PUBLICATION: Calgary Herald
DATE: 2004.05.02
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Opinion
PAGE: A16
BYLINE: Marc Thibault
SOURCE: Calgary Herald

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Dumb idea

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Re: “Smart gun closer to reality,” April 15.

This bizarre system will require two chips — one in each hand — because an officer needs to be able to shoot weak-handed in some circumstances.

A police officer’s pistol has a half-dozen active parts. Two microchips, one in the shooting hand and the other in the gun, add millions of parts to the equation, along with millions of new failure modes. Add to that the fact that it’s all controlled by notoriously fallible software and you have a firearm that no one in his or her right mind would trust. This absurd system would cost many more lives than it would save, if anyone were foolish enough to deploy it.

Marc Thibault
Oxford Mills, Ont.