The missing pieces include financial investment and time on task. A working non-intrusive safety system that would personalize weapons could have a profound influence. A successful personalized system could substantially reduce fatalities, injuries and crime with benefits reaching well beyond public health, safety and the law. These features could include a Global Positioning Satellite system to track the location of a weapon should it be lost or stolen. The potential commercial success of such a product is very high and could quickly replace the old technology.
Commercial analogies abound.
Cassette tapes have been replaced by compact disks that offer better quality, ease of use and added features. Computers have replaced typewriters. Success in the development and manufacturing of a personalized weapon could provide a market demand for the new technology that would equal past experience with new technologies such as the compact disc and computer. Because of the compelling public safety issues involved and the gun industry s financial inability to address them, it is clear that the public interest would be best served by a non-traditional approach. This group, to be comprised of industry leaders and university scientists and engineers, would conduct pre-competitive research and development that would help organize a stable technology platform for individual commercialization.