Will You Still Like Guns When Guns Kill?

[regexcellent]

What if you don't want other people to own firearms?

[Guynemer]

And because it makes you feel like Chewbacca.

Or like Brock Samson.

[Uncle Sparky]

(continuing the hijack of my thread...with a bit of metal sacrilege)

[Uncle Sparky]

You're talking about turning a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic weapon (a crime in the US) as soon as someone completes a circuit of some sort? What's to stop someone from taking this technology, and a semi-automatic rifle, to a restaurant or other unprotected location, and turning your technology on to a crowd of unsuspecting people?

Sounds like a lot of extra effort when you can just pull the trigger with better control of the weapon. And I hope you aren't suggesting their are irresponsible gun owners out there! Shame on you!

Under my utopian vision, you can own all the guns you want - you will only be able to load them in restricted environments.

btw- None of my friends were in southern Russia in the last 24 hours...to the best of my knowledge.

[SlowwHand]

What if you don't want other people to own firearms?

Let's say you decided you want a particular person for your mate. Does that mean that all others should make that same choice? You choose for you, not for me.

[regexcellent]

I agree with you on gun control, I'm just saying that your argument that he gets to choose whether he owns guns is silly.

[SlowwHand]

How so? Who else decides? To paraphrase a famous quote, if not him, who? If the individual doesn't get the choice, I'm against it.

[Sava]

There are instruments that can detect the presence of gun-sized ferrous objects, from say the distance of a squad car to the sidewalk. The NYPD has tested such devices.

Using something like that in an active scanning mode could work as a detector. In concert with some sort of laser or microwave weapon, I'm sure the metal device can be targeted and heated to the point of failure. Whether or not this would result in discharge of a firearm would be a matter of testing and calibration. But you could certainly cause many of the parts to melt or be destroyed, rendering the gun useless.

Unfortunately, this would be cost prohibitive. If you gave me enough money and a team of handy people, I could build one.

There are a few legal issues to worry about... destruction of private property, for instance. You'd also place the individual carrying the weapon in considerable danger, I would imagine.

It's certainly possible... and not just theoretically. Electronics hobbyists have built more complicated machines. Those kinds of lasers are expensive and probably not available to the general public.

Detection is the biggest issue. Targeting is simple. Once you have the equipment, assembly isn't an issue. I'm not sure how portable the device would be. I'm sure it could be mounted on a vehicle... certainly by the entrance of a building.

[SlowwHand]

Of course, I can see the need for background checks. Thank you, Sava, for that sterling illustration.

[Docfeelgood]

Won't work if no bullet is in the chamber

[SlowwHand]

Excellent point.

[kentonio]

I misunderstood the op, and thought the idea was to cause the bullets to explode rather than fire. That would be more effective.

[SlowwHand]

Attempts to read, without the reasonable expectation of comprehension, should cause the screen to explode. That would be the most effective.

[Felch]

Or like Brock Samson.

Can't I just be Gary? Or wait no, The Viceroy!

[Sava]

It would be difficult to target the system for the purpose of discharging a round.

I'm envisioning this:

but smaller.

You would just have to reconfigure the targeting system to detect a concealed firearm. I'm not sure an IR camera would be best. I'm having trouble locating information on the metal detector the NYPD was testing for locating concealed weapons. I'm pretty sure it exists.

Marry the two devices. Calibrate. Test.

That's the best you will get.

It is very likely that this system would kill the individual. It would be difficult to get enough heat on the gun without causing the person carrying it harm. So it's not very practical.

Also, I don't think Americans would feel comfortable with robot laser cannons at schools and such.