this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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I'm okay with that.
Car companies only implemented safety features after lawsuits came. Safety rose and fatalities dropped.
Are you suggesting this was caused by an accident due to insufficient safety devices?
This one? Not sure. Others? Definitely.
There’s studies showing that the gun industry doesn’t evolve like other markets due to laws giving them immunity. Normally the industry would add safety features like built in trigger locks ( fingerprint sensors or NFC ring that’s required to fire) but without the motivation they’re not adding them.
It's because those are terrible ideas. You'd trust your life to a fingerprint censor or nfc nonsense? I sure as fuck wouldn't
Depends. Thousands of kids a year are accidentally shot (and many cops and others are shot with their own weapon), so if it reduced that then I’m for it. There’s plenty of reliable guns with some sort of key or unlock code already.
like what
There is exactly one firearm on the market that has reliable fingerprint/facial ID. It's made by a company called Biofire, and it starts at $1500.
People who have children in their house can choose to buy one, but no one should rely on this sort of safety mechanism to stop their kids from killing themselves. Education and a simple gun lock works perfectly fine for kids and standard firearms when taught/used correctly. There's nothing wrong with layering safety like with the ID features in Biofire's gun, but requiring these features by law is just unnecessary, short sighted, and prices put poor people from arming and defending themselves.
Prices would plummet if guns were a normal market that responded to pressure like lawsuits. That’s because giving gun manufacturers legal immunity means they spent nearly nothing on new safety features. That’s what I was talking about.
Stop trying to concern troll that gun safety cuts off gun access for the poor. Poor people also have to take mandatory driving education classes and driver licensing, because cars can kill people.
Clearly voluntary education and simple gun locks are not enough, given the tens of thousands of gun deaths a year. The gun lobby won’t have it any other way and spend more money lobbying politicians to block these than any education.
Gun makers don't have legal immunity if they design an inherently unsafe product. If someone makes and sells a firearm that can go off when on safe that person could be sued. The PLCAA is about not being held accountable for the crimes of third parties.
And how would law suits drive prices down? You suggested if they were sued more that'd lead to more R&D. But those both are just two expenses that contribute to overhead.
Safe firearms handling should be compulsory thing in highschool even if it's just a single 45 min class period. It'd benefit people a lot more than pre-calc.