Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Straight thoughts 89

March 26th, 2002

There is a way to make guns "safe" against use by someone who is not the owner.
This can prevent children from using them or criminals snatching a gun from a policeman's holster.

A gun would be useless when stolen, and thus there would be less guns available in the black market.

The cost of safely storing a gun would also be lower for the police, as well as for private citizens.

It is a high-tech solution, but worthwhile considering, given the cost of a gun and especially the cost of a life.

Such guns, which are able to detect their owner, are in fact already in the market.

May be the federal government should scrap the gun registry and require this feature (and make it tax exempt) for all new guns legally purchased in Canada.

What better "registry" than a gun that is "imprinted" to its owner?
The owner identification would be recorded at the time of purchase and kept confidential by a third party secure data bank paid by the manufacturer, as gun manufacturers are surely eager to sell new high-tech guns.

When necessary, if a gun is used to commit a crime, a judge could request the gun manufacturer's data bank to make the owner's identity available to police.

Why let government do what someone else can do more reliably (and more eagerly) at no expense to the taxpayer?