U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Ed Markey introduced a piece of legislation Wednesday intended to curtail the amount of gun violence seen throughout the country. Dubbed “The Handgun Trigger Safety Act” (see: below), Senator Markey’s bill calls for, amongst other things, President Obama to allot $10 million in the federal budget dedicated solely to gun violence research.
But more than just subsidized research, the measure suggests all firearms be equipped with an innovative technology that recognizes the owner’s respective authorization, thereby allowing only them to discharge it. Think of it as the gun version of AOL parental restrictions, or the fingerprint sensor for your iPhone 5S.
The idea behind the authentication tech is that criminals who steal guns and use them illegally, or children who naively come across their parents’, will be unable to pull the trigger subsequently saving lives.
According to Senator Markey’s office, guns tailored specifically to their owners in this regard are already available for sale and use overseas, while domestic gun manufactures are currently working to introduce such technology in the U.S.A. California is a leader in that capacity, having legalized the sale of the Armatix iP1, one such gun, in 2013.
“No one wants children to get access to a handgun and hurt themselves or others. In the 21st century, we should use advances in technology to our own advantage and save lives,” Said Senator Markey in a statement. “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.”
Per “The Handgun Trigger Act,” within two years of its enactment all guns in the manufacturing process would have to be outfitted with this recognition technology. Within three years, all firearms being sold would similarly have to be retrofitted with the innovation before its sale can be completed. This shouldn’t be a problem for sellers, too, as the retrofitting would be funded by the Department of Justice.
If the bill were to pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and be signed into law by President Obama, it’s likely that we’d see a tremendous reduction in law enforcement having their guns used against them, in the likelihood that gun owner’s firearm is stolen and used in a crime, and in accidental gun violence inflicted by and on children and teenagers.
The legislation is also a smart political move in that it does not impede on the Second Amendment, which protects the American right to keep and bear arms.
Earlier in February, a report commissioned by Massachusetts Speaker of the House Bob DeLeo suggested that Massachusetts, already strict in its gun regulations and ranked the sixth state overall in terms of gun law strength, tighten its laws even further per 40 suggested by the committee. Some of those include that “school resource officers be approved jointly by police and school officials, increased social workers in schools, and higher penalties for unauthorized possession of a gun on school grounds” and that there be no “changes to the restriction limiting large-capacity magazines to 10 rounds.”
BostInno reached out to Speaker DeLeo’s office for his thoughts on Senator Markey’s bill but was not immediately available for comment.
