“I didn’t think this would be such a struggle. I thought this is such an issue, with massacres in the news so regularly, my idea was that people would be coming to me. So far I’ve found it’s a struggle to get funding.” – Head of TriggerSmart, Robert McNamara in Smart Gun Business Triggers Furor [at delawareonline.com]

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85 COMMENTS

  1. I know I’m being Captain Obvious here, but: maybe it’s because trigger locks and “smart guns” have absolutely nothing to do with criminals/insane people committing acts of evil?

    Also: I will never get a gun that would actively prevent its use by a family member in a moment of crisis or other time of need.

    If you want to prevent accidental deaths, work on smart staircases, smart cars, or smart hospitals.

    • Chip, a national speed limit of 25 MPH will save tens of *thousands* of lives each year.

      It’s not about the lives…

      • R. Crumb did a ZAP comic about making cars safer and saving lives… by making them out of meat! That makes as much sense as the Smart Gun BS, which will COST lives.

    • As the great Ron White once said, “They’re trying to tack on a solution that has nothing to do with the problem.”

    • Also, the “safe” zone idea only works if all guns in existence are smart guns using the same tech. That would require taking all “dumb” guns out of circulation and downgrading, replacing, or plain old confiscating them. After that, you can be sure that a murderer won’t get hold of an unmodified gun and yes I’m being sarcastic thanks.

  2. “I didn’t think this would be such a struggle. I thought this is such an issue, with massacres in the news so regularly, my idea was that people would be coming to me. So far I’ve found it’s a struggle to get funding.”

    The fact that he is unable to grasp *why* that is is nothing short of stunning.

    Fool, meet money. Not for long…

    • Beyond the idea of “smart guns” being inherently unworkable, this guy slapped together some parts in what, a weekend? A few days? A non-integrated solution is just plain lazy, and shows that the guy knows sweet FA about firearms. Let alone aesthetics.

      It’s the kid from the talent show that didn’t ‘have it’, but everyone has mollified for so long just to shut him up, he really thinks he’s gonna be a star.

  3. I don’t have a problem with smart guns per se. Unfortunately for the smart gun aspiring manufacturers, the anti gun crusaders and their politicians are sabotaging their chances because the anti gunners just can’t help themselves. The antis so badly want to impose a mandate that it basically kills any smart gun getting to market.

    If no mandate, ever or anywhere. I couldn’t care less if they are sold so long as I can buy a regular firearm since I am responsible enough that I don’t need to rely on such technology.

    There in lies the issues. The call for mandates from the antis is Pavlovian.

    • I agree. I have no issue with this technology being on the market. I have a serious issue with this technology being mandated.

      • There’s an age old parable about genies and bottles. Some technologies are too dangerous to be allowed to exist.

        • @Another Robert – you nailed it. I laugh when I hear anti gun call this evil. They are using the same ridiculous logic (or lack thereof) that Anti’s use when disparaging all firearms.

          There is nothing inherently bad with this technology. If it was allowed to succeed or fail in the marketplace, then fine. Good luck to you.

          Don

    • This is why this technology will not be developed in the USA. It will have to be developed in a country where firearm ownership is a privilege offered only to law enforcement and the politically connected.

      There’s a legitimate use for the technology in law enforcement since police are frequently wrestling with drunks, stoners and junkies, and it’s not nearly uncommon enough for them to be shot with their own gun. But tailoring a solution for law enforcement is pretty complicated. What’s the range on that ‘watch’? If it’s wide enough for an injured officer to use his weak hand there’s plenty of range for a bad guy to shoot the cop. You could narrow that down and wear 2 watches but then the cop still can’t make any attempt at taking his gun back or he might get shot. The cops only recourse is to run away. Not an ideal situation.

      For civilian self defense it needs to be programmable so that family members will have access to the weapon. Wearing the watch would flag a concealed carrier. Again the watch idea is problematic.

      Then to make the product marketable it needs to not only jump these hurdles but must have a proven track record. When every law enforcement agency in the country has been using these for a decade without a single mishap, I’ll buy one. But how do you get there in a free market? Their only hope is to get it mandated by the state. And it would have to be national, since there aren’t enough gun owners in New Jersey to make a profit. Try to pass this through the US congress? Good luck with that one. There’s simply no market for this product in this country.

      • “…wrestling with drunks, stoners and junkies…”

        Drunks? Sure. Junkies? Maybe if you’re keeping them from a fix, and they’re jonesing, ok. Stoners? Stoners?

        I’ve yet to hear the story from a cop of the blazed-out Rasta-wannabe doing anything other than hanging his head and protesting, mildly, “not cool man”. Then asking of they could drive through Jack In The Box on the way to the station. Stoners (not just kids who smoke here and there, but the honest-to-golly wake-n-bakers) are almost exclusively non-aggressive. Statistics tell there have to be a few out there, but I’ve never even heard a story about someone all ‘hopped-up on the devil weed’ trying to take out a copper with a 3 foot Graffix…

        Just sayin’…. Harrumph!

        • Just trying to be inclusive. Typically you’re right, stoners tend to be a mellow bunch. However, the real ‘Rastas’, the ones in Jamaica aren’t exactly cop friendly. Neither are the ones running cheap Mexican weed across the desert.

        • Oh yeah, the real Rastas are a nasty and violent bunch. The violence of Mexican weed runners is just driven by the violence inherent to smuggling a highly profitable prohibited product. Abandoned the futility of prohibition, problem solves itself. There’s still some moonshiners, but there hasn’t been a shootout over alcohol smuggling rights in a very long time…

        • There was that one guy a couple years ago who injected a whole marijuana and then ate some jogger’s face.

        • great point. stoners are PASSIVE. Ask any cop when the last time was when he got a call about a guy who punched his girlfriend or picked a fight while high on pot. Ha. Its too much effort.

      • “Wrestling with junkies”? Sounds like a TV show. You don’t need to wrestle with junkies. All they want is for you to help them up.

    • I beg to differ. I do not want this technology to exist period and here is why: he said that the government will be able to turn it off in “gun-free zones”. So what is stopping them from deploying this trigger blocking technology over a wide area during periods of unrest. I can no longer use my gun to protect my family and property? Clearly that violates the 2nd Amendment per the heller ruling. But they wont care.

      • Bypass the electronics. A gun will always be mechanical at its core. Strip the electronics out and revert the gun back.

        Its like microstamping…. Just buy a new barrel and firing pin.

        • No worries. You can always pass a law making it a felony to bypass or disable the “smart gun” disabling features. Because criminals will be sure to follow that law.

      • RFID based. Remove RFID from watch, bracelet, arm, whatever. Tape to side of grip. Wrap grip in aluminum foil. Your RFID will be recognized, the outside signal disabling your gun will not get through. Voila! Instant massacre where the other guns are “turned off”.

        This is nothing unusual for the one-note ‘inventor’ types. No think-through. Hell, the ad makes it sound like he needed to consult with a university or something other than ordering up all the RFID tools from Adafruit and DigiKey. Then working out a simple mechanical interface. It’s a DIY weekender or two, not some massive research project.

      • If the guns are turned off in “gun free zones” it’s a short step to turning guns off when police arrive at a house. Then there’s stopping a car on the road. All nice logical steps. Finally there’s places like Chicago that would make the entire city gun free.

      • I couldn’t agree more. This is a technology that needs to be nipped in the bud, Andy. If they CAN turn them all off, they WILL turn them all off, on that Big Day.

  4. Interesting. Going with a 9mm for police sales is a far smarter approach than the .22 effort. The downside to this is that even if the New Jersey mandate goes away, it will never stay gone.

    If they spend 20 years working out the bugs with police usage, who knows? I might consider one. I can’t imagine it right now, but never say never.

    • “Interesting. Going with a 9mm for police sales is a far smarter approach than the .22 effort.”

      It will backfire in spectacular fashion.

      The duty cops will *never* go for that. ANYTHING they perceive as unreliable will have them screaming to the press that the brass is putting their lives in danger.

      Remember, the LE ‘thing’ nowadays is that getting home safe to their families is their real “Job 1”.

      Especially when word gets out that they can be jammed.

      • The duty cops will *never* go for that. ANYTHING they perceive as unreliable will have them screaming to the press that the brass is putting their lives in danger.

        Good. That smart guns are unreliable, and would put my own life in danger at the very moment I most need the firearm to work without question or issue, is the same reason I will never buy one. It is a completely valid grievance for LEO as well.

  5. It’s like those tactical walls! Just hold the thingy up to the gun and it works.

    Seriously though, this is something that’s already been done. Not essentially with electronics but similar enough in concept.

    http://www.tarnhelm.com/magna-trigger/gun/safety/magna1.html

    There’s definite shortcomings but more than a few officers that are killed in the line of duty have the job done with their own sidearm. For the rest of us not quite as practical.

    • CITATION NEEDED

      Cops being shot with their own guns in the line of duty is incredibly rare (actually cops being shot period is incredibly rare.)

      • Using comparative numbers, around 70 police officers are feloniously killed in the line of duty each year:

        https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/leoka/2011/officers-feloniously-killed/officers-feloniously-killed

        Of those, about 90% are killed by firearms. And of those, about 10% have their own firearm used against them:

        http://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2013/fall/guns-kill-cops-statistics

        Working out the math, and accounting for variability of statistics, 5-10 police officers have their own firearm used against them in their shooting deaths each year. Given the number of LEO in the country, that works out to roughly one per hundred thousand.

        • Being a cop is safe. Safer than most jobs. Of the tiny percentage of coppers killed in the line of duty, it’s about 50/50 that it’s in a traffic accident.

          Killed with their own gun? A (tragic) statistical blip. I don’t blame them for worrying, but the odds are really long.

          I usually link to dry tables that have more granularity, but this one is mostly easy to read charts and graphs and colors. It shows the reality of how the people who die on the job, actually die.

          http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0012.pdf

        • Don’t doubt your statistics for a minute.

          But when you’re rolling around in the dirt with an aggressive, determined, amped up suspect- it does cross your mind. An example – Rolled on a domestic. Witnessed the male taking full, closed fist swings at the female. Opened the door, and immediately took a fist to the jaw. He was a double leg amputee, so his upper body strength was incredible. We are rolling on the floor as I tried to cuff him. The whole family is screaming at me, including the wife, who moments before had been begging me to save her life. I was extremely conscious of all the people behind me and their location relative to my gun butt. Scary stuff.

          May not happen often, but the possibility does weigh on your mind.

        • There’s two really dangerous parts of being a cop – domestics and being on the side of the road. Only guys I’ve know to take a bad hit or catch a round were at domestics. I wish I could remember where I had the breakout data on that, but of injuries/deaths on the job domestics are the lion’s share.

  6. 3:15, Wide Area Control through which the gun can be “remotely enabled or disabled in certain zones such as airports, schools, and public places.” No.

  7. Proof positive that aspiring entrepreneurs should HAVE A CLUE before investing themselves into an idea. These folks obviously know little to nothing about firearms, their function, purpose(s), and methods of use.

  9. We shoot hundreds of rounds through the guns we have for protection to make sure they are reliable in case we need them. They may be carried or stored for weeks, months or years without being used. How many people would want a gun that needs battery replacement to function and trust that the gun would function it the need arises. I don’t want to risk death because the battery in my gun was dead or because of an electronic malfunction. When many people depend or revolvers because they consider them more reliable than a newfangled semi-automatic, how many people would trust electronics. If the police used them, I suspect it would not take long for someone to come up with a jamming device.

  10. Maybe he should try that technology on fire extinguishers first?

    Wait. That would be just as stupid as using it on a gun. Nevermind.

    • “Maybe he should try that technology on fire extinguishers first?”

      Ever shot a charged ABC extinguisher that was out-of-date?

      It’s quite cool the ‘dance’ they make…

      🙂

      • All I know is, if I have a fire, I would rather have an out-of-date fire extinguisher than no fire extinguisher.

    • “Its called the free market , if no one is buying it’s because they don’t want your product.”

      For proof of that, look at the ObamaCare insurance exchanges that are now on the brink of collapsing…

    • We actually don’t know if anybody wants their product, though. Nobody is buying them because nobody is willing to risk the backlash by selling them. You can’t buy something that’s not for sale.

      There might actually be customers who want (so-called) smart guns, but New Jersey’s idiotic mandate and the reaction it has caused in the pro-2A community have completely interfered with actual “free market” dynamics in this case.

      • Stinkeye that is true. Investors see the backlash and don’t invest capital. But that’s free market at work, investors are looking at risk versus reward. They see a larger risk since stores that have stated they would carry it decided not to. The new Jersey mandate is part of that risk analysis. How many new jersey gun owners can and would buy it? Enough to offset the capital invested? Enough to make it profitable.

        Obamacare is a pyramid scam that doesn’t work because to many ill people sign up without a large enough base of healthy people to prop them up. Why do you think preexisting conditions used to either increase your premiums when you signed up for insurance or prevented you from getting it?. Unlike Obama insurance companies weren’t stupid.

      • “Nobody is buying them because nobody is willing to risk the backlash by selling them. You can’t buy something that’s not for sale.”

        That’s why I’m so surprised that Bloomberg et al didn’t open up a smartgun-only gun store.

        I fully expected them to open one, sell a few to trigger the NJ law, then close it.

  12. “I didn’t think..”

    Yeah, just stop there.

    Aside from the issues as to whether it would work or not, or anybody would want it, or whether it would save lives, breaking into an established business line can be very hard. The software and consumer-electronics /gadgets areas make it look easy but only because not much capital (relatively speaking) is required to release a world-changing product, and mass contracting services are already in place.

    For other areas, especially those with tight mechanical tolerances or those which have a life-safety or health-related concern, it’s much harder to get venture funding.

  13. Another misguided fool trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. As if the world isn’t already overstocked with such folk to begin with. FFS!

  14. He holds the gun funny.. anybody else notice he does the thumb cross over grip at the very end of the video? I’m surprised he didn’t get slide bite!

    • The funny grip is probably because he’s trying to hold his golf-ball-sized “key” on the gun to get it to work.

    • I was waiting for someone to mention his grip. It was as if he has never fired a pistol (or received any instruction).

      • He sounds Scottish, and the way he talked about trying to get it to the US market, I’m pretty sure it’s a good bet he’s never held a pistol before. What with all those countries banning handguns and all.

  15. What boggles me is the mind of an inventor. As with Mr. trigger fixer, I’m in the packaging equipment business and relay over the years I’ve met a few inventors. All had interesting ideas, some even patented them, however they failed in understanding both upstream and downstream effect their product would impose on the production process. What was worst was the industry would not explain why further development was not warranted. I had no reservations and told exactly what limited each invention. None were happy.

  16. A couple of times, the microchip in my car key just stopped working, so I wasn’t able to start my car. Luckily, I had a back up.

    So am I really going to trust my life to a battery powered micro-chip pistol? Do I “feel” that GFZ’s keep out gun carrying homicidal maniacs? Do I “feel” that wishful thinking keeps me safe? Am I a progressive?

    There you go.

  17. ‘The New Jersey mandate was cited in both protests, with fears that other states would follow, fundamentally altering the firearms industry. But now, New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D), the sponsor of the law, appears ready to remove the biggest obstacle in the marketplace.’

    This is the problem with people who place a (D) next to their names. They simply don’t understand free will. They don’t understand free markets. They don’t understand that people make decisions based on their own interests not the interests of their overlords. And this is what you get. They wanted to force smart guns on us by force and all they accomplished was to stifle the technology’s development. Smart guns, Obamacare, welfare, immigration, energy… their policies all suffer from an acute detachment from reality.

    • Yep. The really scary part is that they are representative of their constituents.

      People actually looked at the politicians stances and voted accordingly.

      The fact that Bernie Sanders has any traction as any thing other than a Communist, a traitor to the constitution and our unique american culture and freedoms is a testimony to how far down the hell hole of the communist “utopia” we have sunk.

  18. Its not just a bad idea, its also a trap set by the anti-guns.
    They know that criminals and maniacs often slip through their carefully constructed roadblocks. So when an incident happens with a system like this, they’ll just say the only thing left to do is to close the road.
    Fortunately they’ll have the keys to do so in hand.

    …And it still won’t solve anyone’s problems.

  19. One assumes that if RFID guns ever became popular, RFID signal jammers would immediately become standard equipment among criminals.

  22. Man that disconnect. That people scrambling for this technology are the same people who patently refuse to buy them. How is it that these people are so entirely disconnected from their market?

  23. The only smart I want on my gun is what’s between my ears. I don’t like the idea of even a 1 in a million failure, when I only have 1 life to defend and protect.

    RFI device systems are quite easy to jam. Don’t really want some junkie with a Radio Shack education to be able to disable my piece.

  24. Well after all, we’ll all be required to get RFID embedded in us pretty soon anyway. Right?

    • Hard to nail the time frame, but it’s only a matter of time. People have been experimenting with them on a personal basis (on themselves) for a few years that I know of. Wire up your car/motorcycle to not need keys, your house is programmed and knows where you are, I’ve seen lots of DIY done with RFIDS.

      Like cell phones, eventually they will all have GPS that the gov can ping at will. Everything for the last 5-ish years has if memory serves. You can’t turn it off, by law. There’s some legacy stuff still online, but eventually the upgrade beyond LTE will take them out.

      It’ll most likely be adopted by trendsetters for ‘convenience’. Then it will spread. Eventually like the SS number that was never supposed to be used as an identifier by anyone other that SSA, you will need an implant to do anything. Probably the excuse will be a terrorist incident, or some such. God knows we’d never use it to ferret out the illegals and send them packing.

  26. Notice how when they start talking about Police departments using it, suddenly it has to be effective, reliable and usable. The New Jersey law that specifically exempts law enforcement doesn’t say anything about it being effective, reliable and usable. I say never ever, ever make a law mandating smart guns. If it’s a good technology make cops use it and people seeing how much cops like it will buy them if they want to.

  27. Perhaps Mr. McNamara should should first convince the politicians in Ireland that because his RFID triggers make guns so safe, they should remove the country’s draconian laws against handguns.

  28. Is he making these yet for my kitchen knives, baseball bats, prescription medicines, and etc, etc…?

    Maybe just maybe the tool isn’t the problem and the RFID should go on the people, like a shock collar? You’re downstream of the problem son

  29. So, if I followed the video correctly, this is sort of an add-on product, which means it can be disabled or removed should a so-modified arm be stolen. Eventually, it could/would be built-into the firearm.
    Objectively speaking, this is a practical system.
    Objectionally speaking, it has some real issues he touts as “features”, which have been well enumerated in the comments above.
    I am not sure why anyone would put money into such a product when it would be so easy to spend a day or so researching the Internet and finding out what the numerous problems with the concept are. Isn’t that a basic function of entrepreneurial invention, namely, discerning that your “big idea” is workable and has a market?
    Maybe this gentleman can sell this idea somewhere in Europe. He should target market to ISL. THAT would be helpful, otherwise….Meh!…No Thanks.

  30. Federal gun laws replacing local laws….per White House: make smart guns mandatory as of a certain date (executive order), and the entire supply chain comes to a halt. Mandatory smart guns would not address the current stock owned by the public, but national legislation (or executive order, or agency regulation) that makes gun use for any reason (no self-defense exception, no hunting exception) a felony with mandatory sentencing neatly chokes the public’s ability to use their firearms. Other countries made exceptions to confiscation, but in the US, we do it large.

  31. Instead of having to disarm a cop by taking his gun, a criminal would be able to disarm a cop by taking or disabling his watch. Is that pretty much it?

  32. But but but there is already technology to render a gun inoperative. Taurus,Smith & Wesson and Styer all have simple key locks(and others). I guess it’s too low tech and EZ-and ya’ can’t make $ from it…

  34. There is nothing wrong or evil about smart gun technology. Left on its own, it would be simply another idea or feature on firearms that would either succeed or fail in the marketplace on its own merits.

    What is wrong and evil is states like CA and NJ triggering draconian gun control laws that wrongly requires all new guns to be “smart”.

    What we have here is an innocuous feature, one that in certain limited cases, could be beneficial, acting as the camel’s nose under the tent.

    The development of smart gun technology should represent ADDITIONAL choices for gun buyers. Unfortunately GOVERNMENT has screwed things up all again and made it so the development of smart guns represents a significant threat to the right to keep and bear arms to millions of Americans.

    So just like I always say to my anti-gun friends: DON’T BLAME THE GUN. Inanimate objects are neither evil nor good. Its what people choose to do with them that is either evil or good.

    Don

  35. There is nothing wrong or evil about smart gun technology. Left on its own, it would be simply another idea or feature on firearms that would either succeed or fail in the marketplace on its own merits.

    What is wrong and evil is states like CA and NJ triggering draconian gun control laws with the arrival of any smart guns, that wrongly requires all new guns to be “smart”.

    What we have here is an innocuous feature, one that in certain limited cases, could be beneficial, acting as the camel’s nose under the tent.

    The development of smart gun technology should represent ADDITIONAL choices for gun buyers. Unfortunately GOVERNMENT has screwed things up all again and made it so the development of smart guns represents a significant threat to the right to keep and bear arms to millions of Americans.

    So just like I always say to my anti-gun friends: DON’T BLAME THE GUN. Inanimate objects are neither evil nor good. Its what people choose to do with them that is either evil or good.

    Don

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