Saw this on social media. Peter Alaric made a device that uses ultrasonic pulses to detect an object’s distance. It is installed on a Desert Eagle Electric Airsoft pistol. When the sensor is tripped, a relay disengages the battery connections in the pistol. Thereby deactivating the electric pistol.

Here is an explanation of the prototype. I love how he points the pistol at his head and says “I could aim this at my head theoretically, but I am not going to”. Um . . . you just did it.

Peter makes the point that this is for training purposes and not self defense. He makes false assumptions about hitting people, by accident, at farther distances. He claims that shooters hit people that are physically close by and MuzzleSafe “makes that basically impossible”. Ah the hubris of such statements. I think we can all see the problem here. First of all it is a system that is man made. It is electric so there is already an added component of complexity that could fail when needed. What if the battery is dead or worse, your forgot to turn the sensor on. In the video there is an on and off switch. What if you left it on and stored the pistol for a while. Brought it out and assumed the battery was good but you killed it cause you left it on.

The other glaring issue aside from the fact that this would only work in an electric pistol and not a mechanical pistol, is that this rewards people for complacency. Trigger discipline and adherence of the simple Firearm Safety Rules is how we can collectively avoid accidents. Just like cars. How many safety features do they have now? Car manufacturers keep adding more and more safety features to help a driver avoid an accident, Such as sensors for drowsy drivers, sensors for lane changing blind spots and other gadgets.  And yet it does not address the very simple fact that people still have accidents. People are dumb and will do dumb things. The best way to combat this is education and not allowing unsafe firearm handling to continue. If you see something, say something. Call someone out if you see them on the range. Let us all help each other to become better shooters.