The project is studied there while legislators are deadlocked on the regulation of firearms. Nearly 23 million units were sold in 2020, a record, according to Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting, which expects 20 million for 2021.
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The personal gun market in the United States is big business, fueled by a powerful lobby and the National Rifle Association (NRA), a non-profit organization that protects the right to own or bear guns. Today about 40% of American adults live in homes where guns are present. With connected weapons, the goal of manufacturers is to prevent children, criminals and other suicidal people from pulling the trigger.
One of the companies in the sector uses RFID technology chips for its weapons, such as those used in our traditional badges to enter buildings or pay electronically. The user of the weapon is identified and must wear a connected ring in order to fire. Connected weapons only respond to previously identified people. Some of these products, notably pistols, are already being tested by the American police and their marketing could begin in the spring.
In absolute terms, connected or not, the weapons remain deadly, not to mention their price which remains very high and the possibilities of computer hacking. One of the many companies in the sector plans, for example, to market next year a nine-millimeter pistol that can be activated via a mobile application with a secret code or by biometric recognition of its fingerprint. Some manufacturers see authentication systems as a physical and psychological barrier to the use of weapons.
In 2000, the famous manufacturer of revolvers Smith & Wesson and the government of Bill Clinton had agreed that connected pistols would be part of reforms to reduce violence, but the project was stillborn. He returns with insistence to the United States where 23 million firearms were purchased last year, the highest for 20 years.