Responding to ShotSpotter, Police Shoot at Child Lighting Fireworks
www.eff.org
This post was written by Rachel Hochhauser, an EFF legal internWe’ve written multiple times about the inaccurate and dangerous “gunshot detection” tool, Shotspotter. A recent near-tragedy in Chicago adds to the growing pile of evidence that cities should drop the product.On January 25, while...

Three officers approached the boy’s house, with one asking “What you doing bro, you good?” They heard a loud bang, later determined to be fireworks, and shot at the child. Fortunately, no physical injuries were recorded. In initial reports, police falsely claimed that they fired at a “man” who had fired on officers.

In a subsequent assessment of the event, the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability (“COPA”) concluded that “a firearm was not used against the officers.” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling placed all attending officers on administrative duty for 30 days and is investigating whether the officers violated department policies.

ShotSpotter is the largest company which produces and distributes audio gunshot detection for U.S. cities and police departments. Currently, it is used by 100 law enforcement agencies.

Experts have long been warning of these tools’ the inaccuracy.

  • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I mean there are a couple issues that make gun control difficult in the US:

    • Huge number of guns already in the country. Even if stricter gun laws were passed there are so many guns in circulation that it will still be easy to get illegal guns. Many of the guns have been sold or changed owners multiple times meaning there’s no database/etc that will let these guns be easily tracked down or collected.

    • it’s easy to compare the US to Europe due to having the same economic output and looking somewhat similar in size on a map, but the US is about twice as large as Europe with less than half of Europe’s population. A huge amount of the country is rural, and they want guns for wild animals/security/etc.

    • Relatively unsecured Mexican border. Funnily enough this is one thing I would think both political parties would be in agreement over. For any serious gun control to work, the Mexican border would need to be secured. It’s probably a moot point because of the first point though, but you can’t try to resolve the first point without having more control over what enters the country.

    • This isn’t a US specific issue, but 3d printed guns are a thing now, and are getting better all the time. I think countries that have largely been gun free are going to have increasing issues with criminals having guns, and their law enforcement will have to adapt.

    So basically there are a lot of people who want to own guns, and many of them have legitimate reasons for some gun ownership. Passing strong gun laws will be problematic for those people, while being unlikely to actually reduce the availability of illegal guns. Gun laws would probably help with school shootings though since I think most of those guns are legally owned guns stolen from family members.

    I’m sure people have some great counter arguments for my points, but my main point is it’s not a simple as “ban guns”. And I’m not even getting into 2nd amendment and the idea that the American people have a responsibility to stay armed enough to hold their government accountable through force if needed.