'Smart Guns' are Safer Guns

Christian Science Moniter ^ | 1/7/03 | (Author unnamed)

[hoosierskypilot]

New Jersey's state legislature has defied the state's gangsta rap again, with a recent first-in-the-nation vote requiring all new handguns sold to carry technology that allows only their owners to fire them.

(Earlier, the state took another gun-control lead as the first to require guns be sold with trigger locks.)

Even though such "smart gun" technology is not yet fully developed, New Jersey takes an appropriate gun- safety step by putting such a requirement in place.

Smart guns use sensors in a gun's grip wired to a microchip inside the gun. The chip "remembers" an individual owner's hand grip, and thus prevents the gun from firing if anyone else attempts to use it. Once the technology is determined to be safe and workable (in an expected two years), the New Jersey law requires the technology to be phased in over three years.

The safety ramifications for this move are significant. Smart guns can help prevent accidental deaths or suicides. Gun accidents, including suicides, took the lives of 1,200 children and teens in 2000 in the US. Further, some 18,000 young people aged 19 or younger were injured by firearms, and 1,776 were killed in homicides according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Now that Congress has approved pilots carrying guns on commercial airplanes as a security measure, issuing smart guns to them could help prevent those weapons from being grabbed and used by anyone else.

Smart guns would also be rendered useless if stolen.

Even though the weapon was a rifle, not a handgun, in the recent Washington sniper case, the gun couldn't have been used by the two individuals involved, had it been "smart."

Though New Jersey is first to make the move, Tennessee, New York, and Ohio are already considering similar smart-gun measures. They'll have to stand up to the NRA, which has said it will retaliate against New Jersey Democrats for passing the bill, and no doubt will be at the ready to put pressure on other statehouses to keep them from passing similar legislation.

[Sender]

a person who commits suicide with a gun most likely owns it

That's a very good point. I can't recall any suicides where the victim borrowed or snatched someone else's gun. Also, the insanely exaggerated numbers of "children" quoted as killed or injured includes about 90% hardened gang violence. I'll wager if you could honestly add up all gun accidents, suicides and homicides, the totals would be WAY lower than these numbers as well.

[stylin19a]

Even though such "smart gun" technology is not yet fully developed,...

so much for the title

[Fred Mertz]

Given that police are far more likely to be killed with their own gun than some other gun if anyone is forced to have this stupid technology then police should be the first to prove it out.

Let the cops prove this new technology works in the field.

I'd like to hear their opinions of this 'smart gun' technology. I can think of several reasons why I'll use my 'genius gun' over theirs hands down.

[hoosierskypilot]

A safer bullet is one that hits the target. Practice. Practice. Practice.

[45Auto]

"Smart gun" is simply another way for the commies to ban gun ownership. The New Jersey experiment is doomed except for the fact that should any company come out with a workable prototype, then NO guns will be sold WITHOUT it. That translates to NO guns sold (or legally owned).

As an aside, any company stupid enough to try and actually sell a smart gun that was not 100% reliable is asking for serious, and in my opinion, well-deserved bankrupting lawsuits.

[Redcloak]

Smart guns =

[Mr Ducklips]

Smart guns would also be rendered useless if stolen.

Right. And they're likely to be rendered useless if they're not stolen, too.

[eskimo]

"We must have..... safer guns..... and safer bullets!" -- "Dr." Jocelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States of America.

I think we should strive for smarter people, perhaps then we would not have to endure such insufferable stupidity.

Who in their right mind would want to risk being killed because of a "low battery" problem?

[Djarum]

IIRC, 20% of police officers who are killed on the job by firearms, die by their own weapon. Is the military even exploring this technology for the next generation of infantry rifles? I will trust a 'smart gun' only when our troops and cops are confident in them.

[goose1]

Whats next? safer knives,baseball bats,beer bottles,fists,what a bunch of idiots

[walkingdead]

One electro-magnetic pulse and all your firearms will be useless. I think I'll stick with my old-fashion dumb-guns.

[Joe Brower]

'Smart Guns' are Safer Guns =

[ko_kyi]

Once, on a C-SPAN call-in I challenged then MD Governor Glendening to do this. He smiled and changed the subject. I know what he was thinking: "yeah, fat chance. I am far more important than you peons. Shut up and pay your taxes."

That was you? I heard that and roared with laughter. A beer to you sir, whenever you want it!

[Britton J Wingfield]

Also, the police should be first to get issued these "safer" weapons.

Exactly. Police have more weapons-retention problems, so they should be overjoyed to be saddled, er, equipped with smart guns.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

NOW THERE'S A GUN YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO RESELL OR TRADE!

[Bodacious]

Someone , somewhere will find a way to reprogram the chip.......legally or illegally.

[ArrogantBustard]

Is the military even exploring this technology for the next generation of infantry rifles?

I sincerely hope not. Imagine: Mortar round lands near Willie and Joe. Joe is KIA, and Willie's weapon is damaged. What's he gonna do? Pick up Joe's, of course, and keep fighting. Except that it's a "smart weapon", and keyed to Joe's fingerprints. It doesn't fire. Willie is now SOL.

[EBUCK]

New Jersey also passed another bill requiring that Ejection seats launch occupants at least 50 meters from their malfunctioning hover cars...

What a crock. Smart guns for a stupid state. Who the hell elected these people?

EBUCK

[DannyTN]

They won't reprogram the chip. They will just disable whatever safety device prevents the gun from firing.

If outlaws can file down the firing mechanism on an AK47 to make a semi-automatic into a full automatic. How long do you think it will take them to get this gun working?

[EBUCK]

Amazing. Truly amazing that they are even considering something so obviously fallable.

Wonder what the cost of a gun will do after this. Also...they will have to virtually outlaw gunsmithing in order to keep the guns safe.

EBUCK