While low-tech gun safety locks have been sold for years, efforts are underway to create a "smart gun", which would make handguns accessible only to the gun's owners. Prototypes have been developed for such guns with features that include wristbands that must be worn by the gun owner to transmit a radio signal that allows the gun to fire, and personalized identification codes that the owner must enter before the gun will function. Gun manufacturers have begun to develop such safety technology, both to prevent future lawsuits and in hope of revitalizing a saturated handgun market.

In the wake of the recent shooting in Michigan of a six-year old by a classmate, President Clinton proposed $10 million in funding for research into smart gun technology. Last week, Maryland Governor Parris Glendenning signed a bill mandating that all handguns sold in that state have built-in locks beginning in 2003. Maryland is the first state to pass such a law. While researchers agree that smart guns are scientifically possible, most manufacturers also feel that current models are highly flawed, and it will be years before marketable and convenient smart guns can be developed.

On One Hand...

Guns should be subject to the same consumer safety standards that apply to aspirin bottles, automobiles or any other product. New personalized gun technology will protect against accidental firearms-related injuries, and go a long way toward eliminating the high rate of shooting deaths among children in the U.S. By making the gun useless to anyone but its owner, new locking technology would also prevent criminals from using stolen guns.

On the Other Hand...

Smart gun technology would sharply increase the price of handguns and would make guns inaccessible for many law-abiding citizens who need gun protection. Also, these new devices aren't as smart as they're made out to be. New high-tech safety features could malfunction and prevent the gun from firing when its owner is using it to defend himself and his family. Some gun manufacturers have claimed that criminals could use jamming devices to disable police versions of the weapons.

• Concealable weapons kill more Americans every year than all household and recreational products combined.

• Suicide is the leading cause of death by firearms in America. There were 17,566 such deaths in 1997 and total number of deaths by firearms that year was 32,436.

• The rate of firearm death of children 0-14 years old is nearly twelve times higher in the U.S. than in 25 other industrialized nations combined.

• Stolen guns are used in about 30 percent of crimes

• A person living in a home with a gun is three times more likely to die by homicide and five times more likely to die by suicide than someone in a gunless household.

• Americans use guns defensively more than 2 million times each year -- five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997.

• Ninety-eight percent of the time, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop a violent attack.

• Legislation proposed by Gov. Parris Glendening of Maryland would require all guns sold in the state after January 1, 2003 to be equipped with personalized safety technology.

Violence Policy Center, Center for Disease Control, Handgun Control Inc., Washington Times