When I’m not writing on CleanTechnicaI write part time The truth about gunsA popular gun blog. My experiences as a firearms instructor and student of emergency management, homeland security, and intelligence lead me to try to move things not only in that direction, but in a better direction.
Recently, I realized that solar technology has found its way into a place most gun owners don’t like to see: on their guns.
People don’t trust computer technology to live in their guns.
One of the biggest debates we see over and over again on guns is the idea of the “smart gun.” A responsible gun owner should only allow trusted adults to operate their firearms without supervision, and we often accomplish this with things like safes and retention holsters. That way, kids and thieves can’t just walk around with a gun and do bad things. But some lawmakers and activists think guns should come with built-in advanced technology, so that the ability to fire a gun is truly limited to the owner and those they trust.
An obvious problem like installing a fingerprint reader on a gun is well explained in this video:
Weapons should not have less security features than mobile phones. Today, I asked firearms manufacturers why they don’t put fingerprint scanners on all their guns, which could prevent up to 40% of accidental deaths. pic.twitter.com/q1p0Mrg5oh
– Representative. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) July 27, 2022
If you look carefully, you’ll see the congresswoman struggle briefly to get the phone to take her fingerprint and unlock it. Anyone who has used phone fingerprint readers knows that they often don’t work if your hands are wet, sweaty, or dirty. When the difference between a hit and a miss can come down to hundredths of a second, small hesitations and glitches matter a lot. So most gun owners aren’t willing to buy a gun that requires fingerprints or other technology that can fail in a critical situation, and most law enforcement officers won’t take that risk either.
Before you scroll down to argue about this in the comments, let’s not stray too far from what we normally cover here. CleanTechnica. The only reason I said the above is to show that people generally don’t trust electronics in their guns. Whether or not readers think that’s a good idea is certainly up for debate, but it’s common knowledge that people are wary of mixing guns with computers, and that’s the only point you should take away from this episode.
Most people are perfectly happy with minor improvements to basically proven 19th century technology, and don’t want to risk injury. However, there is one neat piece of technology that has found its way onto many people’s guns, and they’re not happy to have it there, but they get reliability out of it.
Guns with small solar panels
Many innovations in firearms technology begin with competition shooting, and the story of today’s clean technology begins there. Competition shooters often use “race guns” or highly modified guns that are specifically designed for competition shooting. Their magazine wells, recoil weights, reduced recoil bullets (in some units), strange attachments, and even magnetic holsters are not very practical for concealed carry or police work.
One of the things that emerged in the late 1980s was the use of “red dot” sights on handguns. Instead of precisely lining up the sights, your eye and the target, a red dot sight rotates the dot to show where the dot will hit, allowing room for perfection. – In the middle of it. This obviously saves a lot of time, which leads to better results.
Red dot sights were even offered for rifles and BB guns, but never on semi-automatic pistols common in military, police and concealed carry. However, in the late 80’s and early 90’s some competition shooters began experimenting with putting it on the gun. You couldn’t put them on the slide because the movement was too violent and would destroy the scope they were attached to (the upper part that moves back and forth to load the next round). So, they added a huge, static and heavy mount to the side to attach the scope to the frame. Even then, semi-automatic recoil still regularly killed red dot sites.
However, over time, manufacturers have improved and built more rugged optics that can survive driving on everything from AR-15s to semi-automatic pistols. Eventually, the Trijicon RMR was hardwired to mount directly to the slide of a gun, and now everyone puts them on their rifles.
The Holos red dot sight is mounted on the pistol slide. Image courtesy of Holoson.
Well, almost all. There are still many skeptics who don’t want to count on electronics with a holographic red dot sight if things get really bad. Tech-savvy young shooters call older shooters “Fuds” after Elmer Fudd. But the real concerns of what to do if the dot stops showing are solved with “see through” iron sights (you can see through the red dot if you can).
However, Foods still had one valid argument: What do you do if the battery goes bad or runs out during a major emergency? That’s where a company called Holosun steps in, offering red dot visualizations not just from the sun, but from the light it hits as a calculator through tiny solar panels.
Now, Holosun dots are riding in many states, from grandma’s bag guns (red dots work better for sight failure) to highway patrol duty guns.
What should we learn from this?
Again, I’m not writing this article to make an argument about gun control, the police, or anything else. If they are spoken maturely (a rare thing in such debates) they are worth having, but this is not the place for that.
The most important thing to take away from this is that clean technology, solar energy, has become very trusted even by those who doubt the technology. They don’t install a fingerprint reader on their gun, but they spend hundreds of dollars (or more) to get a solar panel to make the device work.
Keep these things in mind when we despair about clean technologies and think that people can’t believe they’re a good idea. Once people become aware of its benefits, clean technologies can finally penetrate the most stubborn traditional markets.
It is up to us to share the information.
Featured image: A solar-powered holographic sight on an AR-style rifle. Image courtesy of Holoson.
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