Want Some Salsa With Your Chips?

Recently there was an article about Chiappa Firearms plans to put RFID "chips" on its firearms.  Once that information was loose the New World Order and conspiracy theory types immediately began screaming that the sky was falling.  Big brother could drive by your house and know how many guns you have!

Good grief!

Our friends at Ammoland.com put out a brief message regarding this silliness.  As Sheriff Buford T. Pusser said, What we have here is a failure to communicate.   Seems someone's translation of Italian was less than flawless.  The common RFID tag was interpreted as a "tracking chip" and thus, panic was created.

As the Ammoland folks explained, the RFID system cannot transmit anything by itself. It requires an external reader than beams a coded radio frequency (RF) signal.  The RFID tag uses the very low power provided by the RF signal to do only one thing -- send a very low power RF signal back that represents a number. By itself, this number usually doesn't mean anything.  You need a computer and a database too.  That low power "reply" signal, by the way, requires a sensor to be within close proximity - less than 2 feet and typically within 6 inches.

I've worked with RFID systems in the I.T. business for several years in inventory management, freight management and retail systems.  Most likely, so have you.  If you've ever purchased certain products, like an expensive digital camera or high-theft items like DVD's or game joystick controllers you may have seen the cashier put the item into a "tub" after bagging and then press a button.  This deactivates the "anti-theft" RFID tag that those door scanners pick up.

You can walk past those door scanners carrying the "live" RFID tags without triggering the alarm. Only when you pass through the "focused" signal will the tag respond.  In this case, any response triggers the alarm.

On a production line, a handgun frame tagged with an RFID tag makes inventory easier. Instead of counting each frame, a reader is used to record each ID tag which corresponds to one frame. If the tags are issued in sequence any gap in the sequence indicates a missing frame that needs to be located. This can happen long before the frames acquire a serial number and aids in preventing "inside theft". 

As I said, the RFID tag replies to a reader with "a number". That number can be controlled by the company when tags are ordered. Suppose the tag replies with the number 5567783. Once the frame acquires a serial number like AJ84995, a worker enters the serial number on a computer, then scans the tag, associating 5567783 with the serial number.  Later, when the gun is boxed up, the shipping department can "scan" the closed box and read the tag's number -- 5567783.  The reader asks the computer's database for the serial number which it displays on the scanner's LCD screen.  This allows the shipping clerk to confirm the serial number matches the one on the box and release it for shipping.

There are "chip" style RFID tags too.  Some people have them implanted in the ear of their pets so that animal shelters can identify them from strays.  Sometimes they can even get the owner's name from a national database.

An RFID expert once told me that the signal put out by an RFID chip, at 6 feet is about one third the singal strength that NASA receives from the Galileo probe near Jupiter, almost 400 million miles away.  But if you're worried about some kind of scanner detecting your Chiappa firearm, just remove the RFID unit from the gun.   It's that easy. 

If you still think this is some kind of nefarious scheme, I can get you a great deal on tin foil -- cash and in small bills.