Activist claims buybacks are about caring, not safety
Gun buybacks are annoying. For one thing, no one is buying anything back. They’re buying guns so they can be destroyed. That’s it.
Then there are the problems with the “no questions asked” policies that make it likely that some criminals will use such events as an opportunity to dispose of weapons that could tie them to various crimes.
Oh, and lest I forget, we have ample evidence that buybacks simply don’t work.
But for one activist, that doesn’t matter.
A member of the Hampton Roads Black Caucus in Virginia said it didn’t matter if gun buybacks were ineffective because they needed to show the community that they “care enough” to have a gun buyback.…
A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that gun buyback programs are ineffective for many reasons. Among participants from mostly low-crime areas, gift cards that are being offered aren’t enough of an incentive, and the weapons that are brought “tend to be older and less well-functioning than the average firearm.”
WVEC asked Jones to respond to the findings of the study.
“Regardless of what the statistics say, we want to put some attention and show that we care enough and make time to do the program,” Jones said.
Well, that’s it.
That’s the stupidest BS I’m likely to read today. Well done, Mr. Jones. I’m impressed. That’s a level of stupid I didn’t expect to see so relatively early in the day.
Shooting death of 26-year-old man in Birmingham ruled justifiable
The shooting death of a 26-year-old man earlier this week on Birmingham’s east side has been ruled justifiable.
Birmingham police on Friday announced no criminal charges will be filed in the Wednesday killing of Jonathan Earl Dancer.
East Precinct officers were dispatched at 11:40 a.m. to a report of a person shot at 6648 Division Avenue. When they arrived, they found Dancer suffering from at least one gunshot wound. Dancer was taken to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 12:26 p.m.
Police said the preliminary investigation suggests an altercation took place just before the shooting happened.
The shooter was detained for questioning and released. The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office deemed the deadly shooting was self-defense.
Birmingham has had 30 homicides so far this year. Of those, three have now been ruled justifiable.
Black Firearm Owners: Gun Control Hurts Our Communities
Jessica Luckett got her first gun at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and it opened her eyes to the various laws and policies governing legal firearms ownership.
She works remotely for a nonprofit and lives alone in a West Pullman townhouse on the southern tip of Chicago. She often visits family and friends in Englewood, a high-crime neighborhood on the South Side where she grew up.
For Illinois residents to own a gun, they must get a firearm owner’s identification card, which is a months-long process.
Then, to carry the gun outside the home for self-defense, a concealed carry license is needed, which Luckett acquired.
Yet, through friends at a women’s gun club, she learned that other states observe very different gun laws. Most don’t ask for a firearm owner’s identification card and some don’t even ask for a concealed carry license.
“Why do we have an amendment that says right to bear arms, yet all states are so different?” she asked. “The amendment is for the entire United States, it is not for one state or another.”
She also questions the push for various gun control measures at the federal, state, and local levels, often by lawmakers from her party, the Democrats.
“It is taking away our Second Amendment right to bear arms, and I believe we should be able to protect ourselves,” she said.
Like Luckett, many first-time black gun owners are on a similar discovery journey, looking more closely at the narratives and policies affecting their newly embraced Second Amendment rights, according to Philip Smith, president of the National African American Gun Association.
During the pandemic-era gun sales boom, 21 million sales-related background checks were conducted in 2020, according to an estimate by Firearm Industry and Trade Association.
African Americans and first-time gun buyers were the groups that registered the biggest jumps.
Der Grëtchënführër™ strikes again (as if this wasn’t expected)
Governor vetoes Theis bill protecting Second Amendment rights
Would have guaranteed issue of concealed pistol licenses during emergencies
LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Lana Theis’ legislation that would have ensured the issuance and renewal of concealed pistol licenses during declared emergencies was vetoed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday.
“This is a disappointing day for gun owners,” said Theis, R-Brighton. “The Second Amendment is clear that the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but that is exactly what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did today.
“People must be able to defend their life and property even, and especially, in times of emergency. State law is clear that county clerks shall issue concealed pistol licenses to those who are qualified, and my bill would have ensured that this essential service would continue regardless of any declared emergency.
“While I am disappointed with Whitmer’s veto, I cannot say that I am shocked. She has never supported gun owners and she likely never will. I hope responsible gun owners will continue their efforts to protect this right. I certainly will.”
Theis fielded numerous complaints throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that county clerks across the state refused or delayed issuing or renewing concealed pistol licenses, infringing on law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
Senate Bill 11 would have required county clerks to continue to issue and renew concealed pistol licenses regardless of any shutdown issued by executive order or public health order. County clerks and law enforcement would have also been required to continue providing the fingerprinting services necessary to obtain a new concealed pistol license.
Additionally, the bill would have enabled the Michigan State Police to provide personal identification numbers to concealed pistol license holders, so they may renew their licenses online during any declared emergency.
It would be an easy conversion, you don’t have to ask how I know.
US Army Seeks a M240 6.8mm Conversion Kit
The US Army has released a sources sought notice for a 6.8mm conversion kit for the M240B and M240L machine guns. The kit will convert the weapons from 7.62x51mm to the 6.8mm round which wins the Next Generation Squad Weapon program. The move is essentially market research to find vendors who might be capable of providing kits that include all necessary parts to convert the 7.62x51mm M240s to the new round. This might include barrels, gas systems, action springs and bolt assembly parts.
The US Army’s Army Contracting Command, based at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey is conducting the sources sought notice on behalf of the Project Manager Soldier Lethality (PMSL). The short description of the capability sought states that “the durability, reliability, and function of the M240 weapon platform cannot be significantly compromised with a change in ammunition.” There is no mention of the type of ammunition be it SIG Sauer’s hybrid metal cased round or True Velocity’s polymer cased round. The notice states, in capitals: “A TECHNICAL DATA PACKAGE (TDP) WILL NOT BE PROVIDED IN SUPPORT OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.”
US Army Contracting Command state that:
The conversion kit should include all hardware and instructions needed to modify a standard M240B and/or M240L to fire the 6.8mm ammunition. This will include a new barrel assembly and may include changes to the weapon powering through updates to the gas regulator, drive spring, or other means. The barrel assembly may be either of the standard barrel length (M240B) or short barrel (M240L). Information on 6.8mm ammunition type, specifications, and availability should be provided.
M240B in TV 6.8mm (True Velocity)
We do know that True Velocity have demonstrated a capability to convert legacy weapon systems to chamber their 6.8mm TV round. Back in June 2021, they announced that they had successfully converted M40s, M134 Miniguns and the M110 and Knights Armament LAMG to chamber the 6.8mm round.
The notice was launched on 15 March and runs through until the end of the month. Vendors submitting to the notice have been asked to provide information on their ability to scale up manufacturing and production of kits to higher quantities but the notice shouldn’t be considered a request for proposal.
US military aircraft crashes in Norway with 4 on board
A U.S. military plane carrying four people crashed in northern Norway on Friday. Officials said they found “no signs of life” after reaching the crash site hours later.
The U.S. Marines confirmed the crash in a statement on Twitter early Friday evening.
We can confirm an incident has occurred involving a Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey aircraft.
The aircraft was conducting training in Norway as part of Exercise COLD RESPONSE 22 at the time of the incident.
— U.S. Marines (@USMC) March 18, 2022
With all the smuggled fentanyl being confiscated, I’d think an OD with that would work just fine.
- South Carolina is set to use firing squads to carry out executions
- The state put a halt on the process when it could only provide deaths by the electric chair last year, which death row inmates rejected as their only choice
- The Corrections Department has spent $53,600 to upgrade its capital punishment facility to accommodate death by firing squad
- Experts have said the method is humane and kills instantly, with the last such execution taking place in Utah in 2010
- Two death row inmates in Oklahoma had asked for death by firing squad over lethal injection, but their plea was rejected by a US District Court judge
- Inmates Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens are expected to be the first to be given the choice between death by electrocution or firing squad in South Carolina
Edmonton ‘Mass Shooting’ Sees 60 or 70 Shots Fired, One Dead, Six Wounded
Mohamod Mohamod, 22 years old, and Said Ibrahim, 23 years old, were both later found, arrested and charged with first-degree murder, as well as multiple counts of discharging a firearm with the intent to endanger life.
The third suspect has been positively identified as Said Osman, 27 years old. Police are conducting a “Canada-wide” search for Osman, who is wanted for the same crimes as the other two suspects.
Two people have been charged and police are combing the country for a third suspect after dozens of rounds were fired outside a lounge in North Edmonton at around 2:45am on Saturday.
Seven people were wounded by the bullets at the time, and one of them, since identified as Imbert George, 28 years old, has since died in hospital of his multiple injuries. Two of of the other victims are still in serious condition, and continue to be treated in hospital.
The incident occured just outside of the Ertale Lounge in the vicinity of 124th Street and 118th Avenue, and local authorities suspect that gang-related activities and issues may have had something to do with the shooting.
Police Chief Dale McFee commented during an audio interview the following day that “There [were] approximately 60 or 70 shots fired at a crowd.”
“The video, obviously, is evidence so I can’t show it, but it’s horrific,” continued an obviously shaken McFee.
You gotta hand it to a guy who convinces Democrats to die on the hill of defending perverted groomers talking about sex with little school kids. It’s on-brand for their fellow travelers at The Lincoln Project, but you would think that Democrats actually want to win elections. But no – they want to make the schools safe for pedos, and they don’t care who knows it. But they’ll care plenty in November when parents around the country come out and vote for The Party of Not Hitting on Der Kinder.
Donald Trump has his record of achievement – economic success and peace abroad. But Ron DeSantis has the DeSantis Doctrine, sort of like the Monroe Doctrine, except instead of keeping shady foreigners out of our hemisphere, the DeSantis Doctrine keeps woke fascists out of our lives.
It was DeSantis who started the fire that burned the pyre of Democrat hopes and dreams they jumped onto in their campaign against the Florida anti-grooming statute. But that’s only his latest fight with the elite. DeSantis has been laying down the law in Florida, literally, and in a way even Donald Trump never did. At some level, Donald Trump still has some residual respect for the trappings of the elite. He’s impressed by name universities and huge corporations, and for all his much-justified complaining, he still cavorts with institutions that hate him, like the NYT. He’s not yet completely done with the institutions, but DeSantis is. DeSantis is all honey badger, laying waste and making the rubble bounce.
RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 17:
March 17, 5:30pm ET
Russian forces did not make any major advances and Ukrainian forces carried out several local counterattacks on March 17.[1] Russian forces made little territorial progress and continued to deploy reserve elements—including from the 1st Guards Tank Army and 810th Naval Infantry Brigade—in small force packets that are unlikely to prove decisive. Russian forces continue to suffer heavy casualties around Kharkiv, and Russian attempts to bypass the city of Izyum are unlikely to succeed. Russian forces continued assaults on Mariupol on March 17 but did not conduct any other successful advances from Crimea.
Key Takeaways
- Russian forces continue to make steady territorial gains around Mariupol and are increasingly targeting residential areas of the city.
- Ukrainian forces northwest of Kyiv launched several local counterattacks and inflicted heavy damage on Russian forces.
- Ukrainian forces repelled Russian operations around Kharkiv and reported killing a regimental commander.
- Ukrainian intelligence reports that Russia may have expended nearly its entire store of precision cruise missiles in the first twenty days of its invasion.
- Russian forces deployed unspecified reserve elements of the 1st Guards Tank Army and Baltic Fleet Naval Infantry to northeastern Ukraine on March 17.
- Russia may be parceling out elements of the reserve force that could conduct an amphibious operation along the Black Sea coast to support ongoing assaults on Mariupol, further reducing the likelihood of a Russian amphibious assault on Odesa.
- Ukrainian forces shot down 10 Russian aircraft—including five jets, three helicopters, and two UAVs—on March 16, and Ukrainian forces continue to successfully contest Russian air operations.
Russian forces face mounting difficulties replacing combat casualties and replacing expended munitions. The Ukrainian General Staff stated on March 17 that Russian forces will begin another wave of mobilization for the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DNR) 1st Army Corps on March 20.[2] Ukrainian intelligence continued to report Russian forces face difficulties manning both combat and support units and increasing desertion rates.[3] The General Staff further reported that Russian forces are increasingly using indiscriminate weapons against residential areas because they used almost their entire supply of “Kalibr” and “Iskander” cruise missiles in the first 20 days of the invasion.[4] It is unclear if the Ukrainian General Staff means Russian forces have used almost all precision munitions earmarked for the operation in Ukraine or almost all missiles in Russia’s total arsenal—though likely the former.
The Democrats Are Trying to Hide a Very Dirty Secret About Electric Cars
The Left views electric cars like the Rings of Power. It’s predictable but also pathetic. Driving electric cars saves the environment, says the left-wing drone. It emits next to nothing regarding carbon emissions, except that it does. Do liberals think we don’t know that this whole fad is a con game? Where do you think the energy that powers the batteries comes from? Fairies? Electric cars aren’t as efficient as gas-powered vehicles, but you pay more because…of feelings. Screw that. Green energy is a backdoor to communism from greenies who talk more about controlling the means of production than saving Mother Earth. Clean energy is a grift and political crony project aimed at giving fat cat donors tax breaks. Solyndra forever ruined this industry. I don’t care what anyone says, it’s all a long miserable exercise in subsidizing sub-par products.
Coal is what powers your electric car. Do liberals even know that? The very people who mock states like West Virginia don’t seem to know that these areas allow them to drive their precious, overpriced electric cars (via The Federalist):
To advance their climate agenda and deflect backlash about rising gas prices, Democrats are telling Americans that driving electric cars is for the greater good of the environment, fully knowing the charging stations for these cars are not fossil fuel free.
In reality, one of Tesla’s Supercharger stations was reported to get 13 percent of their energy from natural gas and 27 percent from coal. Power plants burn coal to generate electricity to power electric cars and emit a higher fossil fuel footprint than the left would care to admit.
While these vehicles may be falsely advertised, many who invest in these overpriced cars are able to avoid paying the currently outrageous gas prices. Still, Americans’ growing reliance on electric cars and the batteries they require will increase our dependence on countries such as China for materials.
“Chinese companies, particularly CATL, have secured vast supplies of the raw materials that go inside the batteries,” The New York Times reported in December. “That dominance has stirred fears in Washington that Detroit could someday be rendered obsolete, and that Beijing could control American driving in the 21st century the way that oil-producing nations sometimes could in the 20th.”
By increasing our use of electric cars, the United States will require more lithium batteries and will further rely on China to sustain our supply.
Well, isn’t that peachy. Liberals seem to have the yellow fever when it comes to China, or at least they’re a bit kinky when it comes to their wanting to be dominated by this country. Gas prices began to soar when Joe Biden took a hatchet to the Keystone Pipeline and our own oil and gas industry. That’s just a fact.
With the Ukraine war raging now, and sanctions being slapped on Russia for their invasion, the line the Biden White House is selling right now is ‘if you worried about $8/gallon for gas, you should buy a…$50k+ electric car.’ It’s almost too good to be true. You cannot make it up. The Democrats’ plan to ease gas price pain for a large swath of Americans is to force them to buy vehicles they can’t afford. A part of that is due to liberals being idiots. The other part is that it shows how the Democratic Party doesn’t know working people anymore. It’s all urban-based, rich, over-educated, and very white people making these snide remarks. The professional Left is the Democratic Party—and these people view those who drive pick-up trucks as neo-Nazis.
The dirty little secret is that a lot of fossil fuels are used to power the liberal delusions behind their electric car fetish. The Federalist did a great job sifting through the nonsense.
Law profs claim lack of gun control fueling “small arms race”
Generally speaking, I really love my job. I get to talk to interesting people, cover an issue that I’m passionate about, and can maybe even make a difference every once in awhile in terms of keeping bad laws off the books and putting good laws in place.
One of the few downsides, however, is having to subject myself to a lot of the dumb arguments made by the gun control lobby and their allies in the media and academia. The latest? A new paper by two law professors at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Houston who claim that a lack of gun control laws is fueling what they call a “small arms race” across the country.
On November 19, 2021, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of homicide charges stemming from his killing of two people—Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum—at a protest of police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse had armed himself and traveled to the protest, purportedly to defend Kenoshans’ property against looting.
The acquittal sparked substantial public outrage about the state of gun laws and about the legitimacy of the criminal justice system more generally.
In a similar case, Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan were charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. There, the defendants believed that Arbery was engaged in criminal activity and pursued him with a gun.
When Arbery took action to protect himself, Travis McMichael shot and killed him. Here too, many were concerned that an acquittal would lead to greater vigilantism. And while the jury ultimately convicted, Georgia law would have also allowed acquittal in a similar or even identical case.
Such cases have raised public concern that certain states’ gun-use and self-defense laws effectively invite malicious individuals—including vigilantes and white supremacists—to kill with impunity.
Funny how both the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse and the conviction of the McMichaels and William Bryan are both evidence of the need for more gun control laws, according to the professors. I’m particularly amused by the statement that Georgia law could have led to an acquittal, because that’s how the law works in virtually every criminal case that goes to trial. Juries have the option of finding defendants guilty or not guilty, and the fact that they choose between those verdicts based on the evidence presented isn’t in and of itself a sign that we need more or less laws.
ANALYSIS: The Real Problem with ‘Gun Violence’ is Media Bias
Reporting on the revival of a “controversial unit within the New York Police Department” to tackle increased violent crime by going after firearms, CNN headlined its story using an all-too-familiar term that has become firmly entrenched in the media’s lexicon: “gun violence.”
CNN’s headline was as subtle as a heart attack: “NYPD deploys Neighborhood Safety Teams to battle gun violence.”
A quick perusal of one day’s headlines from around the country found nearly a dozen stories all talking about “gun violence,” leaving one to conclude the problem with crime is guns, rather than criminals.
But at this point, what can one expect when the New York Times is finally acknowledging a probe of Hunter Biden, and that it had obtained emails “from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation?”
The New York Times is now the subject of a scathing critique by Michael Goodwin at the rival New York Post, which is all about media bias during the 2020 presidential election campaign. The content of those emails could have swung the election for Donald Trump, Goodwin suggests, but they were withheld from the American public by a “Big Government, Big Tech and Big Media cabal” determined to keep Trump from being re-elected.
Ammoland looked at Hunter Biden’s hard drive last November, focusing on excerpts from Joe Biden’s daily newsletter titled “Office of Vice President Joe Biden News Briefing,” published when the Delaware Democrat was no longer serving as vice president, and before he entered the 2020 campaign.
Then, as he is now, Joe Biden was no friend to the Second Amendment. He gets cover from the same media which has adopted the gun prohibition lobby’s vocabulary.
As noted recently at Liberty Park Press, “’Gun violence’ is a term created by the gun prohibition lobby (often incorrectly identified by the establishment media as ‘gun safety’ or ‘gun reform’ groups). The term, say Second Amendment activists, demonizes guns while essentially relegating other types of violence involving other weapons as somehow less significant.”
To combat this “gun violence,” anti-gunners want to ban so-called “assault rifles.” These are semi-auto sport-utility rifles, but they look “menacing” and they evidently frighten gun haters who have taken to calling them “weapons of war.”
But a look at the FBI Uniform Crime Report for any given year reveals more people are fatally beaten, bludgeoned or stabbed than people shot with rifles of any kind, or shotguns. While certainly true that firearms are used the most in homicides, one never reads about “knife violence” or “baseball bat violence,” while the victims are just as dead. News agencies don’t seem to get this. Long guns are used in a fraction of all homicides.
Whether or not you agree with the legality of marijuana, these businesses have a problem. The owners are almost unable to get business banking services, and thus business credit card services, which makes it a cash only business and a tempting target for thugs.
Suspected pot shop robber fatally shot in Covington
COVINGTON, Wash. — A suspected pot shop robber was fatally shot Thursday night in Covington.
King County sheriff’s deputies were called at about 8 p.m. to the 27600 block of Covington Way Southeast.
A witness told KIRO 7 that the suspected robber had put someone in a headlock in the parking lot.
The suspect then walked the person to the pot shop with a gun to their head, according to the witness.
KIRO 7 was also told that an armed worker at the pot shop confronted the suspect, stopping them from going in, which is when the worker shot the suspect in “self-defense.”
The investigation is ongoing.
Seems like some politicians are more concerned with ‘civility’ than doing their job of ‘securing rights’ of the people.
Wyoming Senate takes a stand on civility
At some point during the Wyoming Legislature’s just-completed budget session, one representative walked up to another and asked why his cohort had to be so mean.
Rep. Bob Wharff (R-Evanston) was on the receiving end of that question, posed by Rep. Cyrus Western (R-Big Horn), and he recollected the exchange to WyoFile. The representative from Evanston stood his ground.
“I told him, ‘The problem is, we are fighting a battle, we are at war,’” Wharff recalled. “These people are attacking our Second Amendment rights. If we don’t stand up and push back — and I honestly believe this — if we don’t defend our Second Amendment rights, all our other rights go out.”
What a prosecutor, not.
Justin Smith case dismissed
Craig man’s attempted murder trial does not go to jury after motion granted
A judge dismissed a case that included charges of attempted murder against a Craig man Wednesday.
Justin Smith, who had been accused in September of attempted murder of a man whom he was alleged to have stabbed, did not have his case proceed to trial after defense made a motion for dismissal, and judge Sandra Gardner granted the motion.
Smith is now free and clear of the charges.
A trial was scheduled for May 23, but the court dismissed the case ahead of the jury proceedings after Wednesday’s hearing.
Smith’s charge had stemmed from an incident in which police said he had stabbed a man who had entered the Craig house where Smith was living at the time. Police said he stabbed the man, who recovered from the wounds, three times. Smith contended he was acting in self defense.
In a phone interview with the Craig Press Thursday, Smith said that his alleged victim had entered his house with two other men at 1 a.m. without warning or invitation. Smith said he had pointed a gun at the men, but put the gun down at their urging. Smith said at that time one of the men picked up the gun and, menacing him, attempted to rob Smith. When Smith was going to a back room to get the money the man was instructing him to retrieve at gunpoint, Smith said he then turned suddenly and stabbed the man.
Smith, who was 31 at the time of the incident, turned himself into Moffat County Jail in mid-September, shortly after the incident. He was also charged at the time with Felony Menacing.
Had the case proceeded to trial and Smith been found guilty, he would have faced a possible maximum penalty of 32 years in the Department of Corrections.
Deadly shooting by Clarksville Pike, shooter claims self-defense
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — No charges are being placed currently after a deadly shooting of a man by a Clarksville Pike convenience store clerk on Thursday morning as detectives continie to investigate the clerk’s claim of self-defense.
The victim was identified as 23-year-old Cornell M. Evans of Memphis, according to Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
North Precinct officers were dispatched to a shooting call at the 7-eleven store on 3200 Clarksville PIke around 5: 30 a.m.
The clerk, 23-year-old Devyon Johnson, told detectives that Evans entered the store and went directly to the restroom, staying there for an unusual period of time.
This prompted Johnson asking him to leave. Johnson said Evans exited the bathroom in a furious state as he berated him and other employees.
After Evans was repeatedly asked to leave and left the store, Johnson walked to the front of the parking lot, trying to persuade Evans to leave the property.
While on a sidewalk in front of the business, Johnson said Evans approached him aggressively and took a fighting stance.
A physical fight began and Johnson said as he was being punched from behind, he drew a pistol and shot at Evans to protect himself.
Evans was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he died shortly after arrival.
Johnson provided a detailed statement to Homicide detectives and the case will be staffed with the District Attorney’s Office at the conclusion of the investigation.
DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE. SMART GUN TECH STILL NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME
By Larry Keane
There is a media blitz afoot, pitched by developers of authorized user recognition technology equipped firearms; what the media refers to as so-called, “smart guns.” Several of these companies herald that this is the year when they will finally bring their product to market. It might be a little premature to start popping corks, though.
Despite reports praising companies preparing to launch options for consumers, and polling showing Americans may be open to considering this concept, one critical question remains: Are buyers willing to risk their life on authorized user recognition technology?
So long as the answer from firearm purchasers remains “No,” retailers will not sacrifice shelf space for an unreliable product consumers don’t want to buy.
Prove It
Morning Consult released polling of Americans’ relative “acceptance” of “smart guns” and pitches a rather optimistic outlook.
“After decades of delays and controversy over smart guns, 2022 could be the year that the new weaponry is brought to market.”
The article reports Americans are “interested” in “smart” gun technology and “support the development” of the firearms. Less than half, 43 percent, of those surveyed say they are “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in personalized guns equipped with authorized-user technology, while more than half, 54 percent, aren’t. NSSF’s polling in 2019 showed that just five percent said they were inclined to purchase a so-called “smart gun” with 70 percent saying they still had concerns about reliability.
Firearms equipped with authorized-user technology involves adding electronics that in theory only allows a gun to be fired by a verified, authorized user after unlocked by using either a fingerprint, a pin code or through embedded field communication (RFID) connected to a smartphone or other Bluetooth device. Firearm owners know that guns must work as designed each and every time. There’s no room for failure. Adding in electronics to guns adds points of failure and could have horrific consequences for those who rely on them for self-defense.
LodeStar Works Inc., is one developer working to hit the market this year. President and CEO Gareth Glaser is hopeful. Glaser said, “It’s been around a long time now. Everybody uses one form or another of authentication technology on their smartphone.”
The problem for developers lies in the fact that support for “technology development” does not equate to, “I will buy a smart gun.” Not to mention a firearm is incomparable to an iPhone or Bluetooth speaker. Phones and guns are completely different products and equivocating them is beyond tone-deaf to the firearm market that has seen elevated sales largely driven by concerns for personal safety. If the facial or fingerprint recognition on your iPhone doesn’t recognize you, you’re inconvenienced. If your firearm doesn’t unlock in a time of need, you could be dead.
Failing Track Record
The hype for “The Year of the Smart Gun” began early. Leading up to SHOT Show® 2022 in Las Vegas, these new companies were pitching their products as the “hot” new thing.
“Exclusive: Smart guns finally arriving in U.S., seeking to shake up firearms market,” read a Reuters headline. “‘Smart Gun’ Companies Aim For 2022 Commercial Release,” said another. “Are ‘smart guns’ finally arriving in the U.S.? Here is what we know,” was the headline from The Deseret News. The article began, stating as fact, that “Smart guns…will finally become available to American consumers after decades of questions regarding reliability.”
The Reload was the most measured and accurate. “‘Smart Guns’ Come to the Industry’s Trade Show Amid Hype and Skepticism.”
The history of this technology is not one of success, including hacked and failing test runs. A demonstration by LodeStar prior to SHOT Show® 2022 failed too. A demonstration to show off the technology to shareholders shows an individual loading, chambering and clicking the fingerprint keypad on the side of the 9 mm handgun equipped with the authorized-user technology.
“Alright, ready? Everybody got ears? Alright. Two rounds coming,” he says before firing. Only one round successfully fired while the demonstrator is visibly seen and heard pulling the trigger multiple times for the remaining round before the video abruptly ends. That’s during a controlled test under ideal conditions and in front of the media.
1 I think Putin believed his own propaganda.
2 From this performance, it begs the question if the Russian military ever really was the threat we always believed it was, and spent so much time, effort and money on defending against it. Well, the military/industrial complex sure made a fortune.
BLUF:
Russia—whose economy before the invasion was about the size of Italy’s—may have spread its efforts too thinly and the modernization effort also appears to have been undermined by fraud and corruption, said analysts including Michael Clarke, a former director of the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank, and now associate director of the University of Exeter’s Strategy and Security Institute, citing estimates that some 25% of the invading force are conscripts.
Weapons systems haven’t performed well and commanders pretended they had capabilities that weren’t there, Mr. Clarke said. Of Russia’s effort to create a “large, modern army,” he said: “The part which is modern is not large, and the part which is large is not modern.”
How Russia’s Revamped Military Fumbled the Invasion of Ukraine
Moscow spent years upgrading its capabilities, only to see the armed forces fail their first major test, confounding earlier Western assessments and giving Ukraine a boost
For over a decade, Russia spent hundreds of billions of dollars restructuring its military into a smaller, better equipped and more-professional force that could face off against the West.
Three weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its first big test, the armed forces have floundered. Western intelligence estimated last week that 5,000 to 6,000 Russian troops had been killed, some of them poorly trained conscripts.
The dead included four Russian generals—one-fifth of the number estimated to be in Ukraine—along with other senior commanders, according to a Western official and Ukrainian military reports. The generals were close to the front lines, some Western officials said, a sign that lower ranks in forward units were likely unable to make decisions or fearful of advancing.
Russian troops turned to using open telephone and analog radios following the failure of encrypted communications systems, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has said, making them vulnerable to intercept or jamming. Russian officers were likely targeted after their positions were exposed by their use of open communications, Western military analysts said.
In the strategically located town of Voznesensk, Ukrainian forces comprising local volunteers and the professional military drove off an attack early this month, in one of the most comprehensive routs Russian forces have suffered since invading Ukraine.
Russia’s failings appear to trace to factors ranging from the Kremlin’s wrong assumptions about Ukrainian resistance to the use of poorly motivated conscript soldiers. They suggest that Russia and the West overestimated Moscow’s overhauls of its armed forces, which some military analysts say appear to have been undermined by graft and misreporting.
The military’s previous outings in staged maneuvers and smaller operations in Syria didn’t prepare it for a multipronged attack into a country with a military fiercely defending its homeland, said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, a nonprofit research organization based in Arlington, Va.
“The failures that we’re seeing now is them having to work with a larger force than they’ve ever employed in real combat conditions as opposed to an exercise,” he said. “These exercises that we’ve been shown over the years are very scripted events and closer to theater than anything else.”