This is exactly right - a couple of manufacturers tried to have a gun with a ring safety on it but it quickly became evident that they didn't work and hackers could fire the gun without the ring:
https://www.wired.com/story/smart-gun-fire-magnets/
I remember reading one review of a smart gun prototype that made its way around that certainly was not very flattering. Not withstanding reliability of the locking mechanism, and hackability, the gun, a sub compact, weighed more than your average full sized gun, had a 25 lb trigger pull, and had fail to feed and fail to eject stoppages approximately 1 per magazine, which only held 8 shots.
In order to be a truly successful product, it not only needs to work, but it needs to be a good gun.
Lastly, dare I be so bold, has anyone seen any of the smart gun advocates offer any attempt at an analysis to show just how much an affect on gun deaths smart gun technology can have?
Since no one is talking about retrofitting existing firearms, if we assumed the best case scenario that all guns made from 2020 onwards were 'smart' In another 50 years the percentage of all guns being smart guns would likely be half at most. What percentage of all of americas firearms death are as a result of unauthorized access to someone else's firearms without the involvement of the gun owner?
Certainly there are a lot of children who are accidentally shot after incidental finding of a parents firearm. Whats that number? Presumably with universale smart gun technology it would be largely reduced to zero. Which certainly is something worth talking about.
The main article mentions Sandy Hook, but if Lanza is willing to murder his own mother to gain access to her firearms, then presumably he would have no trouble access the watch or whatever 'key' was needed for the firearms. And even if he couldn't, there would have needed to be only one non-smart gun in the cabinet and he would have found what he is looking for. So even in some fantastical future with near ubiquitous smart guns, unless you are talking about Orwellian level eradication of the existing stock of dumb guns, determined maniacs like Lanza will always be able to find a way.
If there is a market for this gun, industry will eventually find a way. But for the smart gun advocates, Id love to know if anyone actually did the math to credibly estimate just many lives it could possibly save. That way we can take the next logical step to determine if we can achieve the same goal by some other, smarter, means. Perhaps like following the CDC recommendation from 20 years ago that suggested maybe we don't leave loaded firearms unlocked and accessible to small children.
