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“Smart technology” is a dodge to make any firearm almost completely inoperable. There are so many interlocks that are supposed to make the mechanism responsive only to a certain order of authorizations, that the least malfunction just shuts the operation down altogether.

Handguns have evolved from old flintlock muskets, that were individually reloaded between firings, from a supply of powder and a lead ball rammed down the muzzle, and firing from a relatively unreliable spark struck by a spring-loaded lever flying forward, hitting a piece of flint against a metal strike plate, that was supposed to ignite a mound of gunpowder in a pan, and the ignition was to travel to the charge of gunpowder in the gun barrel.

Misfires were pretty frequent, and frankly, it may be necessary to resort to a sword or dagger if the enemy was about to overrun your position.

The invention of breach-load of a pre-assembled cartridge with the projectile, the powder load, and the percussion cap, made the musket into a sort of primitive shotgun, still not especially reliable, but deadly when the projectile did hit something. The rifling of the interior bore helped to make the lead projectile easier to control and aim more accurately. The further refinement of the breach-load to allow the ejection of the spent cartridge and the reload of a fresh cartridge through a semi-automatic mechanism that used part of the gas pressure from the previous discharge to power its action, and the recocking of the trigger, made the hand-carried firearm a much more potent and deadly instrument of hand-to-hand combat.

Now the plan is to make each of these steps subject to some kind of review function, before moving to the next step. I see where the complexity would quickly leave the sidearm completely inoperable if there is the least variation in the protocol, and the bearer of the said modified weapon is subject to death before the series of go/no-go decisions are completed.

Kind of right back with the muzzle-loaded flintlock musket.