Communication and control of accessories mounted on the powered rail of a weapon

A firearm may have a plurality of power-consuming accessories that can be attached to the weapon. In order to reduce the weight of these power-consuming accessories, as well as the proliferation of their batteries, the Weapon Accessory Power Distribution System provides a common power source to power the power-consuming accessories attached to the weapon. One or more powered rails are provided on the handguard, which encircles the barrel of the weapon, to provide a point of mechanical and electrical interconnection for the power-consuming accessories to provide quick-connect mounting and dismounting of the power-consuming accessory, absent the use of connectors with their tethering cables, which are susceptible to entanglement. The Weapon Accessory Control System is provided to enable the user to control the activation of a power-consuming accessory as well as enable communications between the user and the accessory and among power-consuming accessories.