SAMANTHA BEE: Welcome back to the show.
As hip Wired Magazine readers, we're
all about smart home gadgets.
Alexa, tell me about Samantha Bee.
ALEXA: Hmm, I can't find the answer to the question I heard.
SAMANTHA BEE: Bitch.
Smart technology has even found its way into America's
favorite home appliance.
Allana Harkin went to New Jersey to learn more.
ALLANA HARKIN: This is a story about guns, and gun control,
and what happens when people don't know how
to use either of them properly.
And our story begins with this guy.
KAI KLOEPFER: My name is Kai Kloepfer.
I've spent the last four and a half
years developing a smart gun.
ALLANA HARKIN: Kai won the National Science Fair
for his technology, and has been called "the Mark Zuckerberg
of guns," although the fights you get in using Kai's
invention will end much faster.
KAI KLOEPFER: So this is the prototype of our smart gun.
So this is a fingerprint sensor set into the grip.
Because it recognizes your fingerprint,
it means that only the owner or specific people
that the owner has chosen can actually use the gun.
ALLANA HARKIN: OK, so I was expecting some sort
of James Bond-looking.
I mean, this one kind of looks like a kid made it.
KAI KLOEPFER: I am 19.
ALLANA HARKIN: You are so much more articulate
than I was at 19, because I would be hung over
on peach schnapps right now.
Every year, hundreds of people are
shot by someone who was holding a gun
they weren't supposed to have.
But are smart guns reliable?
KAI KLOEPFER: I do get a lot of concern from people.
Someone's going to break in my house.
I'm going to put my gun out, and it's not going to work.
ALLANA HARKIN: Yeah, what if my hands are wet when
someone breaks in the house?
KAI KLOEPFER: Right, see--
ALLANA HARKIN: What if my hand is covered in blood?
KAI KLOEPFER: And someone--
ALLANA HARKIN: What if I'm in a gunfight,
and my fingers are blown off.
Do I have to get one of my dismembered fingers
and use it on the sensor?
KAI KLOEPFER: If your fingers are blown off in a gunfight,
you're probably not going to be able to hold
the firearm anyways.
But--
ALLANA HARKIN: I have feet.
KAI KLOEPFER: Yeah, I suppose, but--
ALLANA HARKIN: You want me to pick your gun up with my feet
right now?
KAI KLOEPFER: I'm good, actually.
Let's just leave that where it is.
That was six months of work.
ALLANA HARKIN: But if Kai's nerd gun doesn't have a foot
attachment, then why build it?
KAI KLOEPFER: We're not trying to create
a perfect replacement for every kind of firearm on the market
simultaneously.
But we really can use an engineering solution
to reduce the main reasons why we have gun control
laws in the first place, by allowing
smart guns to be developed and start to save lives.
ALLANA HARKIN: So where can you buy
one of these life-saving death machines?
Turns out nowhere, because of the 2002
New Jersey law written by--
oh, shit balls.
She's a Democrat.
LORETTA WEINBERG: So we passed a law
that said, if there is a smart gun developed,
that would be the only kind of gun
you could purchase in New Jersey.
ALLANA HARKIN: Yes, she wrote a law mandating that all guns
sold in New Jersey will have to be
smart guns once any smart gun is sold anywhere in America.
And do you think gun owners like being told
what they're allowed to buy?
Twice, gun sellers have announced
plans to sell the smart gun.
And twice, they have reversed course
after an intense backlash from the gun rights activists.
I received numerous death threats today.
I really [BLEEP] appreciate that.
That's [BLEEP] classy.
DAVE KOPEL: The point of the legislative mandates on this
is not to promote smart guns.
It's to ban regular guns.
LORETTA WEINBERG: I guess I never
anticipated that I would be faced with this kind
of irrational pushback.
ALLANA HARKIN: About gun legislation from the NRA?
LORETTA WEINBERG: Yes.
ALLANA HARKIN: If only there was a firearm-based metaphor
for what Loretta did.
[SHOT]
[SCREAMING]
So have you passed any other laws
that had the opposite effect that they intended,
like, I don't know, like a seat belt that could
propel toddlers out a window?
LORETTA WEINBERG: We thought at the time
that we wanted to do something to help spur the technology.
ALLANA HARKIN: Well, you didn't.
And a crowd of New Jersey residents
had some thoughts for Weinberg in a segment we're calling--
AUDIENCE: You're not helping!
[APPLAUSE]
ALLANA HARKIN: They had a lot to ask.
But it all boiled down to this one simple question.
Yes.
What would happen if she does get rid of the bill?
ALLANA HARKIN: Well, it could potentially
save thousands of lives, but we'll never know
unless she repeals the law.
Then she should repeal that shit.
AUDIENCE: Repeal it.
ALLANA HARKIN: Crazy idea--
you could just repeal this law.
Then perhaps somebody will have the opportunity
to create a smart gun, and then the free market decides.
LORETTA WEINBERG: Well, what you just outlined
is a very rational argument.
ALLANA HARKIN: Yeah.
LORETTA WEINBERG: In fact, I made a public offer
that I would rescind the entire law
if I knew that the NRA will not stand
in the way of such an item.
ALLANA HARKIN: And how did that go?
LORETTA WEINBERG: No answer--
nothing.
ALLANA HARKIN: So you offered to repeal the law.
LORETTA WEINBERG: Right.
ALLANA HARKIN: But you wanted something from the NRA first.
LORETTA WEINBERG: Right.
AUDIENCE: That seems counter-productive.
ALLANA HARKIN: What if I go into another room,
and I call you on your phone, and I
pretend that I'm from the NRA?
LORETTA WEINBERG: I don't think that would be enough.
ALLANA HARKIN: I have a very deep voice.
If-- LORETTA WEINBERG: No.
ALLANA HARKIN: OK.
LORETTA WEINBERG: Sorry.
ALLANA HARKIN: I'm sorry, too, because Weinberg has the power
to get the law repealed-- something pretty much
everyone thinks is a good idea.
And while she's waiting for an empty gesture from the NRA,
Kai is pressing forward as though nothing
can stand in his way.
KAI KLOEPFER: About 12, 18 months from now
is when we hope to have the technology
design complete, ready to go.
In 2018, 2019, start to sell the technology,
actually have it out there in gun stores,
available online, et cetera.
ALLANA HARKIN: So you think in 2018, 2019,
we're going to have a functioning economy.
KAI KLOEPFER: I think that we're going to have probably--
ALLANA HARKIN: Love your hope.
SAMANTHA BEE: We'll be right back.