The Hewitt Times

Just over a month ago, over 20 innocent children were killed in Newtown, Connecticut because a gun landed in unsafe hands. How could we have stopped this? What can we do to prevent similar situations? Many of these answers surround new gun technology that might have been able to spare 26 lives and the emotional struggles of all their loved ones.

The saying, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” is a popular one with gun owners. Yes, people kill people, but guns do make that an easier task. Time and time again we’ve seen a cycle repeat itself when it comes to shootings–the massacres at Columbine, the Gabrielle Giffords rally in Tucson, the theater in Aurora, Colorado, and now at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Gun rights advocates, along with the NRA, gather together to express sympathy for the victims and their families, urging us to not let ourselves overreact in a sudden time of grief by restricting or taking away the right to bear arms from citizens not involved.

Since we can’t take guns away, we might as well ‘improve’ on them, for while people do kill people, ‘safer’ guns could make a monumental difference in the scope of recent events. Though this idea of a safe gun, in and of itself, seems to be quite oxymoronic, we can equate smarter and safer guns with a safer environment and fewer killings. Technology is the solution.

Through new technology, biometric verification and grip pattern detection can sense a gun’s registered owner, allowing only that person to fire it. This eliminates the problem of a killer using a stolen gun. The iGun, for example, has implemented its own version of this technology to create guns that cannot be fired unless its owner is wearing a ring that activates the firearm.

Making safer guns, like those with triggers that are less likely to go off accidentally, can also add to the equation. News of mass shootings that are clearly deliberate spread all around the world within hours, but what about people whose lives were taken by a mere accident due to faulty gun technology? These instances are seldom built up to be big news stories, but cases of accidental gun deaths are prevalent year after year. Guns are also consistently used for self-defense out of impromptu reactions, which can easily cause unintentional deaths. Just Googling “Deaths by accidental shootings in 2012” renders About 2,100,000 results (0.13 seconds) . That volume speaks for all the silence.

Just take a look at the widget below to see how guns today translate into real action. In this case, numbers speak louder than words.

The problem here is not with the technology but with the industry: “The gun industry has no interest in making smart guns. There is no incentive for them,” states professor of political science Robert Spitzer. To additionally complicate this, many guns are bought without background checks and registration through private sales. Gun advocates and those working in the gun industry are therefore against these technologies, because they would restrict these sales if implemented.

In terms of accidental deaths, the fault is oftentimes placed with the gun and how it was made, and the last thing a gun company wants to do is admit the fact that its product has been of harm to someone.

“At the National Rifle Association‘s 13th annual convention, mere mention of “smart-gun” technology elicited sneers and snickers faster than a speeding bullet. ” And as NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said, “Tragic victims couldn’t have been saved by trigger locks or magazine bans or ‘smart-gun’ technology, or some new government commission running our firearm companies.” The transparency behind LaPierre’s statement is shows its origins: money and control of his company. Every industry is built and run on finance and power, and the gun industry appears to be no different.

In response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, LaPierre responded by saying, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” According to NPR, “NRA officials blamed the news media for focusing on what they view as the wrong issue — guns — rather than violent video games and the nation’s mental health care programs.” But what if the “bad guy with a gun” wasn’t able to fire? That didn’t seem like part of the solution to the NRA. But technology would beg to differ.

TriggerSmart has recently developed and patented the first viable childproof gun filled with technology that promotes safety. Using RFID technology, TriggerSmart guns are proven to prevent accidental discharge, especially with children. These guns also have the ability to install “safe zones” in certain areas like schools or airports that act like force fields, disabling any smart guns that enter. Had this technology been in use years ago, TriggerSmart could have helped prevent the Newtown massacre.

People on both ends of gun control should at least come together to make guns safer. The importance of taking something like the Newtown massacre and using it as an opportunity to make a difference and to prevent anything like it from happening again is imminent. It serves a real purpose of a precedent for research and for utilizing technology for betterment, rather than treating it as a big deal for a month and then waiting for another disaster to occur.