes a gun rights nightmare.
Firstly, the unreliability of technology would be a major factor. Anybody who ever used an iPhone thumbprint scanner and had it fail because the scanner was smudged understands that this is probably a horrible concept for a gun. In an emergency situation, you need access to your gun quickly, and should the fingerprint reader have a hard time seeing your thumbprint for one reason or another, your best means of self-defense effectively becomes a paperweight. Throwing the entire gun at them becomes more useful than the gun itself.
But it gets worse than just malfunctioning mechanics.
As highlighted by the Post, finding ways to jam or fire the gun without the owner’s fingerprints isn’t that hard:
In 2014, German company Armatix put a smart .22 caliber pistol on the market, but it was pulled from stores after hackers discovered a way to remotely jam the gun’s radio signals and, using magnets, fire the gun when it should have been locked.
This little factoid opens the door for some questions that need to be asked.
For instance, if it’s that easy to jam the gun via radio signals, who can utilize that kind of knowledge to effectively disarm you? Robbers and assaulters? Government officials? Both could take your gun away without ever taking your gun away.
“Sure, you can have a gun, but we can turn it off whenever we feel the need to.”
This isn’t just a domestic issue. Disarming the populace would be very easy for foreign entities looking to cause some serious damage. A terrorist attack would be even more successful if we can’t fight back simply by turning our ability to operate our guns off.
The solution to this is relatively easy. Just don’t buy a smart gun. However, the issue becomes complicated when you realize that no one is more enthusiastic about these guns than the government is. As detailed by the Post, government entities have already attempted to mandate the sale of these guns in various areas:
Guns coming to market could trigger a 2019 New Jersey law requiring all gun shops in the state to offer smart guns after they become available. The 2019 law replaced a 2002 law that would have banned the sale of any handgun except smart guns.
“The other side tipped their hand because they used smart guns to ban everything that’s not a smart gun,” said Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs. “It woke gun owners up.”
The truth is, smart guns are just the elimination of your right to bear arms with extra steps. Resistance to the smart gun is just a smart idea.
