Looks like some dude in Georgia is bringing the remote-controlled gun into the 21st Century. From the Kotaku:

You pull the trigger in a game, and a series of 1s and 0s determines whether you did anything in the virtual world. You pull the trigger on this thing and a real gun shoots at a real, living creature.

Last year, Jay Williams – the man whose property the contraption was discovered on – built this rig opposite a food plot in Georgia. It consisted of three shotguns and some web cameras. The shotguns were rigged to fire when given commands over the internet.

Williams says the guns, which he claims were never completed, were designed to allow people to shoot feral hogs, which are present in the area. A user could sit at home and control the guns via remote control; once a pig wandered into range of the platform, they could operate the guns without needing to be anywhere near the action.

Sounds convenient! Problem is, remote-controlled shotguns set up in the middle of the scrub are not just dangerous, they’re also highly illegal (in 25 states, at least, including Georgia) which may explain why by the time the cops came to check them out they’d mysteriously “disappeared”, never to be seen of again.

Remember Katko v. Briney, that case you read in torts about the guy in Iowa who set up a spring-loaded shotgun as a trap onhis property? The Court found the homeowner was liable as the use of deadly force on intruders in an unoccupied area was not reasonable. I suppose this is somewhat on point, if someone were to get hurt.

More in the August Chronicle:

H/T