Shooting Video

For those of you who missed out, the Internet this month provided a strange glimpse of how the line between a video camera and a gun can be disconcertingly thin.

The story concerns a rancher in Texas who had erected an Internet observation post where people could log on and watch a wealth of wildlife meandering about his property — deer, pigs, and, presumably, sitting ducks. When someone suggested that the video camera could be replaced with an Internet-operated gun, a plan was born.

From the sound of it, the technical transition from shooting video to shooting bullets was easy enough. The only obstacle now — as with most things — is a faster Internet connection. I suppose if anything could accelerate broadband deployment, this is surely it. After all, the rancher claims the gun will aim better over broadband. Compared to improving download speeds, improving the accuracy of a remote-controlled gun would surely be top priority, especially for anyone within range. Need a faster Internet? Apparently if you do hit something edible from your desktop you'll be able to arrange to have it butchered, packaged, and shipped to your home — presumably by someone who is confident about the broadband connection when they run out to retrieve the dead animal. Talk about deadly frame delay.

At press time it remains to be seen whether this operation will prove legal; the local police are suggesting a law that people “must be physically present to fire a gun.” Beyond that, it's natural to wonder whether the systems could be made safe from accidents or abuse or even whether this idea can — or should — be made viable for those who want to hunt that way. In the meantime, the story readily inspires the blackest kind of humor, as well as an uncomfortable, if unlikely, range of scenarios in which video cameras could be recast as guns.

Ironically this month, video and guns come together in Video Systems in a far more poignant and real-life way. Our cover story on the U.S. Military's DINFOS describes a kind of video training that most of us have little experience with. The video students get a world-class video education compressed into two intense months, as well as a weapons education that they are increasingly likely to need as lines between combat and non-combat troops blur throughout the military. They learn to handle the pressure of deadlines — that's a primary focus of the training and a way to help teach recruits to deal with other, more difficult, kinds of pressure. Unlike journalists, whose professional obligation is to keep the camera rolling no matter what, these videographers are soldiers too, sometimes soldiers first.

And finally, as reported on our back page column, video serves the military in another way as the Army & Air Force Hometown News Service gathers holiday messages from our far-flung troops, some of whom must surely wonder for a moment if they are recording their last message home.

As video goes where guns go — and vice versa — let's keep in mind all of those who are on both sides of the viewfinders and the gun sights.