New Legislation Could Track Firearms With GPS

Representative Mary Flowers, a Democrat from the 31st District, has seen firsthand the impact of gun violence. She oversees a district in the Chicago area, one of the nation’s worst areas plagued by gun violence, and simply wants to see the killing stop. Fed up with the inability to accurately monitor firearms, Flowers announced this past weekend that she has every intention to introduce a bill to congress that will require all guns to be either equipped or engineered with some form of GPS tracker system.

When interviewed about the potential new law Flowers explained that the GPS tracking technology would ideally function in the same method that cellular devices operate and provide locational data. This would likely mean a SIM card or GPS receiver be built into the firearm. She would go on to explain that such a system would allow law enforcement agencies to know where firearms are located and who has possession of them.

The passionate plea by the congresswoman for some solution to the gun violence which has plagued the Chicago area came shortly after Flowers attended the funeral for a 15-year-old girl who was a victim of gun violence.

The story of victim Hadiya Pendleton has brought national attention to the increasingly serious problem of gun violence occurring in inner cities, especially in Chicago. When speaking at a restaurant about the topic of gun control and gun violence, Flowers explained that some positive changes have already occurred such as Cook County banning what are known as straw purchases of firearms. This is basically when an individual proceeds through the proper legal channels to acquire a firearm then sells that firearm to a person who is not legally authorized to own such a weapon.

Flowers recognizes that legislation banning straw purchases is a good first step to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, but that it also isn’t enough. That is why she is currently penning a law that would utilize the latest GPS tracking resources. She went on to say that the good guys with guns are not the problem and that through the use of a GPS tracker device it would be easier to find out who the bad guys were and where the guns are coming from. No figures or information were provided on how such a program that uses GPS trackers to monitor guns would be implemented and/or paid for.