December 14, 2012 is a day that will forever be remembered as a tragedy because 20-year-old Adam Laza made the fateful decision to walk into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT and kill twenty innocent children and six adult staff. This inconceivable event is touted as being the second deadliest shooting in American history, ranking only after the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre. That particular shooting happened in 2007, and over 32 people were killed with 17 others wounded.
As acts of violence like the two mentioned above are continuing to cut lives shorts for absolutely no reason, the argument over whether guns should be legally owned by citizens is getting hotter than the lava from an erupting volcano. In President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address, he prompted lawmakers to take action in regards to gun control legislation to prevent massacres from potentially happening ever again.
The Obama administration has outlined three key steps to get the ball rolling, which include: reinstating the assault-weapons ban that was eliminated back in 2004, raising the bar on background checks on each and every gun purchase, and even implementing quotas on how many gun clips and magazines can be purchased within a set period.
Image via Business Insider
Facing an uphill battle due to the fact that the laws must have first be approved by all members of the Senate and the House alike, what can be done in the meantime to curb the use of guns for evil rather than good like protecting your family from a robber?
Enter technology, a friend of all of us (when it works of course). The just debuted iGun solution will only let loose if it can be matched to the ring on a finger that is comprised of onyx and specific codes only its rightful owner would possess. "It's totally inert. There's no batteries, nothing. Totally waterproof," Jonathan Mossberg, the head of the company behind the offering revealed.
Not your cup of tea? Then how about TriggerSmart, which uses radio frequency IDs (RFIDs) that are actually weirdly placed under your skin. Not only can this significantly reduce the amount of gun-related crimes, but it can eliminate the chance of say a child getting a hold of the life-ending innovation. German-based firm Armatrix is also hard at work as we speak, creating a gun that uses fingerprints scans in order to successfully fire and can even interact with a wristwatch if so desired.
What do the experts think, you ask? While many like the idea of these products, they don’t believe at this time they could have avoided something like the devastation seen at Sandy Hook.
"The majority of mass shootings in this country are committed with legal weapons, and the person firing the gun is the owner of the gun," explained Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group.
At this time, however, smart gun developers are still hoping for the best and doing what they can to unveil something to keep citizens safe without restricting our rights extensively. I can’t help but think though, wouldn’t it be much easier if people just got smarter and cut guns out of their lives completely?