The way to make firearms really safe, says Hebert Meyerle, is to password-protect the ammunition itself.

The German inventor is patenting a design for a cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. The energy would only ignite the charge if a solid-state switch within the cartridge had been activated. This would only happen if a password entered into the gun using a tiny keypad stored in the cartridge.

When sold, cartridges could be programmed with a password that matches the purchaser’s gun. An owner could set the gun to request the password when it is reloaded, or to perform a biometric check before firing. The gun could also automatically lock itself after a pre-set period of time has passed since the password was entered.

Via new scientist.