Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
One of California's largest firearm stores recently added a peculiar new gun to its shelves. It requires an accessory: a black waterproof watch.
The watch's primary purpose is not to provide accurate time, though it does. The watch makes the gun think. Electronic chips inside the gun and the watch communicate with each other. If the watch is within close reach of the gun, a light on the grip turns green. Fire away. No watch means no green light. The gun becomes a paperweight.
A dream of gun-control advocates for decades, the Armatix iP1 is the country's first smart gun. Its introduction is seen as a landmark in efforts to reduce gun violence, suicides and accidental shootings.
Proponents compare smart guns to automobile air bags — a transformative add-on that gun owners will demand. But gun rights advocates are already balking, wondering what happens if the technology fails just as an intruder breaks in.
James Mitchell, the "extremely pro-gun" owner of the Oak Tree Gun Club, north of Los Angeles, isn't one of the skeptics. His club's firearms shop is the only outlet in the country selling the iP1. "It could revolutionize the gun industry," Mitchell declared.
The implications of the iP1's introduction are potentially enormous, both politically and economically. (And culturally — the gun that reads James Bond's palm print in "Skyfall" is no longer a futuristic plot twist.)
Originally published (2/17/2014)