The Leftist Obsession With 'Smart Guns'
By Tom Knighton. January 10th, 2018
Leftists seem to be completely enamored with the idea of smart guns. The Daily Beast is just the latest to laud the technology in a post writing about the subject. It's a talking point that is parroted time and time again, the idea that a smart gun will ultimately be the solution to gun violence.
However, The Daily Beast is also one of the rare left-leaning outlets that actually touches on part of the problem with smart guns.
But smart guns remain a novelty, for more than a few reasons. First, making a gun "smarter" requires technological work that makes it, by definition, a more expensive purchase. Second, guns with added accessories make for a bulkier product, rendering them less desirable -- an issue Cohen and his team tried to deal with in creating their smart gun, which uses embedded technology.
The problem with smart guns isn't that they are trying to be safer. Indeed, that's a noble aspect that is desperately needed in America right now, as the body count of gunshot victims rises. Preventing people from using firearms they aren't supposed to be able to use -- whether that is from stealing it, or accessing a family member's gun trove for suicide or murder, intentional or accidental -- will unquestionably be useful in making guns safer.
But smart guns won't solve America's sadly unique gun violence epidemic. Most American mass shooters had access to use their own firearm. And smart guns won't stop a mentally ill person from being able to use their own gun, or a person determined to use a gun to find a way to use one.
We're also not even sure if smart guns can work. Julia Wolfson, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health who has studied gun violence prevention policies, said the data simply do not exist to argue that smart guns can save lives.
And they won't.
Even while lauding the technology, in particular, a biometric and RFID-enabled holster for securing the gun, I have to applaud The Daily Beast for trying to take an honest look at the issue about smart guns.
However, there are other things that get missed.
....... 
It is interesting to see that despite apparent strong and maybe predictable support for the principle of "smart" technology by The Daily Beast, there is also at least an admission regarding the potential failures of such. We have periodically covered this subject, highlighting all the very obvious downsides which are brought up in this article. "Smart guns" have more to with 'feel good factor' for the anti-gun groups than any real practical application, and will continue to be expensive failures.
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