John Hopkins University news release: “Nearly 60 percent of Americans, if they buy a new handgun, are willing to purchase a smart or childproof gun – a weapon that is only operable in the hands of an authorized user – new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health-led research suggests. In addition to high overall support, the survey found that four in 10 gun owners and 56 percent of political conservatives surveyed are willing to purchase a smart gun, debunking the widely used argument by gun manufacturers and gun groups that there is no market for smart guns. On Jan. 4, President Obama issued a memorandum directing the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Defense to develop a strategy to expedite the real-world deployment of gun safety technology to reduce the unauthorized use of firearms, and to consider the purchase of smart guns. The findings, published Jan. 21 in the American Journal of Public Health, are consistent with the growing national interest in using technology to reduce the toll of gun deaths in the U.S.”