The Germans are known for probably the best idea humanity has ever come up with, and unfortunately, also one of the worst. This decidedly lies betwixt beer and Hitler, but is not in the realm of good ideas, if you ask me:
Germany may require gun owners to lock weapons in safes that can only be accessed with a fingerprint, as the country considers tightening firearms laws after last month’s school shooting, a government minister said.
That sounds all well and good until you slice your finger open cleaning your gun for a match the next day, and then can’t get into your safe in the morning because you marred your fingerprint. It also makes you susceptible to problems like this, which are common to a lot of electronic locks. There are also ways to defeat thumbprint scanners, and electronic locks, if you’re clever. In the case of many electronic locks, you don’t even have to be that clever.
Personally, I don’t think you can beat the old fashioned dial combination lock for both security and reliability. Properly taken care of, they will last a long time. Incidents like what happened in Germany are exceedingly rare. Thieves breaking into houses to steal guns are a lot more common. I think it would be short sighted for the German Government to mandate a type of lock that is easier for thieves to defeat, in order to prevent something much more rare.
So … if you want to steal a gun in Germany, you’ll have to slice off the owner’s finger? Is this an improvement?
Will this stop criminals from smuggling in tons of cold war surplus from eastern europe?
Ve have veys of getting into your saf!
My work laptop has a built-in fingerprint scanner. When it works on the first try, it is very convenient. Other times, I could have typed the password quicker than the time wasted re-scanning my finger until the reader finally accepts a scan.
When lives are at stake, biometric safe access just doesn’t cut it.
What Link said!
We have a fingerprint read at my fitness club and its the rare day it is successful in under 30 seconds.
Another knee jerk reaction to shootings. I seriously am thinking that only the stupid run for political office. I see nothing intelligent coming from legislators anymore except pandering to get votes and nothing else worthwhile.
“I seriously am thinking that only the stupid run for political office.”
If this is true and I don’t doubt it, what does it have to say for the people who vote them into power?
What sensible person would want to go through the ugliness that is modern American politics? And more especially so if your inclinations run, shall we say, counter to the media’s desired narrative?
No, I think that America’s best are no longer to be found in politics, or not so in large enough numbers to guarantee the integrity of the state.
According to engadget, some TV show fooled a thumbprint reader door-lock with a wet xerox…