Gun Safety

Will a ‘Smart Gun' Finally Make it to Market?

Advocates say guns designed to be unlocked like smartphones will save young lives, but the gun lobby is skeptical

Even at age 15, his parents say, Ethan Song had big plans.

“He wanted to attend Rice University,” said his mother, Kristin Song. “He wanted to join the army. He wanted to marry and have seven children. He wanted his house to be full of laughter in music, like our house was.”

But on Jan. 31, 2018, the day he got his braces off, those dreams were extinguished. He and a friend were playing with a neighbor’s handgun when Ethan accidentally shot himself in the head. He survived about four minutes.

“Within an hour, I saw two police officers walking across my lawn,” Kristin Song said. “Never in our wildest imaginations did we think our child was dead.” 

The Songs, of Guilford, Connecticut, have become advocates for so-called smart guns, which are designed to be fired only by an authorized user, employing fingerprint detection, bluetooth links and other technology that locks the gun to anyone else.

Companies have tried for years without success to bring such a product to market, but now at least two firms say they are close. The CEO of one of them, LodeStar Works, called the Songs a few months after Ethan's death.

Read the full story here on NBCNews.com

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