Chiappa Firearm "Tracking CHIP" RFID Controversy

Hello everyone,
 
I recently received a Press Release from Shults Media who represents MKS Distributing, the distributor for Chiappa Firearms.
 
RFID chips are to be used in the manufacture of Chiappa Firearms. There is also appears to be a huge controversy in the firearms blogosphere with respect to these RFID chips. Unfortunately for me, I can't get on the blogosphere because blogs might be bad for me, according to the IT guys...
 
First off the press release is incorrect, and is an attempt by MKS Distributors to "Damage Control" or "Spin" the situation.
 
I call Bull Shit on the following: "The Chiappa PASSIVE RFID can be read ONLY when passed within (2-3 inches) of an active (and powered) reader that is dialed in for the particular long antenna radio frequency of the RFID-this is not random." 
 
Having no small experience now with RFID, let me tell you that they can be read by the appropriate reader at 30 meters. Furthermore no RFID chip reader that is being used for logistical control will have its range limited to 3 inches. A carton, or even pallets of materials will need a reader set to several feet.  " Passive RFID is also a final check that verifies that what is inside the sealed box is the same thing as shown on the box exterior bar code during shipping. Now, it will no longer be necessary to open/inspect hundreds of boxes by hand prior to packing in export containers. " 3 inches eh? How is it going to read a pallet of material at 3 inches?  I can only assume that MKS Distributors thinks most people are idiots, and incapable of figuring things out on their own.
 
Now here are some more facts about RFID:
The reader does upload the information to a server, and that server can transmit that information anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye. How do you think Walmart can track any item, anywhere, at any time, in their inventory?
Readers can be configured to range, frequency, and an assorted other of functions, some (Surprise!!!) that are classified. I know this to be true.
 
I think what chafes my jaw more than anything is the following from the press release: "Others may prefer to wrap the revolver and their head in aluminum foil, curl in a ball and watch reruns of Mel Gibson's 1997 film, Conspiracy Theory."
 
I would suggest to Shults Media and MKS Distributors to more closely pay attention to their customers. Shults, as the mouth piece for Chiappa, you should have considered the ramifications of allowing MKS to insult their core customer base. That is what they pay you for right?
 
I would immediately remove the RFID chip as suggested, and and if you were considering purchasing a Chiappa Firearms product, perhaps you might reconsider. If this is how they respond to a legitimate concern, how are they going to treat you once they have your money?
 
Personally, I am certain that the RFID chip is just for logistical control, that's what they are used for. But if a customer is uncomfortable with it, then the merchant needs to respond with honest and candor, rather than insults. A simple explanation with instructions for removal would have sufficed.
 
 
 
Here is the Press Release:
 

RFID "Chip" in Chiappa Firearms-what's up with that?

 

MKS Distributing, Dayton OH, July, 2011-Distributor for Chiappa Firearms

Recently there has been some blogger activity (credibility always guaranteed) concerning Chiappa Firearms putting a RFID (radio frequency identification) in Chiappa Firearms. Yes, but Chiappa will not be using the RFID system for at least a year.  

RUMOR: (known as blogosphere food): The erroneous information about some sort of "chip" was put out by a blogger who translated Chiappa (Italian) technical information incorrectly.  The incorrect translation and his interpretation came out as some sort of a GPS type tracking "chip" -which RFID isn't as it cannot transmit anything-it has NO power source (unlike cell phones).
 
THE FACTS: Recently several Italian gun makers (not just Chiappa) decided to utilize RFID technology to improve manufacturing and provide more accurate inventory control. We guarantee this technology will proliferate to other gun makers world wide as it is so efficient for everything from production QC control to export/import verification.  Other industries already use passive RFID technology such as on DVDs, sunglasses, clothes and even some food products for example.

Basically Chiappa RFID (again it is radio frequency identification) assists the manufacturing process, inventory control and shipping. The type of information on the RFID ties in the firearm and proof house verification; the latter is required by the Italian Government for all firearms made in Italy. Passive RFID is also a final check that verifies that what is inside the sealed box is the same thing as shown on the box exterior bar code during shipping. Now, it will no longer be necessary to open/inspect hundreds of boxes by hand prior to packing in export containers. 

BOTTOM LINE: The Chiappa PASSIVE RFID can be read ONLY when passed within (2-3 inches) of an active (and powered) reader that is dialed in for the particular long antenna radio frequency of the RFID-this is not random.  And it will NOT go into operation for a year or more.

SUMMARIZING: RFIDs have NO power source or GPS locator.  Rest assured they are NOT transmitting your identification and location information to a Chiappa Firearm tasked CIA satellite.

 

Proposed RFID shown on a Chiappa Revolver grip frame   

 

RFID Removal: For those still concerned you can simply remove the grip and remove the hot glued RFID from the frame in the grip area when (over a year from now) these begin to appear.  Others may prefer to wrap the revolver and their head in aluminum foil, curl in a ball and watch reruns of Mel Gibson's 1997 film, Conspiracy Theory.  Well, that's a plan too!

 

Media Professionals For more (accurate???) information you may contact:

 

MKS Supply, Inc. the marketer for Chiappa Firearms
937-454-0363


Albert A Rasch
Qalat City, Zabul Province, Afghanistan
Standing Ready when the Wolves Growl at the Door...

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
The Range Reviews: Tactical

Approving Comments and Other Fobiles

My friends,
 
Unfortunately I can't even get into the logon function to approve your comments.
 
Hippo thanks for stopping by! Freedom, as expressed by Thomas Jefferson is a universal truth for everyone. It is a shame that even we, his National progeny, don't realize that. There are many that would trade it for imagined security. To quote Founding Father Benjamin Franklin,
 
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

NorCal, they will allow me access to my blog in time, but the rational is that there are "porn" blog sites. So all blogs are forbidden, and they don't have time to go through each and every blog that exists. I'm hoping that they will allow me to put together a list of the 300 or so blogs I read, and approve them. I let you know how that works out...
 
ColoradoCaster, Thanks for visiting! Appreciate the nice comment, and happy to be of service! It's a handy little thing this email blogger but I have no idea how to add pictures or format the post. I'm just happy to post a note to everyone.
 
Thanks again everyone!
 
Best regards!
Albert A Rasch
Qalat City, Zabul Province, Afghanistan
Standing Ready when the Wolves Growl at the Door...

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
The Range Reviews: Tactical

Rumors of My Demise Have Been Exagerated

Hello everyone!
 
I'm using the email version of Blogger as the geniuses at Home Office have contracted a new internet service provider that has blocked all Blogs!
 
Not only that, but I am shuttling about several bases, covering for other Site Managers on leave. In addition I am soon to be posted to a new base that I have affectionately named "Skull Mountain" When I can convince the powers that be, that TROC is not a subversive blog, I'll post pictures and you shall see why I gave it that moniker.
 
Hopefully, you are all having a great summer with lots of fun and frolic. You all just keep that up, and pitch a couple of cold ones back for me! Enjoy your families and your friends too.

Best regards,
Albert A Rasch
Somewhere in Afghanistan
Standing Ready when the Wolves Growl at the Door...

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
The Range Reviews: Tactical

TROC Presents, The Declaration of Independence

Albert A Rasch™ and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

My Dearest Friends,

On this, the most solemn and most joyous of days, I wish to you, one and all, peace, prosperity, and freedom!

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Prose Credit: Thomas Jefferson Founding Father

Read it my friends; read it with your children. Ponder what was meant and think about where we are going.

Best to you my fellow Americans!
Albert A Rasch

Though he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Patriot and hunter Albert Rasch was actually a student of biology. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained capuchin monkey could do better, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information, reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN(dot)com.

Oo La La! Cest Magnifique! The Suburban Bushwacker!

The Suburban Bushwacker entertains and educates!
© 2011 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles™
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

Friends,

I like nothing better than a good, ole fashioned, rollicking shootout on a crisp autumn morning. Blood pumping, adrenalin flowing, finger on the trigger, with acrid cordite in the air burning your nose like brimstone - nothing speaks better of a proper Sunday morning spent in contemplation of one's life.

Our irrepressible and sometimes wacky Over-the-Pond Blogger who is more commonly known as The Suburban Bushwacker, has an older post that I think is all to good to be left whithering away in the bowels of the internet netherworld.

Our entertaining, fearless Blogger/correspondent from the British Isles shares "Battue: French For Bushwacking" and explains how our Continental friends organize and run a drive.

Now I don't know about you, but I sure would love to experience that at least once in my life. Of course it may also be the last thing I do, but I am willing to take the risk..

Even if they are French...

Best Regards,
Albert “Afghanus” Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
Albert Rasch In Afghanistan

Member: Shindand Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

Though he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Albert was actually a student of biology. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained capuchin monkey could do better, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information, reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN(dot)com.