We have written about the TrackingPoint, the company behind the PGFs, or Precision Guided Firearms, their technology which helps shooters aim for a target and hit it with deadly accuracy even at a thousand yards. The secret sauce is in the scope which is a high-tech gadget the uses the electronics of the rifle to help it aim and release the round whilst the shooter just needs to ensure that the reticle hits the tagged point on the target. All the calculations are done by the scope.

If you think it's like the jet fighter pilot's HUD when it needs to lock its missile on the target before releasing the missile, then you are right. However, a bullet can easily close the distance to target and the target doesn't get a warbling tone  of a missile lock-on to take evasive action.

The technology of Tracking Point is such an advanced thing in terms of firearms shooting, that it raises questions of making precision shooting, which is a skill that takes over years, thousands of rounds, and even thousands of dollars for the proper equipment to develop, now an easy thing to do. This also helps anyone with a firearm with an installed PGF, make accurate shots, even with just solid basic shooting skills. This also makes precision kills even easier for someone who intends to kill people, if not vermin.

Motherboard TV in their documentary, "The Gun That Aims Itself" visit TrackingPoint at their Texas headquarters. The journalists actually have no firearms skills and had to be oriented in using firearms and basic shooting. But in no time, they were already making precision shots, showing how it's easy to arm a novice shooter and shoot like a veteran sniper with the PGF. Just imagine arming a populace with PGFs, and invader may just think twice.

Many are interested in the technology of TrackingPoint, such as law enforcement, military, and allied nations of the U.S. as it's a technology that can be an equalizer in the battlefield, and for law enforcement, a valuable tool for police snipers in hostage situations. However, there are concerns of making this technology widely available for the obvious reasons that it makes precision shooting easy for criminals and enemies of the State too. As in any tool or technology, there are always the pros and cons in using such for good or for evil.

No matter how we debate on the ethical uses of TrackingPoint's PGF, the cat is already out of the bag. Even if TrackingPoint will not make their technology widely available, someone else will. Whilst the scope contains the technology, it is still software dependent, and software is very much portable since it's digital. Anyone may just try to program something similar, and for any country or company with resources, it's not an impossible job to do.

We always believe that technology is always something good for the progress of humans, we just hope that technologies such as TrackingPoint will not be used for its own destruction.  I highly recommend you watch the documentary in its entirety and not dismiss the concerns of those who were interviewed and have much reservations about it. Having a critical mind is always needed in civilized societies.