President Obama Announces New Efforts to Promote Smart Gun Technology

Bess Evans, The White House to you
Thursday, November 17, 2016

The White House

Friends,

Earlier today, the President highlighted new efforts to promote smart gun technology. For the first time, the Department of Justice is releasing a detailed description of the minimal technical requirements that law enforcement agencies expect from smart gun technology, which will help make sure that any smart gun technology available to law enforcement agencies is safe and reliable. Read President Obama's Facebook post below, and learn more from a Department of Justice blog post here.

Thank you for your continued efforts in making sure that our children and communities are safe from gun violence.

 

"This week, as we continue to look for common ground on keeping our children and communities safe from gun violence, I wanted to share a letter from a woman in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Sharron wrote to me in January, after I had announced a series of commonsense steps designed to reduce senseless gun violence in our country. One of those steps was boosting the development of gun safety technology – the kind of innovation that would reduce accidental deaths, the use of stolen guns in criminal activities, and other tragic shootings. It’s the kind of research and development that can lead to advances that can protect our kids consistent with the Second Amendment.

Sharron is a Republican and a gun owner. And like the vast majority of the American people, including the vast majority of gun owners, she recognizes the importance of addressing the epidemic of gun violence in our country -- which we can do through advances in technology. In the greatest, most technologically advanced nation on Earth, we should be using all the tools we have to keep people safe. We make sure children can’t open a bottle of aspirin – why wouldn’t we make sure that they can’t pull a trigger on a gun?

That’s why today, I am proud to announce that the Department of Justice is releasing, for the first time, a detailed description of the minimum technical requirements that law enforcement agencies expect from smart gun technology. This will help make sure that any smart gun technology made available to law enforcement agencies is safe and reliable -- and it's a critical step toward jumpstarting the development of smart gun technology. A group of experts led by DOJ’s National Institute of Justice worked closely with law enforcement officers, firearms manufacturers, innovators, and other stakeholders across the country -- as well as other experts from the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense – to develop these specifications. They’re not mandating that anyone buy or make guns with advanced safety technology – but these specifications chart a path forward for making that an option in the marketplace.

As I’ve said before, we will never be able to stop every act of violence. But if we can take even one action, that saves even one life, we have an obligation to try. If we care about our kids and our country, we can find the courage to come together and take sensible actions to tackle our epidemic of gun violence. If we do, we’ll build a safer and stronger country that’s worthy of the memories of those we’ve lost and the lives we can still save."

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Bess EvansSenior Associate DirectorThe White House | Office of Public Engagement

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