Anybody Can Fire This 'Locked' Smart Gun with $15 Worth of Magnets | Hacker News Reader

Anybody Can Fire This 'Locked' Smart Gun with $15 Worth of Magnets

wired.com

24 pointskevination11 comments

The range extension and lock circumvention is bad, but only weakens back to a regular handgun. The jamming is more scary to me as it makes the product actively worse than if it wasn't smart at all.

This is the fundamental problem with all 'smart' guns. Adding significant complexity to a system that needs to be as close to 100% reliable as possible is never going to be worth the effort, at least any time in the near future.

I could imagine some firearm owners being willing to trade 100% reliability to prevent a casual accident.

I imagine some firearm sales are for more recreational purposes.

This isn't any more likely to prevent negligent discharge than existing safeties.

Basic fire arms etiquette is to treat any firearm as loaded and ready to fire unless it's been explicitly cleared.

If you do not use guns for self defense then keeping them clear and keeping ammo separate is much easier and safer.

Any type of safety can fail and relying on it is just how you get some of these accidents.

Most of us aren't opposed to this technology existing; the problem is that New Jersey law will require all handguns sold there to incorporate this technology shortly after they're available for sale anywhere in the US. We're also concerned other jurisdictions will try to mandate this tech once it's more widely available.

The iP1, in particular, is also weird simply because it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. It's not a defensive handgun, the caliber is totally inadequate. But barely anybody uses a compact pistol like this for recreation.

The description makes it sound like if you are firing weak hand (or strong hand) you might be outside the range of the watch?

They say "just a few inches" which implies less than a foot. That's not going to work for law enforcement or anyone really.

Honestly sounds like they didn't think too hard about real world usage. That describes most handgun manufacturers though and isn't strictly limited to smart gun manufacturers.

The intention clearly seems to be for the watch to be worn on the same arm that you hold the gun with.

It's not safe to assume the arm that has the watch will be available to operate gun.

People practice one handed reloads and failure drills.

Even in competition you are regularly required to alternate no strong hand only and weak hand only so it isn't possible to put the watch on the right hand. Proper technique also has you anchoring the unused arm.

Anecdotal story: I have a friend who works for the Indiana State Police and was on the committee to procure new service pistols. In every category, the Springfield XD won. Problem was, it had a grip safety. ISP requirements dictate that no safeties could interfere with operation when needed, as they may have to fire in a compromising situation if in a struggle, for example. Not being able to firmly grip the pistol and engage the safety was a non-starter. When drawn, the firearm had to fire if the trigger was pulled every time. So Glock it was, which only has a trigger safety.

To be fair, you can build a working shotgun for less than that.

If you're doing all this bring your own gun.

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