Can 'Smart Gun' Technology Help Prevent Violence?

[DanTex]

For years, many have dreamed of so-called smart guns, weapons that know their rightful owner and won't fire in the wrong hands. Think James Bond's gun in Skyfall.

A few major gun makers experimented with smart guns in the 1990s, but none came to market. Since then, it's been the domain of entrepreneurs and inventors.

...

Stephen Teret has waited for this moment for decades.

"I first started thinking about personalized gun technology when a young child, who was the child of a friend, was killed by another young child," Teret says.

That was about 30 years ago, and it led him to found the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. He thinks smart guns could reduce youth suicides, accidental shootings and deaths from stolen weapons.

"We have a technology that will prove to be a lifesaving technology," he says. "We need to get it into guns. There's politics that have prevented that from happening, but we've got to get beyond those politics."

...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/03/18/174629446/can-smart-gun-technology-help-prevent-violence

[PoliticAverse]

1. If it works NYC Mayor Bloomberg should get the NYPD adopt the technology. n/t

[raidert05]

2. Thats awesome!

It would be like your keys for your car now-a-days it would be cool if you could implant the chip in the wrist and then just configure multiple firearms to your chip. The technology could be expanded to say gun safes, trigger locks, holsters the ideas are limitless if the technology could be perfected.

[ManiacJoe]

3. Most of the concepts are good ones.

It is getting closer, but unfortunately technology has not yet gotten past the Real World scenarios:
What happens when you are wearing gloves?
What happens when your hands are dirty or covered in blood?
What happens when you swap the gun to your other hand?
What happens when the batteries die?

[Travis_0004]

5. Plus, what if other people want to shoot my gun

I've shot other peoples guns, and let people shoot my gun.

Plus, if I need a gun for self defense, I will accept nothing less than 100% reliability, and I doubt I would ever trust this technology. There are many people who refuse to buy guns with key locks because they are not 100% reliable, so why would people trust this?

[Warren Stupidity]

7. You are absolutely right, which is why strict regulation is the answer

to out of control gun violence. Glad to have you on board as a supporter of strict gun control.

[defacto7]

9. actually the scenarios are endless...

But the one that comes to mind is the fact that just about every technology today can be "hacked" for lack of a better word. It would take a crazy level of technology just so the thing doesn't have a chance of turning on you by failure or malfunction. Chips? totally obsolete. Eye scan, nano carbon sensors, chemical analysis of the skin or heart beat.... it's all a great dream but it is way beyond practicality.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. I think a lot of gun violence is committed by the legal gun owner.

So this will prevent some stolen gun related violence, but nothing else.

[graham4anything]

6. Almost all mass shootings are done with legal guns. And all guns are born legal.

Now, if they can make bullets 100% obsolete, so that the gun would be a collector's item,
but would no longer be of any use as bullets would no longer work, anywhere in the streets of America.

[ellisonz]

8. I actually heard this on NPR today - I support it fully.

I disagree with Josh Sugarmann that it would make people want to own more guns. People already want to own guns. The problem is that it's being done in an irresponsible and dangerous way. If this saves 600 lives a year some day (those who are accidentally shot) then I'm all for it.

[gunsR4killing]

10. The most effective gun trigger lock ever

There is a simple solution to a significant portion of gun violence, including the most prevalent: suicides.

Owners of weapons should bear civil and criminal liability for unlocked guns. What constitutes 'unlocked'? That would be up to the jury.

[ellisonz]

11. Welcome to DU!

[Rhiannon12866]

12. Wouldn't that be pretty much like locking the barn door after the horse is stolen?

I mean that no one would know whether a gun had been locked, or not, unless there was some unfortunate incident.

Welcome to DU!

[In_The_Wind]

13. Hello gunsR4killing

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