What is your foundation's approach to the US gun situation? It's a polarising issue in this country - the political system is gridlocked. Many groups pursue a legislative approach to gun violence, but we've sidestepped the politics to address the problem through technology. Last year we launched a $1 million challenge to invite innovators, the majority of whom are gun owners themselves, to create safety devices that can be built in to new guns - or retrofitted to existing ones, because the US already has about 300 million guns in circulation, What have they come up with? We are now funding 15 innovators who are working on a wide range of gun-locking devices, such as biometric technologies that use a fingerprint or grip that is unique to an individual to verify their identity, so the gun can only be fired by authenticated users. We also have people developing radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, These guns can only be fired when in close proximity to an RFID token, which could be worn in a ring or bracelet, If the quarter of a million or so guns that are stolen out of US homes every year incorporated such safety features, these weapons would essentially be rendered useless if they fell into the hands of criminals who might otherwise hurt someone with them.
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