Former Vice President Joe Biden is taking inspiration from Agent 007 in explaining his plan to curb gun violence.
“If I get elected president of the United States of America with your help, if that happens, guns, we have the capacity now in a James Bond-style to make sure no one can pull a trigger unless their DNA and fingerprint is on it,” Biden told roughly 180 donors in an Upper East Side penthouse Monday evening. “We have that capacity to do it now. You know it.”
Biden was referring to so-called “smart guns,” which require the owner’s fingerprint to be digitally verified before the weapon can be operated.
“But what happens? The gun manufacturers, when two folks started to sell some of those guns to two dealerships, they said, ‘We’re going to shut you down.’ My god, we don’t have to worry about the 2nd Amendment,” Biden continued. “Imagine all the people who would be alive today if the only person who could buy a gun is qualified because of background checks and they’re the only ones that can pull the trigger? So my point is there are so many things we have the capacity to do.”
Gun-control advocates have long advocated laws that would require such technology on privately owned firearms. In 2014, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced a bill in the chamber that would require all newly sold handguns to have “smart” attachments. Under Markey’s plan, older firearms would need to be retrofitted within three years.
