Gun Store Owner Backs Down On Plan To Sell Smart Gun After Pro-Gun Activists Threaten To ? Him...
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stringer bell
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huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/maryland-smart-gun_n_5255104.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Dealer Backs Down On Plan To Sell Smart Gun After Pro-Gun Activists Threaten To ? Him
Maryland gun store owner Andy Raymond reversed his decision to sell the nation’s first smart gun on Thursday after receiving online death threats from gun-rights activists protesting the technological milestone as a encroachment on the Second Amendment.
Raymond, the co-owner of Engage Armament, had called the decision to sell the Armatix iP1 handgun a “really tough decision” after similar attacks against California’s Oak Tree Gun Club recently forced the store to back away from its association with the new smart gun.
As a safeguard against accidental shootings, the smart gun's safety mechanism uses electronic chips inside the handgun to transmit arming data to a radio frequency-enabled watch, without which the weapon cannot fire.
Opponents of the technology, who took to online forums and Engage Armament's Facebook page to protest Raymond's initial decision to carry the gun, view sales of the iP1 as a slippery slope to Maryland's implementation of smart gun legislation similar to that passed in New Jersey in 2002.
The Garden State's law mandates that all handguns sold in the state include personalized safety features within three years after the first smart gun is approved for sale in the United States.
Smart gun advocates view the technology’s potential to reduce suicides and accidental gun deaths as a momentous development in the battle against gun violence.
According to 2013 data from the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, guns in the home are 22 times more likely to be used in accidental shootings, homicides or suicide attempts than for self-defense.
Earlier in the week, Raymond told The Washington Post he was selling the smart gun because Maryland’s gun-control laws had “already essentially put us out of business.”
Although Raymond viewed gun advocates’ opposition to the smart gun as “the antithesis of everything that we pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment people should be,” he took to the store’s Facebook page Thursday night to apologize for his decision to sell the weapon.
“Maybe I got mislead about this. Its [sic] still my responsibility,” Raymond wrote. “I stood, I tried to stand on the ideal that we could get some fence sitters and anti gunners into our fold. Maybe Im either too young or too old to realize thats not sturdy enough [sic].”
Comments
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I don't understand what the problem with this smart gun is.
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Believes in the second amendment but will threaten people lives which is not only breaking the law but infringing on their business rights
And what do these honkies have against a safety on a gun and how does it infringe in the second amendment?
The logic of gun toting republicans is lost on me. -
Smart gun sounds pretty ? stupid...somebody breaks in my home and if I can't find that ? watch then I'm ? out of luck
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Smart gun sounds pretty ? stupid...somebody breaks in my home and if I can't find that ? watch then I'm ? out of luck
You can't just keep the watch on? I think a better argument would be the risk of malfunction.
But with these gun owners, my only guess is that they've got guns they wish to keep off the grid. Or that the government maybe able to turn off the gun completely if need be with their own device. -
Smart gun sounds pretty ? stupid...somebody breaks in my home and if I can't find that ? watch then I'm ? out of luck
You could always just not buy one. There's no need to threaten the guy that sells them (and also sells regular guns).
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Gun nuts love threatening people...but it's all about self-defense...riiiiiight
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These people are so far gone that they're actually threatening people that sell guns bc its not the type of gun they like
Think about that folks....theses loons need to be shutdown -
So let me see if im understanding this correctly. we have a group who is strongly antagonistic towards the banning of firearms. yet they are threatening to ? a gun store owner for attempting to sell a gun? am i missing something here?
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yeah, i know that shop (it's a nice shop) and i think selling this gun would make me not shop there in the future.
...but the guys making death threats over this are BEYOND out of line and completely undermine the gun rights groups by letting people paint gun owners as crazy psychos. it's about as ? stupid as it gets. it's ALSO stupid because the guy/shop in question are big Second Amendment guys who worked to stop Maryland's new ? law last year.
i also reserve a little displeasure for anti-gun guys who overly praise the product/the idea of shops selling it while, of course, being the kind of people who will never buy the product or support the shop. miss me with that ? , please.
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well, there's the issue with the gun itself ($1400 .22 pistol + $400 watch; unreliable, unproven technology) and there's the political issue that offering this gun for sale could kick off laws like NJ has that will mandate ONLY smart guns be sold after a certain time.I don't understand what the problem with this smart gun is.
if it was just "here's a product on the market, buy it if you want," no one would have an issue with it. what it represents is an idea that various states will use to force ? smart guns on those states' populations, and THAT is what has people up in arms (and in this case, out of line about it). -
both of these, plus other stuff i already stated.But with these gun owners, my only guess is that they've got guns they wish to keep off the grid. Or that the government maybe able to turn off the gun completely if need be with their own device.
every so often, you have guys saying "let's pass a law saying ALL guns must have this technology" or some nonsense about putting GPSes in all guns. people don't want to hear that ? .
plus the malfunctioning issue; my understanding is that this "watch" has such a short range that you couldn't even shoot the gun with your left hand if the watch was on your right arm.
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I think the point is preventing someone from shooting you with your own gun.Smart gun sounds pretty ? stupid...somebody breaks in my home and if I can't find that ? watch then I'm ? out of luck -
the argument for this "gun" goes a lot farther than thatunspoken_respect wrote: »
but if you're taking a not-guaranteed-to-work .22LR pistol as your self-defense weapon, ? , you might as well let someone shoot you with your own gun
