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"There's a new rifle in town, and it's not a simple new weapon. It's a high-tech smart rifle that allegedly makes even novice shooters very accurate. With its lasers, built-in computer and color graphic display, you could say it's a rifle with its own brain and eyes.\n\"Think of it like a smart rifle. You have a smart car; you got a smartphone; well, now we have a smart rifle,\" Jason Schauble, president of TrackingPoint, the Texas startup who built the gun, told NPR. \nFor him, this is the rifle for the new, always-connected, social media generation \u2014 yes, this is the rifle you want if you're into Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. \n\"They like to post videos; they like to be in constant communication with groups or networks,\" he said. \"This kind of technology, in addition to making shooting more fun for them, also allows shooting to be something that they can share with others.\"\nApart from all its high-tech gizmos that make it super-accurate, this smart rifle \u2014 which is actually called the TrackingPointPrecision Guided Firearm \u2014 also features a Wi-Fi transmitter that can send audio and video to an iPad, allowing the user to relive every shot he takes and share its best ones online, on YouTube or other social media networks.\nSEE ALSO: Texas Congressman Will Arm Twitter Follower With an AR-15\n\nThe rifle takes advantage of a slew of technologies that make it more accurate and easier to use than other guns \u2014 almost like a video game. As explained in this video, the rifle features a color graphics display that allows the shooter to \"tag\" the target with a button (see how that works here). Then, when the shooter pulls the trigger, it's the rifle \u2014 with the help of its balistic computer and a laser range finder \u2014 who chooses when to actually shoot. And, technically, that will only happen when the weapon is pointed at the tagged target and all the external conditions like wind, distance and other factors have been taken into account. \nNeedless to say, as NPR reported, some think all this efficiency is actually a terrible idea. With the gun debate in Washington stalled and massacres like Newtown still fresh in the memory of all Americans, some wonder if this is the right time for a rifle that supposedly makes it way easier to kill. \n\"Where we have mental health issues, where we have children that are disassociated from society early on, when we have terrorists who have political cards to play, we have to restrict weapons that make them more efficient in terrorizing the population,\" Chris Frandsen, a Vietnam veteran told NPR.\nThe rifle was developed over three years by a team of 70 people. It will cost $22,000, and the company says it will have safety features in place, like a passcode that allows only the owner to use its smart system. That, the company says, will prevent other people from maliciously using the weapon's high-tech features.\nTo see how this smart rifle can work, watch this animated video below.\n\nImage courtesy of TrackingPoint"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/05/16/trackingpoint-smart-rifle/>