Most Recent Smart Gun Fail Illustrates Continuing ‘Journalism’ Fail

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “During a demonstration to share holders last week, the operator clicks the key pad on the side of the 9mm smart gun,” self-described “AP & Emmy Award winning journalist” Christie Ileto of Philadelphia’s ABC 6 Action News tweeted. “Once unlocked, the smart gun is operable.”

To prove her point, she embeds a video from Lodestar Firearms demonstrating its gun being test-fired. Thing is, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends upon what the meaning of the word “operable” is.

The operator clearly confirms he intends to fire “two rounds.” He fires one shot. Enlarging the video to full screen appears to show him squeezing the trigger a second time with no results.

During a demonstration to share holders last week, the operator clicks the key pad on the side of the 9mm smart gun. Once unlocked, the smart gun is operable. @Lodestarguns @6abc https://t.co/gVzML0sARg pic.twitter.com/c8O8zNbp6i

— Christie Ileto (@Christie_Ileto) January 18, 2022

Ileto introducing that by saying “the smart gun is operable” is one of those moments in journalism equivalent to NBC “reporter” Kelli Stavast telling viewers that a NASCAR crowd yelling something completely different was chanting “Let’s go Brandon!” It’s reminiscent of CNN national correspondent Omar Jimenez assuring his audience that he was reporting on “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” as flames arose behind him.

Who are you going to believe? The DSM or your own lying eyes and ears?

“Our team believes in the Second Amendment and an individual’s right to choose any legal firearm,” Lodestar claimed in 2018. “We are making personalized guns a safe, viable option for U.S. gun owners.”

The assertion would carry more credibility if they weren’t being cheered on by Washington Ceasefire, as committed a group of gun-grabbers as you’ll ever come across, spouting out such inanities as “2021 Election is a Big Win for Gun Free Zones.” So forgive me if Lodestar’s assurance evokes recollections of familiar Democrat boilerplate responses to gun-owning constituent inquiries that begin “I believe in the Second Amendment” followed immediately by them revealing their big “buts.”

And the “right to choose any legal firearms” leaves a hole big enough to drive CS gas-firing tanks through. Gun prohibitionists making what they had in mind perfectly clear is what caused such an uproar from the gun community over so-called “smart gun” in the first place:

“New Jersey tried to largely ban traditional handguns once smart guns became a reality, and many blame the dearth of smart guns today on that looming prohibition. One national headline called it the ‘New Jersey Law That’s Kept Smart Guns Off Shelves.’ Lawmakers changed course in 2019. Now state statute only requires sellers to stock smart guns once they meet ‘performance standards.’”

It’s not that gun owner advocates oppose “smart guns” because we’re are against the idea of choice— it’s that we’re against having no choice. Especially if you’re a person of limited means and there’s a substantial add-on cost to tack on “stupid electronic doodads” designed to interfere with a gun’s primary function– to fire when needed.

Does anyone doubt California will start culling its “Handguns Certified for Sale” roster whenever it thinks it can get away with it? And that any challenges will be decided by activist judges who then rule selective gun bans don’t violate the Second Amendment?

And, of course, once legislation mandating electronic gun technology is coercively “normalized,” it doesn’t take too much imagination to see what the next “commonsense gun safety” demand will be: Consider this recent headline:

“BIDEN INFRASTRUCTURE BILL: MANDATED KILL SWITCHES COMING TO CARS IN 2026”

Some of us have been warning for many years  against mandatory “shutoffs” for guns that “authorities” would then use to effectively disarm the “law-abiding.” No one thinks criminals would be fools enough to so arm themselves, do they?

The technology already exists:

“Tech Company Demonstrates Remote Disabling of a ‘Smart Gun’”

There’s something else we’ve been warning against, a concept that evidently eludes either LodeStar founder Gareth Glaser or at least the “reporter” who gave him free startup publicity a few years back:

“‘It’s really important that Americans trust the reliability of this gun and we believe if a major city police department or law enforcement organization adopts these guns it will go a long way toward acceptance,’ said Glaser. They’ve already met with New York City Police Department officials, departments of correction in New York and the Seattle Police Department.”

That’s great, Gareth. You got some noncommittal nods from politically dependent administration lackeys. Now tell us what the rank-and-file and their unions will say when you tell them they’re going to be required to deploy with guns that go dead after one shot under perfectly set up investor demonstration conditions.

He also made a big deal about suicides, as if thinking that smart guns would stop owners from committing them is anything but dumb. Thinking that it would make a statistically significant impact on those who take other peoples’ guns to kill themselves is even dumber.

But back to “Let’s go Christie!” she put out another tweet elaborating on how LodeStar works:

“EXCLUSIVE look at @Lodestarguns ’ smart gun that has technology like a smart phone. Biometric finger print and an internal blue chip for authentication via a phone app, are some of the ways to verify the users identity.”

As for biometrics, “smartphones” have been around a lot longer than “smart guns,” and a simple search shows hinky fingerprint readers are not problems you want to have to troubleshoot in a gunfight. Do you really want to risk your life — and the lives of those depending on you — on that? And as for phone apps, who doesn’t have personal experience where a wifi or Bluetooth connection experienced a signal loss or took a while and multiple attempts to establish?

Who among us hasn’t pointed and clicked a “mostly” reliable TV remote control or garage door opener and had nothing happen?

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.