by Dave Workman | Senior Editor
An Armatix “smart gun”
San Francisco police officers may get an opportunity somewhere over the horizon to test so-called “smart guns,” but not until the technology is “more fully developed,” according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
That revelation came during a Smart Gun Symposium in San Francisco sponsored by the Smart Tech Challenges Foundation and Washington Ceasefire. Margot Hirsch, president of the foundation, told TGM that her group has never considered promoting the technology as some sort of avenue to a mandate.
“We believe these technologies should not be mandated, but left up to the consumer to decide whether they want to buy a gun with smart gun technology or not,” she said in a telephone interview. “We need to let the free market work, and let the consumer decide.”
It may be at least a couple of years before anyone has to make any kind of decision, because it appears right now that the technology still needs further development.
But San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr was quoted by the newspaper saying that tech-savvy officers could one day have the option of trying guns equipped with the technology that prevents their use by unauthorized persons. One possible benefit of that would be the inability of a criminal to snatch an officer’s gun and use it on him or her.
In the commercial market, Hirsch said that the primary audience for such firearms would be families with younger children. They would want a gun in the home, but not one that might be involved in an accidental shooting or a suicide.
The symposium drew about 75 people, Hirsch said, all with an interest in developing the technology, but only to provide gun owners with another option. However, she acknowledged that any such firearm must be completely reliable and work when it is supposed to.
Gun rights groups have not opposed research and development of the technology. They do oppose mandates.
