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Is Smart Gun Technology Viable? Smart Gun Symposium Recap
WTIA partnered with Washington CeaseFire, a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to reducing gun violence, to co-sponsor the first-ever symposium on smart gun technology. It brought together national and international smart gun manufacturers, public health officials, gun lovers, law enforcement and technology leaders, to explore the future of this technology.
The Washington Technology Industry Association, in partnership with Washington CeaseFire, hosted a Smart Gun Symposium at the Washington Athletic Club on Wednesday, January 28th.
Smart guns and smart technology is a relatively new and unexplored industry. The intent of the symposium was to help explore smart guns, what potential they have and what it will take to make them a reality in today’s world. There are in summary three main approaches – a locking mechanism added to a gun, a retro-fit safety for an existing gun that disables it except for the authorized owner, and a completely new gun with an integrated biometric authorization system in the grip. All three were discussed at the Symposium.
The event’s keynote speaker was New Jersey Senate Majority Leader, Loretta Weinberg, who addressed the efforts and initiatives that went into New Jersey becoming the first state to pass childproof handgun legislation. “The whole idea behind it was to take a deadly consumer product and try to make it safe.” That mandate created a firestorm of controversy among gun rights advocates.
Moderator and well-known technologist, Alex Alben, led the first panel discussing the current status of smart gun technology and the applications tests underway. Panelists included Mark Burles, Vice President of Penn Schoen Berland, Omer Kiyani, Founder of Sentinl, Robert McNamara, Co-founder of TriggerSmart, and John Urquhart, Sheriff of King County.
The second panel discussed the future of smart guns and what it will take to make smart guns a reality. Dave Ross, Broadcaster at KIRO-FM, moderated the panel. The speakers included CEO of Allied Biometrix, Alan Boinus, President of Smart Tech Challenges Foundation, Margot Hirsch, and Legal Director of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Juliet Leftwich.
The event was well attended by the press and members of gun rights groups, technology companies, and gun violence activists. As a result of the constructive discussion of many points of view during the symposium, NJ State Senator Weinberg is now evaluating repeal of the NJ law to allow the technology an opportunity to evolve according to market forces.
Read more about the Smart Gun Symposium at the links below:
The Smart-Gun Debate Comes to Washington State
Seattle Weekly | Nina Shapiro
“Let’s have all the people in a room and hear it out,” Schutzler says. That, he adds, was bound to be way more interesting than “yet another conference on application programmatic interfaces” or some other such topic routinely hashed over by techies.
People Like the Idea of ‘Smart Guns,’ but Feasibility and Safety Questions Loom
GeekWire | Taylor Soper
The idea of “smart guns” — firearms with technology to prevent unauthorized users from operating a weapon — sounds promising on paper, particularly with the recent string of kids shooting other kids with their parents and grandparents’ guns. But when that technology is actually 100-percent safe, commercialized by manufacturers, and embraced by consumers is up in the air. That much was evident at the “Seattle Smart Gun Symposium” on Wednesday, where the Washington Technology Industry Association hosted founders of “smart gun” companies and other stakeholders to discuss the future of firearm technology.
‘Smart Guns’ Would Fire Only for Owner, Could Save Lives, Symposium Told
The Seattle Times | Mike Lindblom
The event, the Seattle Smart Gun Symposium, held at the Washington Athletic Club, was sponsored by Washington CeaseFire and the Washington Technology Industry Association, whose CEO, Michael Schutzler, hopes this tech-savvy state can be a hub of smart-gun development.
Gun Control Activists Launching ‘Smart Gun’ Campaign
KIRO 7 | Staff
At Wednesday’s symposium, representatives from three smart gun companies, a gun industry association and King County Sheriff John Urquhart will talk about the merits of the new technology. KIRO 7’s Essex Porter asks why should people trust this technology. His full report will be ready for KIRO 7 Eyewitness News starting at 5 p.m.
‘Smart Guns’ May be Smart Way to Keep Kids Safe
The Seattle Times | Danny Westneat
Fascitelli is the longtime president of Washington Ceasefire, the region’s top gun-control group. If anyone might be loudly lobbying for new laws, you’d think it’d be him…It’s in that spirit that on Wednesday, Fascitelli is ramping up a new cause, a campaign he hopes can be a “third way” between the hardened pro-gun and anti-gun camps.
How Smart is ‘Smart Gun Symposium?
examiner.com | Dave Workman
This is not to say smart guns are a non-starter, otherwise today’s symposium would be so much wasted air and time. Once the technology appears to meet consumer requirements and expectations – total reliability – the marketplace should decide.
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Is smart gun technology wanted by the market place? That is, are people willing to pay for it? Are philanthropists willing to give away product to people who can’t afford it?
Why is this something we want or need? Remember that many firearms (all new Ruger double action revolvers) come with a “key lock” system and many brands of new firearms come with lockable boxes and/or trigger lock mechanisms. What is it that is so appealing about “this technology” other than it is new and we don’t know its limitations? Our legislature is doing a lot to promote firearms safes and safe storage of weapons.
Why is having “biometrics” better than just having responsible firearms owners lock the weapons up when not in use or handling them responsibly and making sure they are under their control at all times? If it is so great, some will be wiling to pay for the technology.
In the US there is a technology bias where the latests and greatest, technologic “silver bullet” is promoted as the only reasonable course of action. Look at the history of nuclear power in this country, the history of wind turbines and solar power as the ultimate cures to environmental concerns.
If adopted widelly, I am sure we will soon hear that Google and others will come up with computer controlled, drone mounted firearms that don’t require any human intervention as humans make mistakes, just like the smart cars that some want on the road will free us from human caused traffic accidents.