Axon Shelves Promising Program 

“You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?” —Robert Louis Stevenson

Taser-maker Axon Enterprise Inc. has announced it’s shelving a promising project that would equip drones with stun guns for purpose of combating mass shootings. The measure came too late to stop nine of the company’s 12-member ethics advisory board members from announcing their resignations in protest of the emergent technology.

The May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, TX, prompted Axon to announce it was working on a forward-thinking drone system that first-responders could operate remotely to fire a Taser at a target up to forty-feet (12 meters) away.

Subsequent the announcement, nine of 12 members of the company's AI Ethics Board quit over concerns the drones would harm allegedly over-policed communities—the selfsame communities in which the majority of violent crimes are allegedly committed. The departing board members expressed further umbrage over Axon’s publicizing its ambitions without consulting them, thereby offending sensibilities the group deems sacrosanct.

Axon Chief Executive Rick Smith states, "In light of feedback, we are pausing work on this [drone] project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward.” Smith’s vertebral paucity bodes poorly for the future of effectively protecting children from maniacs.

The ethics board members’ actions exemplified a typical instance of  paroxysmal, liberal virtue-signaling, and spoke to the idiocy of repelling killers with sanctimony and indignation rather than force, e.g. bullets and hardened Taser-drones.  

Axon first approached its ethics board about Taser-equipped drones more than a year ago. Since that time, mass shootings that might have been precluded or stopped by Axon technology have occurred in San Jose, Indianapolis, Orange, Boulder, Buffalo, and Uvalde. Last month, Axon’s ethics panel voted eight to four against running a limited police pilot of the Taser-drone technology.

“Ethics board members worried the drones could exacerbate racial injustice, undermine privacy through surveillance and become more lethal if other weapons were added,” member Wael Abd-Almageed said in an interview. 

Mr. Abd-Almageed‘s words no doubt bring comfort to the parents of slain Uvalde children, who are apt to take solace in the knowledge that their children’s lives helped advance the causes of social justice, identity politics, and diversity. 

FMI: www.axon.com