More Stupid Gun Control Requests

Heard this on the radio yesterday and I just had to look this one up.

After Boston's bloodiest year in a decade, one city councilor has called on one of the largest manufacturers of guns in the country to install satellite-tracking technology in its weapons.
District 5 City Councilor Rob Consalvo, who represents Roslindale and Hyde Park, recently wrote a letter to Springfield-based Smith & Wesson asking the chief executive if he would blend GPS technology with the company's newly manufactured guns.
"There is an insatiable appetite for guns in urban neighborhoods," said Consalvo, who has also been pushing for a gun offender registry. "If we can stem that tide, if we can put a choke on that supply, we're going to reduce the amount of teenagers with guns in the city and less gun violence."

Another well thought out solution from the People's Republic of Massachusetts. The brilliance continues.

Consalvo mentioned Boston's adoption of GPS-enabled school buses and snow plows as the most recent examples of high-tech keeping tabs on the most routine things. Even cell phones have GPS technology embedded in them.
The city councilor picked Smith & Wesson because it's a Massachusetts-based company.

He probably picked S&W because Springfield told him to pack sand. And seeing how easy it had been to bully S&W in the Clinton era along with the fact that S&W is one of the limited number of firearms companies that can sell in Mass, he probably thinks they can strong arm the company.

But let's look at the merits of this.

"I'm calling on them to step up to the plate," he said. "They need to install some technology like GPS or Lojack or some tracking technology. I'm not an engineer, so I don't know what that is. So they'll be easily tracked once those weapons are stolen ... I think given the fact that Smith & Wesson is located in the state, they have a greater responsibility."

His statement on not being an engineer is obvious. And like most politicos, he demands a technology as a solution but hasn't the least understanding of the implications. Or maybe he just doesn't care. Everyone say it with me, in a shrill weepy voice. "But it's for the Children."

I understand that GPS is in phones now, but then you still need the rest of the phone to track it with. So, attach the complete phone to the gun minus the speaker, microphone and display. That will make the gun safer. But I'm going to guess that this GPS and cell phone technology is fairly fragile. (Yeah I don't have a cell phone, and no, I'm not a Luddite.) So I wonder what happens to that device when the gun is fired a few times, or a hundred times. Or the person who stole it takes a hammer to it. Is Consalvo asking just for tracking or does he also want the gun to be able to be disabled remotely?

And what will this all costs? Oh, who cares, if you want a gun you should have to deal with that.

How about maintenance? Is there going to be legislation requiring the owner to maintain the batteries? Or maybe they'll just have to have a charging station that's built into a safe that you are required to purchase with the gun.

It also makes you wonder about privacy concerns. Oh, wait, he has a brilliant answer.

About privacy concerns that gun owners might have, Consalvo said, "It's a piece of property. It's not on a person."

Hmmm. Must be hard to walk around with your head up your ass. If the technology can broadcast or be made to broadcast, then the criminals will have no problem figuring out how to detect guns remotely. Perfect way to find a gun to steal. Especially if you only want it for a short period of time for a crime and then toss it away. Should I discuss the use of the same technology by the anti-gun groups to detect and gun owners and create gun lists? No crack pot group has ever made black lists of people doing things that they don't like and publishing hit lists.

In a Jan. 6 letter to Michael F. Golden, president and chief executive of Smith & Wesson, Consalvo wrote, "While I understand that illegal gun use is not the fault of your company or legitimate gun owners, I implore you to seriously consider this idea as another way to make our cities safer."

Consalvo obviously hasn't thought this out at all, since the only person that will be affected by this is the legitimate gun purchaser. The extra costs and maintenance will merely form further blockage to legal ownership.

Oh and the Boston Police don't even try to hide their gun abolitionist view.

A Boston Police Department spokesman wasn't specific about supporting the initiative or not.
"The Boston Police Department supports any type of gun control," said Officer Michael McCarthy. "We leave that to the lawmakers. We'll promote gun safety."

Makes you wonder how anyone in Boston can protect themselves with this mentality floating around. I'm certain that McCarthy's department has an outstanding record of preemptively preventing violent crime. Whoops, that bit about "Boston's bloodiest year in a decade" that starts the article obviously shows that preemption isn't their forte.

UPDATE:
Oh, It just gets better. I found this article in the Boston Globe.

Councilor Rob Consalvo wants to put a tracking device into newly manufactured guns and have legal gun owners retrofit their firearms so owners and police can locate and retrieve stolen guns the same way police use a computer chip to locate stolen cars.

''Let's use that same technology to track weapons so we know where they are when they're stolen or bought illegally," he said. ''I think it's a common-sense idea."

So it's not just new firearms, it's all firearms. Hell, they don't need a registry, when they decide you don't have any right to a gun, they'll just be able to drive around and kick in your door when they detect the gun.

Not to mention how interesting it will be to retrofit some of the collectors guns. But I'm sure that won't effect their price. And what will be next? GPS on knives and baseball bats? Rocks? Fists? Big pointy sticks?

Some gun-rights advocates would likely oppose any effort to install tracking devices. Jim Wallace of the Gun Owners' Action League said that tracking devices would threaten individual privacy.

''We don't live in a society where the government starts tracking the things we own," Wallace said. ''It's just simply absurd."

Well, at least there will be a touch of resistance.

Consalvo acknowledged that the cost of manufacturing guns with such a device could be high, but that it would be worth it.

Hmm. How very predictable. Oh, yeah I did predict this above.

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