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If guns had the same safety mechanisms as the iPhone, maybe we'd see fewer shootings. You know, register a gun to an owner, not allow anyone but the owner to fi

If guns had the same safety mechanisms as the iPhone, maybe we'd see fewer shootings. You know, register a gun to an owner, not allow anyone but the owner to fire the gun, etc. (yes, I realize ownership is already registered, but you can circumvent registration through various means)

gonzoflip 8y ago
Gun ownership is not registered, except in a few states.
lostapathy 8y ago
It's also simply not practical to apply these mechanisms to guns without making them less safe or reliable. A gun must always work when needed for protection - it's not like software where it's ok to be "down", rebooting, or having battery troubles some of the time.
- k_sh 8y ago
  A better hardware/software equivalent for a gun would be something like an AED or an insulin pump.
- ppeetteerr 8y ago
  I don't think people use guns for self defense. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0804-hemenway-defensive-gun-home-20150730-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0804-hemenway-def...
  - JackCh 8y ago
    Whether or not owning a gun makes you statistically safer is another matter entirely from whether or not guns can be used for self defense. There is no shortage of real world examples of guns being used for self defense. So objectively they are used for self defense. They're also used for murder, hunting, target practice, looking nice on a shelf, etc. Incidentally, that article includes suicide. Leaving aside the issue of whether or not somebody should be permitted to make such a decision about their own life, statistics don't apply to individuals in the way you are implying. While you could determine that owning increases the rate of successful suicide in a population, you cannot say it makes that man right there, named Bob more likely to kill himself. Because you don't know anything about Bob. Bob may be the sort of man who never even fleetingly contemplates suicide once in his entire life. If Bob were such a man, owning a gun would not make it particularly likely for Bob to commit suicide. Furthermore whether or not Bob trusts his wife to not murder him with his gun is a matter completely removed from whether or not Bob ever uses his gun in self defense, or whether he owns it for self defense but never uses it for self defense (the later being orders of magnitude more common.)
    - ppeetteerr 8y ago
      The article I posted appears to disagree that guns are used for self-defence. Perhaps there is an illusion of safety, or there are unreported cases that discredit the article (I don't doubt), but when you have burglars robbing homes specifically because they contain guns, you have to wonder whether gun ownership provides real security. I feel like we're getting off on a tangent regarding Apple's decision to further strengthen the privacy of a device. Happy to discuss in another forum the practicality of gun ownership.
      - JackCh 8y ago
        > "The article I posted appears to disagree that guns are used for self-defence." It doesn't say that, but perhaps it appears that way to you. You read it that way because what you seem to have is a fundamentally dehumanizing ideology that reduces individuals to averages. Something I've found to be characteristic of those with extremist political beliefs.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  Must it? I'd far rather a gun not fire than fire.
  - lostapathy 8y ago
    What if that gun is in the hand of a police officer protecting you or your loved ones?
    - s73v3r_ 8y ago
      What if that gun was in the hands of a loved one who was playing with it, thinking it was a toy? Or if it was in the hands of someone with malicious intent toward my loved ones?
- ajross 8y ago
  > making them less safe That's a very spun definition for "safe". Any individual gun is far, far, FAR more likely to be used to commit a crime than deter one.
  - JackCh 8y ago
    That depends on how you define "used". And furthermore, while it may be true for guns on average, it's not true for any individual gun. You are confusing individuals for averages.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
bhhaskin 8y ago
But any one can use any Iphone to call 911. It doesn't block that function. In fact any old cell phone will likely be able to call out to 911 if it has a single. regardless if it has a paid cell plan or not. My point being that in an emergency situation a cell phone works. If it didn't that would be considered unacceptable. Anything less than that for a firearm is also unacceptable.
- mikeash 8y ago
  Most things don’t have emergency overrides. There isn’t a special button you can press in a car that will let you drive it without the keys in an emergency. If you’re stuck outside a locked house and a bear is about to eat you, you’d better hope somebody is home and willing to let you in. Phones are the only thing I can think of that do support this, probably because they can draw a clean line between “emergency” and “non-emergency” use.
- ppeetteerr 8y ago
  Similar to another comment, guns are not used for self defense.
  - jpttsn 8y ago
    What do people use for self defense? Karate alone?
    - ppeetteerr 8y ago
      Not sure if sarcasm, but you can use mace, a sound horn, or just yell (surprisingly effective for women when confronted with an assailant). Take a look at studies related to gun ownership and physical safety and you'll see that gun owners don't use their firearms against aggressors as much as on themselves or their relatives. In other words, it's safer not to own a gun than to own one.
      - jpttsn 8y ago
        Computer owners don’t use their computers for app development as much as for playing games. If I want to develop apps, should I get a computer?

gonzoflip 8y ago

Gun ownership is not registered, except in a few states.

lostapathy 8y ago

It's also simply not practical to apply these mechanisms to guns without making them less safe or reliable. A gun must always work when needed for protection - it's not like software where it's ok to be "down", rebooting, or having battery troubles some of the time.

k_sh 8y ago
A better hardware/software equivalent for a gun would be something like an AED or an insulin pump.
ppeetteerr 8y ago
I don't think people use guns for self defense. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0804-hemenway-defensive-gun-home-20150730-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0804-hemenway-def...
- JackCh 8y ago
  Whether or not owning a gun makes you statistically safer is another matter entirely from whether or not guns can be used for self defense. There is no shortage of real world examples of guns being used for self defense. So objectively they are used for self defense. They're also used for murder, hunting, target practice, looking nice on a shelf, etc. Incidentally, that article includes suicide. Leaving aside the issue of whether or not somebody should be permitted to make such a decision about their own life, statistics don't apply to individuals in the way you are implying. While you could determine that owning increases the rate of successful suicide in a population, you cannot say it makes that man right there, named Bob more likely to kill himself. Because you don't know anything about Bob. Bob may be the sort of man who never even fleetingly contemplates suicide once in his entire life. If Bob were such a man, owning a gun would not make it particularly likely for Bob to commit suicide. Furthermore whether or not Bob trusts his wife to not murder him with his gun is a matter completely removed from whether or not Bob ever uses his gun in self defense, or whether he owns it for self defense but never uses it for self defense (the later being orders of magnitude more common.)
  - ppeetteerr 8y ago
    The article I posted appears to disagree that guns are used for self-defence. Perhaps there is an illusion of safety, or there are unreported cases that discredit the article (I don't doubt), but when you have burglars robbing homes specifically because they contain guns, you have to wonder whether gun ownership provides real security. I feel like we're getting off on a tangent regarding Apple's decision to further strengthen the privacy of a device. Happy to discuss in another forum the practicality of gun ownership.
    - JackCh 8y ago
      > "The article I posted appears to disagree that guns are used for self-defence." It doesn't say that, but perhaps it appears that way to you. You read it that way because what you seem to have is a fundamentally dehumanizing ideology that reduces individuals to averages. Something I've found to be characteristic of those with extremist political beliefs.
s73v3r_ 8y ago
Must it? I'd far rather a gun not fire than fire.
- lostapathy 8y ago
  What if that gun is in the hand of a police officer protecting you or your loved ones?
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    What if that gun was in the hands of a loved one who was playing with it, thinking it was a toy? Or if it was in the hands of someone with malicious intent toward my loved ones?
ajross 8y ago
> making them less safe That's a very spun definition for "safe". Any individual gun is far, far, FAR more likely to be used to commit a crime than deter one.
- JackCh 8y ago
  That depends on how you define "used". And furthermore, while it may be true for guns on average, it's not true for any individual gun. You are confusing individuals for averages.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

bhhaskin 8y ago

But any one can use any Iphone to call 911. It doesn't block that function. In fact any old cell phone will likely be able to call out to 911 if it has a single. regardless if it has a paid cell plan or not. My point being that in an emergency situation a cell phone works. If it didn't that would be considered unacceptable. Anything less than that for a firearm is also unacceptable.

mikeash 8y ago
Most things don’t have emergency overrides. There isn’t a special button you can press in a car that will let you drive it without the keys in an emergency. If you’re stuck outside a locked house and a bear is about to eat you, you’d better hope somebody is home and willing to let you in. Phones are the only thing I can think of that do support this, probably because they can draw a clean line between “emergency” and “non-emergency” use.
ppeetteerr 8y ago
Similar to another comment, guns are not used for self defense.
- jpttsn 8y ago
  What do people use for self defense? Karate alone?
  - ppeetteerr 8y ago
    Not sure if sarcasm, but you can use mace, a sound horn, or just yell (surprisingly effective for women when confronted with an assailant). Take a look at studies related to gun ownership and physical safety and you'll see that gun owners don't use their firearms against aggressors as much as on themselves or their relatives. In other words, it's safer not to own a gun than to own one.
    - jpttsn 8y ago
      Computer owners don’t use their computers for app development as much as for playing games. If I want to develop apps, should I get a computer?