3. The Danger of Giving Power to Control Freaks
Yet even if a smart gun owner is willing to sacrifice safety for a small sense of security, there is a third issue to consider, and it is the most troubling: the threat that, once smart gun technology becomes widespread, the government will mandate that all guns must be “smart.” This is not a conspiracy theory or even a simple academic exercise: it’s already the case in New Jersey.
This is a deeply concerning proposal. Not only would government-mandated smart gun technology make American firearms prohibitively expensive (thus denying the poor a valuable option for self-defense), but there is a chance the technology could be used against gun-owning Americans themselves. Criminals or mass shooters could theoretically scan a public area to determine who has a gun and thus whom to shoot first. They could also scan individual houses to see which contain firearms (thus giving the criminals advanced warning of the presence of a firearm) or who doesn’t (thus marking the house as an easy target).
Also, as the NRA itself confirmed, the iP1 features a “kill switch” that “[allows] it to be disabled by third parties.” Got that? Whoever owns an iP1 can have his handgun disabled remotely. Does that sound like a secure firearm to you?
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