Herstal Smart Guns

Circa 2002
Belgian Arms Producer Develops 'Smart Gun'

Tue Jun 4, 2:07 PM ET

By Bart Crols

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) - A Belgian company has made a prototype of a "smart gun" that can only be used by its owner, developed under contract with the U.S. government to make it harder for criminals to use stolen weapons.

"The idea is to make a gun fire when the owner wants it to and not to when the owner doesn't want to," said Robert Sauvage, a spokesman for FN Herstal, which has received about $20 million from the U.S. Department of Justice (news - web sites).

Gun control is a hot issue in the United States, where about 30,000 people die every year from gun-related injuries.

A 1994 FBI (news - web sites) study showed one in six police officers who died in the line of duty were killed with their own gun after being disarmed by a suspect.

Sauvage said the system now being tested uses an electronic recognition device attached to the owner, which the gun would be able to recognize. He said production could start in three years.

The "smart gun" technology could have wider uses than in policing, such as gun control at shooting galleries or to reduce hunting accidents.

"A weapon could for example be programmed to shoot on a Saturday morning between 10 and 12 a.m. in the hands of Mr. X at the shooting gallery of Herstal in the east-west direction," Sauvage said.

FN Herstal is based in the southern Belgian town of Herstal, near Liege, and has branches in several countries, including FN Manufacturing Inc. in the United States.

The Belgian arms producer acknowledges that many commercial and legal problems still need to be addressed, including the extra cost of the new weapons system. The cost of such a weapon may be about 20 percent more than conventional guns.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm..._fnherstal_dc_2