How “Smart” Is A $200 Pistol Magazine?

With so-called “smart gun” technology floundering, mainly due to the poor quality of currently available firearms, inventors are turning to other ways of integrating technology into already perfectly functional firearms.

According to a poorly headlined story on Bloomberg.com titled “Clipfort Biometric Ammo”—the story is actually about magazines, not ammunition—an Israeli company named Clipfort is moving forward with production of sensor-equipped magazines for AR-15 rifles and many pistol models that require fingerprint identification to load ammunition. According to the report, the sensor on the bottom of the magazine is programmed at purchase to match the owner’s print.

Aside from the fact that it seems this technology would be simple to bypass by anybody who understands magazine function, and setup at point of purchase seems very problematic, the Clipfort mags are expected to cost $150 to $200—seven to eight times the price of a typical Glock magazine and nearly 20 times that of many AR magazines.