Ed MarkeyVerified account

As I've written before, stolen guns make up roughly half of black market handguns. (3/x)

This entire portion of the illegal handgun market could have been effectively eliminated by now, with 'smart gun' tech (4/x)

...that ensures that only the owner, or those authorized by the owner, can fire the weapon. The technology exists, for new handguns (5/x)

and to retrofit old handguns. And, the technology would be even better if a market existed for it - but the market doesn't exist (6/x)

because the NRA has convinced gun-rights activists to treat smart-gun tech as an existential crisis issue. Legislation can't move (7/x)

and any gun shops that try to sell them get harassed and boycotted. So, even if you want your gun retrofitted, it's very difficult (8/x)

And there is exactly one reason for the opposition: because if guns have smart tech, they won't be targeted by thieves.... (9/x)

...which means a huge number of handguns wouldn't be stolen every year, and the handgun industry relies on the demand of owners... (10)