Long Shot

In the spring of 2013 Texas-based startup, TrackingPoint, unveiled the first ever precision-guided firearm, which is essentially a long-range laser-guided rifle. They call it the gun off tomorrow. You don't have to be an experienced shooter, you don't have to be someone who's put thousands of rounds downrange, you can just come and pick this up and within minutes you'll be able to master the technology that allows you to shoot a target that is 3/4 of a mile away. The technology is so advanced that beginners can kill at a thousand yards with a single shot accuracy in no time. TrackingPoint claims that its closed loop system helps users make ethical kill shots, but critics say it's nothing more than a skill free killing. You don't need to spend years in training to kill some party. You'll able to go out and buy a gun this afternoon that can shoot somebody three quarters of a mile away. The gravity of the product that they've placed on the marketplace is very significant. There are guns that can take lives but it seems this product enables skill free killing. The implication of this kind of technology challenges the idea of personal responsibility and although you can argue that we've become more and more machine dependent in armed conflict, it seems that there is a tipping point, and this kind of weapon may be it. So has killing become too easy? Motherboard wants to find out and they're in West Texas headed towards Austin to meet up with the TrackingPoint folks. They're going to check out the future of weapons and see if the smart rifle can let someone like them, who haven't really shot before, to hit a target from a thousand yards away. The rifle does all the ballistic solutions for you. With a simple push of a tag button on the rifle, the LRF fires a laser downrange onto the target and it's updating back to the scope 54 times per second. To fire the rifle you squeeze and hold the trigger. While most rifles as soon as you squeeze the trigger they fire this one will not fire until the calculations are done.