From The Washington Post comes news of a new “smart gun” that shoots killer bullets, same as ordinary pistols, but that is all but useless in the hands of anyone who might try to steal one for nefarious purposes. For that matter it’s also nearly harmless in the hands of toddlers who play with a parent’s gun and by accident off a young sibling.
The three year old who fiddles with Dad’s gun and accidentally shoots her little brother? Won’t likely happen with the Armatix iP1, as the new smart weapon is called.
Nor will a dead toddler case like this happen. Or like this one. Or like a whole bunch of cases that seem to occur with alarming regularity in our life-cherishing nation.
The reason? The new Armatix smart gun “can be personalized so it only fires if the gun’s rightful owner is wearing a special watch connected wirelessly to the weapon,” reports the Washington Post.
The gun lobby folks are fuming. Gunsmoke is coming out of their ears. They’re frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs. It’s a wonder their heads don’t explode! The nerve – the unmitigated, unpatriotic, un-American (well, the gun was invented in Germany), and maybe even un-Constitutional nerve of the furriner who’s peddling that subversive piece of evil.
Little wonder the Gun Nuts of America, or whatever they’re called, organized an enraged boycott of a gun store that dared to offer the weapon for sale.
Little wonder, in fact, that they didn’t converge on the store with pitchforks raised and guns blazing, and blow the place to kingdom come. (Well, since the store backed off and decided to stop selling the gun after all, I guess the gun crazies won’t have to shoot the proprietor and clerks to death this time.)
Also little wonder, the news has resulted in thoughtful, logical, completely balanced expressions of alarm about the gun’s inventor, Eric Mauch and his evil weapon, which was no doubt ejaculated by Satan during perverted sex with a liberal.
“I love Ernst, and his contributions to firearms are incredible,” said Jim Schatz, a gun industry consultant who worked for Mauch at Heckler & Koch. “But he doesn’t understand that the anti-gunners will use this to infringe on a constitutional right. They don’t have a Second Amendment in Germany.”
I mean yeah, I know this thought is getting old already, but while right wing folks want to preserve fetuses in the womb, once they’re born – hell, they should enjoy the God-given right to get blasted into smithereens by their siblings, because The Sacred Right To Bear Arms, and of course, also because Freedom.
Aren't you familiar with the Second Amendment, young man? Well then, let me read it to you: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, that their toddlers might accidentally kill themselves or someone else with, shall not be infringed."
ReplyDeleteFEEDOM, bitchez!!1!!1!
They are really worried about safe guns--not because it has anything to do with the second amendment but because of liability issues. If you could have bought a safer gun, which would have prevented a negligent homicide by a toddler or a crazy person--it isn't going to be long before the insurance companies and the victims of your negligence are going to come after you. Once people who own "unsafe" guns can't get homeowners insurance or insurance for their guns (which are expensive items in and of themselves) its going to be all over for the gun industry. Guns are guns--but money is money.
ReplyDeleteIs that it, aimai? That at least makes sense, because I can't think of any other possible reason to oppose such a thing.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's like seat belts. But why such virulent hatred?
Because hate is all they have. Let's not forget the visceral hatred of bicycle fucking lanes.
DeleteThey hate this "Smart Gun" because they don't want a gun around that's smarter than they are.
ReplyDeleteI think aimai has (as usual) nailed it. I suspect (refuse to go check out pro-gun sites to confirm it) that another line of argument runs: (1) safer guns enter the stream of commerce; (2) evil oppressive government then outlaws all nonsafer guns; (3) here come the black helicopters!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. How can people like that even exist? "How dare you interfere with my right to die in some utterly senseless accident or unintentionally supply a family member with a suicide weapon?"
ReplyDeleteAimai and Never Ben are totally right. There's another similar issue, of right wingers forbidding the NIH from studying gun death as a public health issue