Computer chip in your gun...

[jfountain2]

I was just wondering if a company was offering a small computer chip you could hide in your gun that would allow it to be gps tracked (like lojack for computers) in the event your gun was stolen, would you get the chip?

 

[PotatoJudge]

Not that I want my guns stolen, much less to fall into the hands of criminals, but tracking would pretty much defeat the purpose of owning guns as it pertains to the second ammendment. It'd be fine for personal defense, hunting, and recreational purposes, but come time to overthrow the government the chip would cripple any revolutionaries.

The only exceptions I might make would be heirlooms or antiques (assuming the gun didn't have to be altered). I wouldn't be opposed to the development of the technology though California would jump all over it the next legislative session (heck, they implement uninvented stuff).

 

[crashm1]

No thank you.

 

[Geno]

Riiiiight. First it's for theft. Then it's for enforcement. We already get tracked in such ways with cellular phone pings, and a host of "other". Hades no!

 

[MTMilitiaman]

Polymers and weapon lights are one thing, computers and electronics in the pistol are another.

No firearm I ever own will have a computer in it. The only brain any firearm I ever own will have is mine. The last thing I need is for my weapons to make decisions for me, or start thinking they are smarter than me.

While a voluntary GPS receiver implant is a little different, it falls in the same category for me, and receives the same skepticism.

 

[Picard]

That's just one extra step towards infringement of the 2nd Amendment. Give that idea to politicians and who knows what they'll do with it.

 

[Sato Ord]

No, partly because of the already stated reasons, but also, it would be a waist of time and money. Anything that you put into a gun to track it can be removed, unless you permanently alter the firearm. I figure the people that designed them knew what they were doing, I'm not in a position to mess with altering the weight, balance, and possible performance of a weapon my life might depend on.

 

[Albatross]

Computer have batteries, so do cell phones.

None of my guns have batteries. What's going to power this little gps unit?

 

[Biker]

Nope.

Biker

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

Uhh...No thank you.

I'll just keep mine locked up or on my person...With a log of all my firearms.

 

[jfountain2]

Computer have batteries, so do cell phones.

None of my guns have batteries. What's going to power this little gps unit?

I am sure they could find a way to power it.

For the record though I would not get one in my guns even though I have had one stolen before except if it was a very rare/expensive gun.
I was just wondering what others here thought of it.

 

[Gunnerpalace]

Nope,

 

[CWL]

It's a dumb idea. The only good thing about this is that it wold be impossible to implement. If you do not have a power source on the device itself, you will need a power source that would radiate enough energy for every chip in every weapon to be powered wirelessly, -and then you need receivers powerful enough to read every chip.

The entire world does not generate enough power to make this work (the ones you see operating RFIDs and badge readers nowadays have a very short range of typically a few inches) . Even if we could create this much energy, it would be enough to fry our brains and gonads from long-term exposure.

Then there would be simple methods to defeat this passive reader system.
1) remove the chip;
2) bury your guns;
3) mask the chip using foils & mylar.
4) if you know what to do, you can cancel or send out wrong emissions.

Let's just say that I've worked in smart card, smart token and RFID technologies for long enough to understand the weaknesses of them. Thankfully there are plenty of weaknesses.

 

[Silvanus]

IIRC I read somewhere that H&K gives LE agencies the option of a micro chip (in their new P30) to track down stolen guns.

Anyway, I wouldn't want one...

 

[pdowg881]

If it was possible I would want to make sure I was the only one that cold yrack it or read it. But that would never happen. So no.

 

[Cliff47]

I would say 'YES' only if I have the option of removing the chip, should I decide to sell the firearm or trade in on another at my local purveyor of fine firearms. Outside of that, no bleeping way.

 

[Sixtigers]

Not just no, but...uh...a really, really, strongly-voiced High Road type no. With a war face.



No cherry.

 

[Odd Job]

Hmmm, a lot of paranoid musings here. Let's see what the OP asked:

I was just wondering if a company was offering a small computer chip you could hide in your gun that would allow it to be gps tracked (like lojack for computers) in the event your gun was stolen, would you get the chip?

He doesn't say anything about adding the particulars of the item being tagged to any database, or indeed handing the item over to be tagged. The way I read it, the tags can be for anything. I would go for it. I would buy a 'block' of 10 tags and tag various valuables. All the company needs to know is the serial number of the tag and the owner of that serial number. Whether I place that tag under the grip panel of my pistol or in the frame of an expensive painting or indeed in a sun-bleached dog-turd lying on the porch, is my business.

If I suddenly find that my favourite dog turd is missing and I want it back, I ask the company to locate it. That's all it amounts to. They don't have to know what you have tagged, and certainly a person who was worried about having his guns tagged and later located without his knowledge, would probably be the same person who would keep at least one untagged firearm buried at a secret location.

Questions about power are a different matter. I don't know enough about passive and active tracking to comment on this, but overall I can't see any harm in buying tags for one's property.

 

[rmarcustrucker]

bio security to make it NOT operate would interest me, but not to track it for theft reasons.

 

[K3]

Nein. Nyet. No.

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

Close poll we got here.

 

[Cannonball888]

My dog is chipped.
My guns---never.

 

[K3]

My dog is chipped.
My guns---never.

If my dog was worth something, I'd have had her chipped...

 

[davepool]

Even if the cops did locate your gun and catch the thief, do you really think they would give it back to you? It would be held as evidence until the trial and then lost in the bureauocratic shuffle, no i would not use it.

 

[pyle]

No, I don't see how anything good could come out of it - not in the long run anyway....