The story : Every year or so, someone somewhere on the planet decides that they have it much worse than every other human being they know, and hence embark upon a bloody mission to shoot every other human being they know.

The right to defend one’s self/ family/ property is so closely intertwined with the second amendment in the US, that it would be unrealistic to imagine a society of  gun-less citizens. And in many other countries the right to own a weapon for hunting reasons is totally legal. If we can’t change the guns, let’s change the bullet…

The idea: A new standard of bullet that would be introduced as a general replacement for all ammunition. One that contains a RF micro-chip that would render the bullet un-fireable when activated. The chip would need to trigger a micro mechanism in order to protect the bullet’s propellant from the percussion cap. This way, when someone goes awol with an Tec-9 semiautomatic, the police can rush to the scene and turn their bullets off…

I pitched this idea to a microchip engineer friend at Dibcom, who said it was ‘do-able’ but that the chip would need an internal energy source to activate the micromechanism (a minor detail )

So, a utopic product on many levels, not least the ability to rid the black market of ‘regular’ bullets and introducing only ‘good’ ones; in the light of current events however, the need for some sustained reflection on gun/ammunitions law is sadly obvious.