Washington Post Runs Stupid Opinion on Smart Guns

The Washington Post wants you to buy this. Too bad it sucks. But hey, it's got a little American flag on the slide.

The common sense people are obviously not running the show at The Washington Post.

How do I know this? The leftists who run the opinion page decided to run an opinion from the lead designer of the top Smart Gun designer touting how great his product is. It might as well be a commercial.

If you haven't heard about this new smart-gun, it has an internal computer that pairs with a special watch you wear to ensure that the gun will not fire unless in close proximity to the watch. Oh, and you enter a little code on the watch if you actually want to shoot the gun.

What's not to like, unless you're a Luddite, right?

Wrong. Let's look at a few facts that don't appear in the WaPo's column infomercial. 

1. The Armatix is chambered in .22LR. That's it. That's the only option. When I first saw that, I thought it had to be a mistake. No one in their right mind would regularly use a handgun chambered in .22LR for self-defense. It's not a viable self-defense round for about a dozen reasons, chief of which is that rimfire ammo is not as reliable as centerfire ammo. So right there, that's a bad start. You're basically taking the smallest possible caliber out there, and arming yourself with it. If you're ever attacked by an animal smaller than a Pomeranian, you'll be fine.

So why is it only chambered for .22LR? The technology used in the pistol is so fragile that chambering anything more a low-recoiling .22LR would shake the gun’s electronic brains apart in short order.

2. It has a 10% Failure Rate. But hey, let's assume that your rimfire .22 ammo never fails. And let's assume that you're such a great shot you're going to hit the bad guy's heart or brain every time. How about this Aratix wireless pairing thing? How often does that fail? Oh, nothing to be concerned about folks, per Armatix, it only fails about 10% of the time. Doing some quick math, in a 10-round magazine that's....oh yeah, once every magazine! So basically 100% of the time that you go through your magazine, you'll have a pairing failure that results in the gun not firing. Where do I sign up for this wonder weapon?

Still want one? 

3. Price. Well, this is the best part. It's expensive. The gun sells for $1,399.00. Oh, and did you want the gun to actually fire, too? Well, you'll need to by the little watch, as well. Did I mention the watch isn't included in that price and sells for $399? So we're at a grant total of $1,800, which is also the price of three Glocks. Let me repeat that. YOU COULD HAVE THREE GLOCKS AND EXTRA AMMO FOR THIS PRICE. Three Glocks. Plus ammo. Are you kidding me?

Ok, so we can rule out anyone who wants this gun for actual, legitimate self-defense, and anyone who doesn't have money to burn. But to be fair, that's not the only market of gun-buyers out there. What about folks who just like to target shoot, and don't care about self-defense or money? Would this be a good pistol for the responsible, competitive target shooter?

No. Because target shooters buy really expensive target pistols with match-grade barrels, and all other kind of bells and whistles that make the gun extremely accurate - which this little Armatix doesn't have.

So, we'e basically got a gun that has no market. There is literally no one out there in the universe of gun-buyers who would be drawn to this gun. However, we do have a political market for this gun. You know, politics, where the rules of common-sense land don't apply?

If you hear any politician advocating for this gun, ask them what their security detail uses. If it's good enough for their constituents, it should be good enough for them, right?