RFID for Weapons? Fast and Furious Might Benefit

Fast and Furious Might Benefit from RFID

It’s not news that thousands of weapons are being bought in the United States and then re-sold and sent down to Mexico where they are used in various criminal activities, sometimes to the detriment of innocent people including US citizens.

If you have been following the ongoing revelations about the Fast and Furious program run by the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) enforcement division and how they have been trying to track who is buying the weapons and how they are being transported, you already know that this is a problem area.   Unfortunately and sadly, these weapons which have been allowed to move down to Mexico have been the cause of death for some United States law enforcement personnel.

Maybe its time for all of these semi-automatic rifles, automatic weapons, sniper rifles, shotguns and handguns to be embedded with RFID chips where, just maybe, they can be tracked at locations like border crossing checkpoints.

Is it feasible? 

With weapons selling for hundreds or thousands of dollars, putting an RFID chip in each gun would involve a nominal cost.

Since the guns are serialized, they already carry a unique identifier – therefore any argument about an additional intrusion against owner rights becomes mostly moot. 

Now the detection range of the RFID chips is limited, and no doubt, chips could be removed, just as serial numbers can be filed down. But that doesn’t happen all the time apparently.  And, its likely that RFID chips could be embedded in ways that would make removal difficult. 

Maybe this is already happening?

I took a look on the Internet to see what might be going on in this area.  Not too much, from what I could find.   One company, SkyRFID does offer RFID chips designed specifically for weapons management.

SkyRFID - RFID for Weapons

I won’t go into the details – you can read it for yourself.

But it does seem pretty simple to implement.    Who's going to object?  Mostly those who are either profiting from illegal gun sales, or those obsessed with the right to bear massive quantities of arms or those concerned with the government having too much information about citizens.  However, since our Internet activity can be monitored, my mail can be opened, my health records are on some company's server,  and our cell phones are easily tapped, I've long ago given up any illusion of privacy.     For those of you who are curious, I do own a shotgun and a couple rifles.   Although I enjoy target shooting, I don't use them much.  I would not object to their containing RFID chips.

  Should the government require all weapons to contain RFID chips for easier tracking and control?    Would the chips be readable if they were in the trunk of a car and the trunk lid was closed?  Or could current RFID technology read the chips at a greater distance?   Is it worth the effort?  Is it a greater invasion of privacy that anything else in our society - are we breaking new ground here in tearing down citizens rights?   What do you think readers?

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