Obama Directs The Pentagon To Study Gun Safety

Obama Directs The Pentagon To Study Gun Safety

by David Welna at NPR

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/07/462293388/obama-directs-the-pentagon-to-study-gun-safety

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The White House has ordered the Pentagon to study gun safety in an attempt to field new technologies that make weapons safer. But the military services don't have any desire for safer weapons, and none of the technologies or products that already exist have found any acceptance among gun buyers.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

They're called smart guns - weapons that can only be fired by their owners. President Obama is directing the Pentagon and other federal agencies to both develop and promote smart gun technology. Firearms manufacturers, though, have resisted adding these safety features. Gun safety advocates hope that will change with the president's new initiatives. NPR's David Welna reports.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: In his executive order on guns earlier this week, President Obama tasked the departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security with getting smart gun technology out to the real world.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BARACK OBAMA: We need to develop new technologies that make guns safer. If we can set it up so you can't unlock your phone unless you got the right fingerprint, why can't we do the same thing for our guns?

(APPLAUSE)

WELNA: Here's the plan. The federal government is by far the nation's single largest purchaser of guns, so if it promotes and demands smart gun technology, firearms manufacturers would have a big economic incentive to make such guns.



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