News release:
Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) reacted to the White House release of a report outlining a research and development strategy to expedite real-world deployment of smart gun technology. The report, prepared jointly by the Departments of Defense (DoD), Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS), was ordered by President Obama in a January 2016 memorandum as part of the administration’s executive actions to curb gun violence.
“In a world where thumbs secure smartphones and retinas unlock wall safes, you can’t tell me that we can’t sell smart guns with technology that prevents it from firing if it falls into the wrong hands,” said Murphy. “I appreciate the White House report today, which moved this conversation forward in an important way. I’m determined to do everything I can to make sure the federal government incentivizes the sale of smart guns so we can save lives.”
Blumenthal said, “The smart gun initiative offers potential sweeping significant safety steps that will save lives and stop tragic gun violence. New devices now in development can be speeded by using federal dollars and leadership as leverage to support research and development of life-saving technology. Safety technology, once unimaginable, is now in use in cars, drugs, and other devices–and should be both affordable and feasible for guns. This presidential initiative offers hope for a major breakthrough in stopping the public health crisis and epidemic of gun violence, but is no substitute for congressional action on common sense, sensible measures like universal background checks. If children cannot accidentally find a weapon, and criminals can’t use stolen or traditional guns, lives will be saved. The goal of this initiative is to create market demand, not arbitrary mandates, for safer firearms–a promising new strategy.”
Murphy and Blumenthal have been strong advocates for smart gun technology. Earlier this year in a hearing with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Murphy requested an update on the DoD, DOJ, and DHS report on smart gun technologies, and emphasized that the agencies can leverage their ability to procure guns with smart technology to promote research among private gun manufacturers and sellers, ultimately improving gun safety across the board.
Now that’s Smart Thinking on safer guns!
Don’t think any smart person could be against this improvement.
Yeah, hopefully it will be safer than airbags that turn into hand grenades or WiFi that let’s a kid with an iPhone take over your car. BTW, that iPhone can be hacked. I am sure the people who are not supposed to have guns will know how to do that to your gun.
Bob, really? This is just a trick to ban guns by making them unaffordable. You can have a gun but they cost $3,500 dollars now.
Smart guns are a great concept, but I suspect it will take many, many, years to work out the practical (foolproof) technology. Many things have to be considered and successfully accounted for, such as prevention of the deliberate disabling of the smart-lock feature by “the bad guys,” as well as the failure of the technology during any of a number of scenarios. And what about the ability to disable the locking of the device in a timely way if the owner has to use the weapon for legitimate self-defense? Reliance on this technology could lull us into a false sense of security. If this “smart” technology is translated into looser gun restrictions, we might find ourselves regretting our over-reliance on technology versus our reliance on commonsense gun control. The NRA will likely say with “smart” technology, there is no problem with the easing of many gun-restrictions.
Guns aren’t cell phones, if the “privacy safeguards” fail on guns, people won’t be getting embarrassed, they’ll be getting killed.
It will only be after the technology is considered “mature” and usable, and smart guns hit the streets, we will see how many ways there really are for the failure/circumvention of the technology.
Smart guns might just turn out to be a contradiction in terms. One way to get an early handle on whether or not smart guns are a smart idea is by the reaction of the NRA, Shooting Sports, et al., to implementation of this technology under the law; if the NRA et al., like the idea, then it is probably a bad idea.
*** Ways to go for better technology for these weapons plus they are very expensive. It’s the tip of the iceberg on gaining any real meaningful gun control and better documentation across the board. However, stay on course guys, America needs better control, etc. when it comes to assault weapons in general and their use or need by consumers in general, no? ***
It could also be much to-do about nothing.
In 2013, firearms were used in 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) and 11,208 deaths by homicide (3.5 per 100,000), 21,175 by suicide with a firearm, 505 deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm, and 281 deaths due to firearms-use with “undetermined intent” for a total of 33,169 deaths related to firearms (excluding firearm deaths due to legal intervention). 1.3% of all deaths in the country were related to firearms.
1.3% of all deaths in the US are due in some way to guns. This is a very small number. In 2013 there were 11,208 deaths by homicide and 32,719 deaths by car. You would save three times the number of people if you ban cars.
Statistics show gun violence affects very few people in a sensational way. Too many people are distracted from REAL problems by media hype.