On January 4, the White House released a fact sheet which previews the executive gun control Obama will announce Tuesday, and it reveals that the Department of Defense and Department of Justice have been directed to expand their use of “smart gun” technology.
According to the executive gun control fact sheet, Obama has directed “the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology.” Moreover, the various departments are “to review the availability of smart gun technology on a regular basis, and to explore potential ways to further its use and development to more broadly improve gun safety.”
The White House executive gun control fact sheet says:
Tens of thousands of people are injured or killed by firearms every year—in many cases by guns that were sold legally but then stolen, misused, or discharged accidentally. Developing and promoting technology that would help prevent these tragedies is an urgent priority. America has done this in many other areas—from making cars safer to improving the tablets and phones we use every day. We know that researchers and engineers are already exploring ideas for improving gun safety and the tracing of lost or stolen guns. Millions of dollars have already been invested to support research into concepts that range from fingerprint scanners to radio-frequency identification to microstamping technology.
What this ignores is the fact that “smart guns” are still too dumb to be trusted.
Breitbart News has previously reported that there are serious questions as to whether the biometric readers on such guns can be trusted to correctly read palms and fingerprints if those palms or fingerprints are caked with blood because of a life-and-death struggle with an intruder. If the reader fails to read the owner’s palm print, then the gun remains inert and is of no greater value than a hammer.
In addition to this, smart guns which are activated via “radio-frequency identification”—i.e., smart guns that work by being paired with a watch or bracelet—are self-defeating because the thief who currently steals a gun would simply have to form the habit of stealing a bracelet and a gun. The thief could then conceivably go on a shooting spree with a stolen gun and new bracelet.
The second quagmire for “radio-frequency identification” guns is that the radio frequency can be jammed. Once that the happens, the gun is worthless for self-defense because it will not fire.
Obama still has not said anything specifically about the Secret Service using “smart guns” in his protection detail. When it comes to his personal safety, Obama appears to remain a big fan of traditional firearms.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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