Eric Holder Has an Idea He Wants to Explore About How to Make Guns 'More Safe

It's stuff straight out of a Bond movie. And now it's being trumpeted once again by the Obama administration, specifically Eric Holder, to talk about gun issue.

What is it? Technology that prevents a gun from being fired by anyone but the lawful owner.

“I think that one of the things that we learned when we were trying to get passed those common sense reforms last year, Vice President Biden and I had a meeting with a group of technology people and talked about how guns can be made more safe,” Holder told Congress on Friday.

“By making them -- either through finger print identification, the gun talks to a bracelet or something that you might wear, -- how guns can be used only by the person who is lawfully in possession of the weapon,” he added. “It’s those kinds of things that I think we want to try to explore so that we can make sure that people have the ability to enjoy their Second Amendment rights, while at the same time decreasing the misuse of weapons that lead to the kinds of things that we see on a daily basis, where people where, kids especially, are struck down."

TheBlaze has previously looked at how this technology works. Liz Klimas wrote a fascinating article in January looking at everything from biometrics to RFID chips. Here's a taste of what she wrote back then:

TheBlaze decided to take a look at just what is out there in the way of such technology. The short answer is, there’s not much.

Take TriggerSmart, which is a system that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) to childproof guns. TriggerSmart’s technology — which had a patent granted in the U.S. last year and has an international patent pending — has the vision to create “smart guns” where only an authorized user could fire the weapon. The technology also seeks to allow remote disabling, called Wide Area Control, of firearms in certain areas, such as airports and schools.

The Irish inventor of the TriggerSmart concept Robert McNamara explained to Reuters in December “we have a technology that could have helped prevent [the Sandy Hook] massacre.”

[…]

The problem is that it seems the technology might not be good enough to entice anyone to buy it yet. 

As mentioned back then, despite the technology being in its infancy, New Jersey has already passed a law saying all handguns sold in the state will be required to to have “smart” or “personalized” capabilities once the technology is widespread.

And as the Washington Free Beacon notes, government funding is already being used to explore it more:

The Justice Department has requested $382.1 million in increased spending for its fiscal year 2014 budget for “gun safety.”

Included in the proposal is $2 million for “Gun Safety Technology” grants, which would award prizes for technologies that are “proven to be reliable and effective.”

(H/T: Washington Free Beacon)