Comment Re:But fundamentally, isn't it about a tradeoff? (Score 1) 1013
The question is, I think, whether that decrease in reliability is an acceptable tradeoff for the increase in safety gained due to only the owner being able to fire it.
Determining whether a tradeoff in reliability is worth a potential increase in safety can only be done by the person needing the firearm. It's easy for a third party to look at a general situation, calculate some numbers, and decide wether or not a tradeoff is worth it. What a third party misses is the lifetime of knowledge and experiences held by the firearm owner. Consider the manner you calculated reliability. You calculation was determined by considering the number of failed firings in relation to the number of successful firings. A blanket calculation like that doesn't take into consideration the condition that can induce failure.
Electronics are more susceptible environmentally induced failures. Consider an individual living in a jungle environment. They are dealing with higher humidity and periodical encounters with water (either through rain or crossing bodies of water). Water does not interact well with electronics. While the average number of failures across the board after adding electronics to a gun may only be 3 in 10,000 the number of failures experienced in a jungle environment are likely to be much higher. Extremely cold weather can also wreck havoc with electronics. A person living in an arctic region is likely to have more failures after electronics are added to a firearm.
Firearms are, to a point, inherently dangerous. It is a device designed to cause physical harm. When the purpose of a device is to cause physical harm the amount of safety that can be added is limited. Consider the chainsaw, another device designed to cause harm (although primarily to trees). It consistes of an engine that spins a chain that is covered in sharp blades. Being designed to cut through trees a chainsaw can easily cut through a human as well. Safety devices have been added to chainsaws but the design only lends itself to a certain amount of safety before it becomes too unreliable for its intended purpose. The intended purpose of a firearm is often defensive. When it's needed it's usually needed immediately and any failure to properly operate can cost the user his or her life. Due to this most people are likely unwilling to reduce reliability in the name of safety. Firearms are already to the point where they are extremely safe for the user so long as some basic safety rules are followed.