Last week, we lambasted reports of a new “smart gun” that Reuters raved about in a glowing “exclusive.” Reuters reporter Daniel Trotta wrote that the third-generation prototype fired “without issue” during a live-fire demonstration for investors and the media.
Now though, additional footage of the event has since surfaced that shows the LodeStar Works gun couldn’t manage to fire two rounds without an issue during one of the exercises.
Whoops.
Maybe Daniel Trotta apparently misremembered what happened at the event when he wrote this in the original story:
A range officer fired the weapon, a third-generation prototype, in its different settings without issue.
Perhaps he ducked out to use the restroom during some of the live-fire demonstration. Or maybe Reuters used some creative editing in their video (not embeddable) from their report to conceal the reliability issue the gun revealed at the event. After all, the mainstream media are big cheerleaders for the pro-gun control narrative.
Here’s another recording that is embeddable from a local TV reporter. It shows the LodeStar not-so-smart gun can’t even fire two rounds back-to-back.
During a demonstration to share holders last week, the operator clicks the key pad on the side of the 9mm smart gun. Once unlocked, the smart gun is operable. @Lodestarguns @6abc https://t.co/gVzML0sARg pic.twitter.com/c8O8zNbp6i
— Christie Ileto (@Christie_Ileto) January 18, 2022
In the Christie Ileto video from 6ABC, the range officer says he’s going to fire two rounds. The first round breaks as expected. Then the RO presses the trigger again and…nothing. And again. No bang. It had become a dead trigger after a single shot. Clearly, in this instance, LodeStar (didn’t) Works.
Imagine that’s you holding that LodeStar Works gun when you’re facing down a bad guy who’d just broken into your home. He has a big ol’ half-rusty butcher knife in his hand, ready to plunge it into someone you care about.
One more point from the Reuters story. Trotta wrote — in the second paragraph of the story — how law enforcement “agents” are beta-testing LodeStar’s gun.
Four-year-old LodeStar Works on Friday unveiled its 9mm smart handgun for shareholders and investors in Boise, Idaho. And a Kansas company, SmartGunz LLC, says law enforcement agents are beta testing its product, a similar but simpler model.
LodeStar Works didn’t say which “law enforcement agents” were conducting the testing, or at least that didn’t make it into the Reuters story. But in the video, it’s hard to miss the pistol the range officer chooses as his personal defensive sidearm.
The range officer didn’t have one of the LodeStar Works pistols on his hip. Instead, he packed a full-size conventional GLOCK with a +2 magazine extension.
That image speaks a thousand words for which gun the range officer trusts with his life.
Hey, TTAG –
Is there any truth Biden said this in his rambling speech yesterday?
“Biden said that FBI background checks do not stop illegal purchases and indicated that the answer is to take guns away and off streets.
“You can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street. Except that there’s too — there’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous,” Biden said.
“And it’s because of the failure of us to focus as hard as we should and as consistent as we should on gun purchases, gun sales, ghost guns, and a whole range of things that I’m trying to do,” he added.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/washington-secrets/gun-groups-brace-for-biden-shift-to-bans-confiscation?utm_campaign=article_rail&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=article_rail
Except that there’s too — there’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous…that stupid moves from Democrats have terrified people so much that record amounts of people stood in long lines to purchase guns,” Biden said.
This would have been a true statement.
He said the bit about buying guns off the street a few days ago in response to the Texas synagogue hostage situation that was definitely not antisemitism.
what he fails to address is WHY people are buying so many guns….
I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid concerning the Ukraine. NATO allowing the Ukraine to even talk abot joining will provoke war. Would we tolerate missiles in Mexico or Canada….or Cuba? No! I say we stay out of Russia’s AO. Not worth fighting over, not worth one drop of our soldiers blood.
Sorry, you said the ‘Biden” word and I was triggered. /sarc
back to topic
Then the Baltics, Poland, Germany…then the rest of the former ComBloc nations.
Right now there are no nuclear armed missiles in Ukraine which has a border to Austria, Czech Republic, etc. Ukraine gave up its ICBMs in exchange for a security pact which we can see will not be respected. After the blitzkrieg which will kill every person who fights and anyone in the path of the columns, Russia will place ICBM back into Ukraine, which again, touches many European countries. Once Poland,Hungary, Czech Republic, etc. see that nobody helps Ukraine (just like 1938) they will give up hope of fighting back and will surrender to the Russian invasion in a few years. Germany will be next (not just the eastern part this time).
Give all of the criminals one of these smart guns
To quote Commander Montgomery Scott: “The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.”
Good man, that Scotty.
Wanna buy my new hi-tech fire extinguisher, it puts out fire’s the same as the old fire extinguisher’s only its more complex and bound to fail?
How embarrassing. Back to drawing board, guys.
Mandate all LEOs and government agencies with armed personnel, at all levels, adopt smart guns first. Then, after a reasonable trial period (say, 15-20 years) I’d be willing to discuss a mandate that all new commercially manufactured, sold-at-retail guns are smart guns.
Until we have that kind of field test, no.
“…I’d be willing to discuss a mandate…”
Not me. Never. If someone WANTS a so-called smart gun, by all means they should feel free to get one. But be compelled to buy either that or nothing? No way. It doesn’t matter how good the technology gets: this is a choice free citizens should make for themselves, and its non-negotiable.
Not to mention, I notice that this technology will require one’s firearm to be connected to an app via internet and/or Bluetooth. I foresee a bleak future extrapolated directly from our risible social-media-driven present: where one’s self-defense can be #cancelled for posting wrong think on Facebook, where your gun spies on you, pushes advertisements and “prosocial” (woke, socialist) messaging to you, barely works because it’s chugging through some idiotic OS update, shuts itself off because its reached “end of life” and no more updates will be forthcoming, loses battery power because it’s away from a cell tower for too long, or disables itself based on some leftist-developed AI determination of appropriate time, place, and context for use.
No thanks.
Or the Sun decides to throw a EMP our way and electronics are worthless. Dumb guns are just smarter than smart guns.
Even after that, it’s still a hard nope-a-roni.
But I would LOVE to see the first “smart” gun that can fire at least five rounds in a row become mandatory for every government agency (federal, state, and local) that thinks it needs armed agents.
no one of Consequence,
“Then, after a reasonable trial period (say, 15-20 years)…”
I laughed out loud upon reading the “15-20 years”. Well played.
Kudos to you fine sir or ma’am.
Look on the bright side. Your assailant wont be able to use it against you after your one and only shot fails to incapacitate the threat. Well, I guess he could beat you to death with it.
And if he doesn’t have your non-functioning “smart” gun, he’ll use something else, even fists and feet. That’s what the anti-gunners refuse to admit because they don’t acknowledge your right to use force against the bad guy to protect yourself.
“…he’ll use something else, even fists and feet. That’s what the anti-gunners refuse to admit…”
There are a vanishingly small number of drive-by stompings and fisticuffs, and no mass hand/feet massacres in schools.
The anti-gunners are not concerned about anyone being killed outside their experience of “good” people in “good” places, where there should never be a danger to life and/or limb.
….and now people are strapping themselves to poles and columns on subway platforms…yes, it’s come to that….
“….and now people are strapping themselves to poles and columns on subway platforms…”
And notice it’s not Trump supporters that attack the Asian folks… 🙁
No, but in both China and Japan where there is even much stricter firearms controls than here and consequently fewer shooting, although the yakuza don’t seem to have a problem obtaining firearms in Japan, there have been several school stabbings with the deaths of numerous young students. Indeed the weapon of choice in Japan the last few years has been a can of gasoline or Sarin gas.
A can of gasoline is not that popular yet in China, mainly, I think because gas stations are not as ubiquitous as in Japan and the US.
In the US the worst school massacre was with dynamite. And how many people died in the McMurrah office building blow-up with fertilizer and diesel fuel?
Unless your assailant has his own “dumb gun” that works … which is more likely.
Typical. Maybe they’re DUMMY loads for a dumb ass system.
Hey !
Settle down. All anyone needs is one round to scare away danger. If one round is not enough you shouldn’t be where you need a gun, in the first place.
I’d like to know what percentage of the population has fingers long enough to wrap around the grip and touch that sensor. I wear medium men’s gloves and my middle finger tip doesn’t even get halfway around the other side of the grip on a CZ-75. I haven’t touched a Glock in years, but I don’t think it was any smaller.
The sensor, uC, and battery would take up some space inside the grip, limiting the width of the magazines that can feed. So it makes up for its reduced reliability by holding less ammo. Smart indeed.
The best way to keep an unauthorized person from using a gun is to keep it locked up securely when not carrying it.
Oh no they made the slide square and blocky. Glock trademark suit incoming!
No infringement. They’re modified Glocks, as can be seen on the slide. This also means that all the non-functional garbage can be removed and a stock trigger put in.
Oh please, please, please, pretty please with sugar on top, make the Secret Service agents the first adopters.
“Imagine that’s you holding that LodeStar Works gun when you’re facing down a bad guy who’d just broken into your home.”
Well, if it saves just one thug’s life . . . .
Be interesting to know if the stoppage was due to a standard mechanical issue – failure to feed, failure to eject, etc. – or if it was a failure of the biometric device. Too bad the clip didn’t show the results of clearing the stoppage and trying again. Stoppages can happen with any firearm, even a Glock.
True, but even if it was a “standard mechanical issue”, that doesn’t mean it has nothing to do with it being a “smart gun”. Adding electronics and a locking mechanism necessarily impacts other design choices involving volume, weight, and price point, all of which can impact the “standard mechanical” function of the firearm.
Criminal: “I’m going to hurt you if you don’t give me all your money.”
Defender (drawing LodeStar ‘smart-gun’): “I don’t have any money, stay back or I’ll shoot”
Criminal (stopping and starting to turn away then asks): “Is that a ‘smart gun’?”
Defender: “Its smart enough to shoot you!”
Criminal: “Lets try this again, I’ll start ‘I’m going to hurt you if you don’t give me all your money.’ ” (then starts towards defender with a knife drawn)
Defender (with no other choice but to pull the trigger, pulls the trigger of his smart gun and…: ‘Click Click Click’
Criminal (while laughing): Stab Stab Stab
So smart gunm technology is perfected, now what happens to all the dumb gunms.
A law against owning one?
Grandfathered in?
What.
It would really be nice if the Supreme Court of The United States of America would dissect, study, and come to a conclusion on what the words Shall -Not- Be Infringed actually means.
nah, they know better then I and after all they’re appointed for life so they must be quite Supreme in a republic.
That’s also a valid-type question to those of us who still own internal combustion-powered vehicles if/when electric or wind powered ones become mandated.
They’ll probably want us to drive solar powered vehicles so we won’t be tempted to drive around after curfew.
$15 a gallon
Craig in IA,
Unless Democrats have totally overplayed their hands and fade into obscurity (hope springs eternal!), they will likely carry the day at a near future election and they WILL mandate electric vehicles. They . just . can’t . help . themselves.
When that happens, throngs of tree-huggers and Progressives will celebrate jubilantly and have sore hands from high-fiving each other. Then, in the next several months or years, the other shoe will drop and the public will learn first hand how bad that decision was.
I can modify my IC engine vehicles to run on ethanol, if need be.
Or, just run it on 100 low-lead at the airport for currently a little under 6 dollars a gallon…
Geoff PR,
Um, that might not be as doable as you think. First of all, ethanol rots away many fuel hoses so you would, in all likelihood, have to replace all your fuel lines with metal (or silicone-based?) fuel lines. (I have to wonder if pure ethanol would also rot away some gaskets somewhere?)
Second, your vehicle’s engine computer system might seriously balk if you try to run on pure ethanol. The computer system uses several sensors to reduce emissions and the sensors may give bad readings or the engine computer’s software may choke on unexpected sensor values.
My stepfather used to drive gas tankers. They mix the gas and ethanol in the tankers where oxygenated gas is required. When he needed to get his old VW to pass an emissions test, he’d bring a couple gas cans to work and fill the VW with pure ethanol. The inspectors would double check their equipment since the tailpipe emissions were so low.
Uncommon, not sure what vehicle Geoff drives, but many on the road today are flex-fuel, designed to run on regular unleaded E10 up to E85. A dose of pure ethanol now and then won’t hurt them. Also, in a flex vehicle, the data it gets from the sensors is used by the engine computer calculate how much fuel to inject for each firing cycle of a cylinder. You are correct that attempting to run E85 in an E10 vehicle often results at least in loss of power and runnability issues because ethanol has less chemical energy per volume than gasoline. Prolonged use has been known to damage fuel pumps, hoses, seals, etc. although I’ve not seen it. Even the so-called Unleaded 88 fuel can cause problems with some gasoline vehicles. We’ve pumped out a few tanks over the years, especially in the earlier days of E85 availability.
hawkeye,
Your entire post is truthful and mentions important points.
The bottom line: there is a lot of risk to running a vehicle on pure ethanol for several years if that vehicle was not explicitly designed to run on pure ethanol for several years.
Propane
and propane accessories.
…fires once, then quits? Guess that first shot better count!
Sounds like the old mis-punctuated description for “eating habits of pandas”:
Eats, shoots and leaves.
…and I like this line toward the end of the article:
“And a Kansas company, SmartGunz LLC, says law enforcement agents are beta testing its product, a similar but simpler model.”
“…similar but simpler model.” I guess that means one without all the whiz-bang eeeelectronics, and fully mechanical! *8)
Law enforcement beta testing in a town of 4,560
Good point, possum. “Ain’t had no failures to fire in 47 yars!”
I’d rather have a hammer and a nail. This is a SCAM. Smart guns equal gun control. The Siren’s song of gun prohibition can seduce many far too easily.
….not yet ready for prime time…
Also no significant improvement in function in the better part of 20 years. I remember hearing about this concept in the early 2000’s and the same issue of one or two shots and it locks up.
Lodestar sounds more like a name for a 900 number or an escort service.
Or International Haversters tractor trucks
Watch the video on Reuters 13 seconds in the gun CLEARLY stove pipes.
“The range officer didn’t have one of the LodeStar Works pistols on his hip. Instead, he packed a full-size conventional GLOCK with a +2 magazine extension. That image speaks a thousand words for which gun the range officer trusts with his life.”
Incorrect: that is not the range officer’s everyday carry gun. Rather, he found that Glock laying on the ground abandoned. Being a safety officer (and former Boy Scout) who always carries an empty Glock holster on his hip in case he ever comes across an abandoned Glock, he promptly scooped up that Glock for temporary safe storage in his holster.
No doubt.
Under the current standard, weapons in common use, these things are unconstitutional.
The “law enforcement agent” doing the beta test could be the inventor’s neighbor who works parking enforcement taking it to the range in his spare time.
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“LodeStar Works gun couldn’t manage to fire two rounds without an issue during one of the exercises”
“In the land of the expensive smart gun the man with the cheap hi-point is king.”
Aristotle…probably.
Sigh…remember the good old days when a smart gun was just a kit bash of an MG42 and some motorcycle parts?
“…couldn’t manage to fire two rounds without an issue…”
To employ that tired, old phrase one more time, this is a feature, not a bug. Gun controllers think we all shoot our handguns sideways and blow through full mags with abandon, like the gang-bangers they portray in the stupid movies they make. Pfui.
Hey, the “Lodestar” seems like a perfect firearm for MinorIQ and dacian the stupid!! At least that way they’d have trouble shooting themselves in the feet. Let’s take up a collection!!
When Lamp isn’t furiously posting his barely coherent drivel on TTAG, he’s chasing down random kids in his black panel van.
Oddly haven’t heard much from the lefty trolls that do the effort posting this week. Maybe at shot show I guess.
Hi, namelss, brainless troll!!
You took time away from your serial onanism to post a comment! I am impressed (not)!!
Seems like maybe the gun’s diet is a little light because the RO ate the rest of the gun’s food.
So, did Load(of sh!t)Star have a booth at Shot Show?
The pro 2nd-A attendees who understand complex electronics devices fail far more often then simple mechanical devices could have pointed at their handgun, then belly laughed in their faces. 🤣👉🤡!
Video? What video? I followed the link and there is just a marketing picture from Lodestar. Maybe I missed it. Not one of those tweeter followers.
When some Anti-gunner claims we should all have smart guns, ask them to introduce their head of security and make them display their smart gun. You will ALWAYS get some kind of excuse, because the technology does not work more often than not, much less work reliably in a stressful and dangerous situation wherein your life is at risk.
So until Bloomberg, Soros, Pelosi, Biden, etc display their protection details with nothing but ‘smart guns’ they should not be allowed to lie about the technology, much less try to force unreliable excessively expensive junk on us.
Honestly, I don’t get all the hate for smart guns.
I’m sure there’s a market for them. Police, for example. Anyone that might have their weapon picked up by someone else, really.
Assuming the bugs can be worked out, I wish them all the best for those people that would be interested. I bet my parents would pick one up.
“Honestly, I don’t get all the hate for smart guns. I’m sure there’s a market for them.”
It’s the “market for them” that is the problem. The market is the collection of states that mandate the prohibition of non-smart guns once a “smart gun” is made available for sale.
I lived on, managed, and put my all into that range southeast of Boise for 12 years. 1998 to 2010. Had I still been managing it I would never have allowed a so-called news film crew on site. They are never ever truthful. I also would never have allowed these LodeStar anti-gun out to make a buck hacks on site.
Smart guns for dumb criminals……
The smart guns probably have some kind of back door that let’s the government turn them off anytime. Gun control at an all new level
And dont y’all forget, just about anything with a chip or some electronics or a board etc could be rendered useless but something like an electro magnetic pulse or some other electo disturbance and Id be willing to bet that if these things were able to gain a foothold in the market that eventually, somehow some way some gadget would find its way into them that would easily allow someone somewhere in the back room to disable your firearm.
Look, the point is that this crap is simply a way to permit more control, control of you, me and everyone else. Yes, in theory its not a bad idea, what they say these things would allow, no unauthorized use by anyone unauthorized but they never stop where they say the goalppst is, they move it all the time. So, if you think this would be the end, think again.
Seriously. Does no one on this site speak English? Or are they just incapable of proofreading comments? It makes it hard to take you seriously on complex issues when basic sentence structure and subject-verb agreement are alien concepts.
I’m all for smart gun use, but I feel like a smart gun can be riskier as it will tend to break down and cause accidental firings.
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