United States Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) announced he will be introducing a new bill called “The Handgun Trigger Safety Act.”
The bill will require all handguns manufactured in the United States be fitted with technology that allows the firearm to only be fired by its owner. The Massachusetts lawmaker says these “personalized handguns” or “smart guns” will make it harder for stolen or otherwise illegally obtained firearms to be used in crimes.
“No one wants children to get access to a handgun and hurt themselves or others,” said Markey in a press release.
“In the 21st century, we should use advances in technology to our own advantage and save lives, and the Handgun Trigger Safety Act will help ensure that only authorized users can operate handguns. This is the type of gun safety legislation that everyone-regardless of political party or affiliation-should be able to support.”
The Handgun Trigger Safety Act would require firearm manufacturers to equip their guns with the technology within two years of the bill’s passage or face stiff penalties.
Markey is pushing for all parties selling a handgun, whether an individual or a business, to retrofit the firearm before the gun can be sold. In his press release, Markey did not address the cost to the owner of having the handgun retrofitted to allow for a transfer to occur or the available technology to make it happen.
The bill also calls for the allocation of $10 million in research into gun violence.
“We need to study gun violence like the public health crisis it is,” said Markey. “Funding for a federal gun violence research agenda should be a permanent priority so that we no longer look back and say that we didn’t commit any resources to a cause of death that took more people last year than leukemia.”
Editors Note: The National Cancer Institute estimated that 23,720 individuals died of leukemia in 2013. According to a 10/28/2013 article on the Huffington Post, quoting the research company Slate, at least 9,900 people, as reported by the media, died from guns since the Newtown shooting (over a 10 month period) on 12/13/2012.
Gun rights advocates have long criticized the technology as being new and unproven. Smart guns work by the addition of a device that allows the gun to recognize its owner, such as radio identification, magnets, or biometric scanners.
Few companies manufacture firearms equipped with this technology and fewer still have their products commercially available.
