The Scope and Implications of a Tracing Mechanism for Small Arms ...

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electronics in animal identification or electronic surveillance of products in
supermarkets).
Smart guns, or so-called electronic weapons, are weapons that can be
used only by authorized individuals wearing a corresponding transponder
in the form of a ring or bracelet, for example. This is a first step towards the
application of electronics to tracing weapons in the strict sense of the term.
A first prototype of firearms with a transponder has been developed at the
Institut de Police Scientifique et de Criminologie, Lausanne, Switzerland.
We have just briefly reviewed the different options for marking
weapons. Depending on the technique chosen, several points will have to
be discussed. The first concerns the cost of these techniques. The American
example shows that the introduction of modern technology in the field of
firearms is no simple matter. The cost of developing new technologies
constitutes an obstacle to their application and their extended application
to all the different weapons. Table 6 proposes an estimate of the cost
associated with two different new marking techniques.
Generally speaking, the cost of establishing these new marking systems
can be lowered depending on the number of items to be marked, and is
neither technologically or financially prohibitive to their development in the
near future. Nevertheless, one technique must be selected.
Table 6: Estimate of the costs of laser marking (centre column) and
electronic marking (right-hand column) [Kullmann and
Bui, private conversation, 2001]
Number of units to
be marked
Unit price
(CHF) 32
Unit price
(CHF)
10 34.70 ---
50 7.50 ---
100 4.10 ---
1,000 1.05 7
5,000 0.75 ---
10,000 0.70 4.50