Are Smart Guns that Wirelessly Recognize Owners Safe or Controlling?

“Smart guns” are weapons that only their owners can fire because it recognizes the fingerprints of the owner using a mechanism, usually located on the grip. They can unlock by wirelessly interacting with a ring or watch that the shooter is wearing.

The subject is getting media attention. As it currently stands, gun shops don’t sell these types of firearms. When a Maryland gun dealer announced that he was going to sell a smart gun, he was attacked by critics who accused him of being the reason for a New Jersey ban on regular gun that don’t have smart gun features.

Smart guns aren’t mass-produced in the United States due largely to the high-tech weapons being seen as a “backdoor to greater gun control.”

Advocates, however, believe that they can lower the rates of suicide and accidental shootings with smart guns.

The sale of smart guns could restrict gun sales. This would almost be the case in New Jersey, where a 13-year-old law hinges on the availability of smart guns to the general public; it mandates that all regular handguns sold in the state be smart guns.

Acknowledging how this law has actually inadvertently impeded smart guns from coming onto the marketplace, New Jersey State Senator Loretta Weinberg acknowledges that this law has hindered smart guns from emerging into the marketplace.

It was she who sponsored the original mandate and informed “60 Minutes” that she’ll ask her state’s legislature to repeal the law and replace it with one mandating at least one smart gun be for sale wherever weapons are sold in her state.

Opponents fear that enforcing the sales of smart guns punishes responsible gun owners.

The attitude towards smart guns might be changing as people, especially young parents, might be more likely to take the high-tech option. It still remains to be seen if innovation and technology will win out in the end.