TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: Smart guns and gun control:

There are a number of potential biometric controls—ways that guns can be made to fail to fire if they don’t recognize the person holding them. Could they have spared the life or well-being of a Sandy Hook student? An Aurora moviegoer? A Tucson congresswoman? We can’t know till we ask the question.

One reason for the technological lacuna in the national discussion is that the technologies haven’t been discussed much, even among technologists. And they haven’t been implemented very much, either, apparently less for technological reasons than political ones.

No, it's not political reasons; it's practical. A weapon only I can shoot is a weapon my wife can't shoot -- or my son, or my daughter, my granddaughter.

That's not a tool that's particularly useful. To use Spitzer's analogy correctly, think of an automobile that only I can drive.

ENDNOTE: I'm getting more and more disappointed in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. For a professional society, it is getting far too politically correct for my taste.