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Armatix iP1: The Infamous German "Smart Gun" (ad-free)
🕑 Added 2022-09-23 12:00:06 +0000 UTCThe Armatix iP1 is a pistol created by former H&K designer Ernst Mauch that was released - or almost released - in the US in late 2013 and early 2014. It is a .22LR caliber semiauto pistol that incorporates an RFID-connected authentication link between a watch and this pistol, so that the pistol can only be fired (in theory) when the authorized user is wearing the watch. Hence, it is a "smart gun".
Mechanically, it is a simple blowback pistol that uses an electromagnet to deactivate a firing pin block type of safety. When the watch has properly activated the pistol, the electromagnet is energized and the pistol will fire. If it is not so authorized, the firing pin block remains in place and the pistol will simply go "click" ineffectually. There are, of course, several caveats, loopholes, and exploitable vulnerabilities in this system.
When the pistol came on the market, it caused a significant reaction among gun rights proponents, as a law on the books in New Jersey mandates that 30 months after a "smart gun" is determined to be commercially available anywhere in the US, all non-"smart" pistols become illegal to sell in that state. The Armatix was expected to trigger this law, and by extension effectively ban all handguns in New Jersey. As it turned out, the state Attorney General determined in late 2014 that the iP1 did not meet the technical requirements of the law, but by this time the pistol was well and truly sunk. Dealers who considered stocking it were bullied out of that decision, sometimes to the point of receiving threats on their lives. As a result, the pistol never saw significant commercial sale, and the only ones in the US appear to be those initially brought in for marketing and demonstration.
Comments
The Art of the Reel
I wonder if it will fire all the time if you short out the inner and outer conductors on the electro-magnet?
Steven Minniear
Wow. I will just leave it at that. Wow.
It's cool however I would never want one other than a toy. The tech did save James bonds life in skyfall I think it was.
Do you trust batteries and radio frequency signals with your life? That's the question you need to ask regarding a smart gun. It's 2022 and I still get fuzzy radio stations in my car and on the bike within only a few miles from the transmission tower. Batteries die, electronics fail. Guns as they are are dead simple. Why would anyone want to complicate something that works every time no matter the situation or close enough? A gun fails what once every 10000 rounds on average? Last thing im looking to do is increase failure rate with a gimmick
Lostngone
I can almost guarantee if that gun had gone on sale and sold in any numbers someone would have come up with a RF jammer specifically for it. I love technology, I have worked in the IT industry my entire life but I have yet to see any significant reason why electronics should be built into the firing mechanism of a firearm(unless we are talking about some future rail gun).
Guido Schriewer
the idea to erase all "normal" by having such developed just must be sooo unlawful in itself... whatever safety they could do it could be hacked just as well. hell I don't want electronic window motors in a car already let alone in a gun.
Curious what the function of the "SuperPIN" is?
Pat Patterson
I like having options, and I like the idea of firearms technology being studied. I DON'T like the idea of a single state passing a law that effectively destroys an area of research.
So I guess you couldn't fire it weak hand only if for some reason you couldn't hold your strong hand with the watch next to it, say your were wounded or in a physical struggle.
David K. Jernigan
According to Murphy it is guaranteed to fail when needed.
I love the firearm community I have just started truly educating myself in this world but some people need to remember that not every little change or ruling needs to be apposed with heavy handed threats of violence, this is what causes people outside of the community to look in and determine that firearm enthuests are nothing but thinly veiled domestic terrorists. This technology could save people's lives if used and developed properly for all we know if fingerprint id's became mandatory "not that I want that" I guarantee that fingerprint reading technologies would have been advanced decades faster than they are being currently. Gun designers and enthusiasts are the most brilliant people when you get in the way of us owning/ pursuing better and greater firearms.
David K. Jernigan
The funny thing is the smart part can be overridden with a neodymium magnet.
