Guns, IMHO, should stay strictly mechanical. When I point them and pull the trigger, they should go BANG! and not a quiet “click”. BANG! is good, click is failure. Not a great thing when time is of the essence and I need to defend myself or some other innocent. NO, I do not go looking for such an instance and nor do I want one coming towards me or mine. But if it happens, I want my self-defense to be rock solid, given that I can no longer put my right foot into your left ear while standing 6″ from you. THIS, happening to a high end Smart Rifle (costing more than most of us can afford for a car) is not “reliable” and proves that point that many of us who own and use guns have warned about for years (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Smart Rifles Are Designed to Perfect a Shooter’s Aim. But When Hackers Get Their Hands On Them…
Smart rifles, like the Tracking Point self-aiming rifle, are computerized firearms that allow even novice marksmen to — as the company’s website claims — “shoot better than the best shooters who ever lived.” The rifles accomplish this feat by allowing users to enter factors like temperature, wind speed and bullet weight via the scope. The shooter simply lines up their shot, presses a button on the stock to tag their target, and pulls the trigger. The rifle then activates the firing pin on its own, firing the bullet only when the shot is perfectly aligned. But in a video demonstration for Wired, security researchers Runa Sandvik and Michael Auger, her husband, proved they could hack into the system and cause serious havoc.
Using the rifle’s WiFi connection — which allows marksmen to review their shots via laptop or smart device — the pair was able to change the shooter-designated values and drastically alter the path of the bullet. They demonstrate this in the video by aiming at and tagging the target on the right only to have the round pass nearly dead center through the left target (pic on the top of the post, left side).
This means that a marksman wouldn’t even realize his system has been tampered with until after the shot has been fired.
Yeah, I know, everything is getting “smarter” (although I still haven’t figured out any REAL practical reason why my fridge needs to be smart other than to start screaming when its temperature won’t stay cold or freezing) but as we see now that our cars are getting hacked, why would I want a firearm that needs to be rebooted – and don’t you already hate having to buy anti-virus software for just your PCs, not to say almost everything else pretty soon with the tsunami rush of the “Internet of Things”?
But this goes beyond dangerous – and shows the utter stupidity of the anti-gunners that society should only have guns that are smart. Yeah, right – what’s more dangerous than a gun that can’t shoot straight even in the hands of someone trained and has practiced to perfect that skill?
Or is this the point of all those civilian disarmament weirdos – to be able to do the slippery slide in demanding everyone can only have a Smart Gun only to smile broadly with “Oh, we can’t even trust Smart Guns – when we knock on the door, you WILL give us your arms”.
And then you all wonder why we believe it isn’t just about gun ownership but it IS about diminishing our natural Rights and the limits to Government enumerated by the Constitution. And thus, effectively ridding themselves of the Constitution.
(H/T: Independent Journal Review)
