An open letter to President Biden
Mr. Joseph Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden,
Your recent six executive orders addressing gun reforms are a step in the right direction, but I think we can both agree that they do not even begin to address the gun violence crisis gripping the United States. Even if you were able to achieve two-thirds of the Senate to embrace new firearms legislation, it’s already too late - the horse has left the proverbial barn. There are more guns than people in the United States, and the complexity of limiting use to only legal and peaceful purposes is beyond the reach of any legislation or law enforcement agency.
So, respectfully, your six executive orders serve only as a symbolic reaction to the gun violence epidemic.
There is a way to move beyond symbolism, in the same manner as your green energy programs. I propose a different approach - one that can be readily implemented today, and is both progressive and pre-emptive.
Technology exists today to pro-actively detect and alert on a threat from weapons within milli-seconds, alerting authorities, or systems that can lock-down schools, retail locations, places of worship, and other targets of violence.
I am not here to debate guns rights. That is not the purpose here, and a discussion for a different forum.
I am here to propose that, no matter what side of the gun rights discussion, we have the technical means and an obligation to use that technology to stop or drastically minimize these tragic events. The only logical answer is to redirect our attention to helping organizations protect their places of operation, and pre-emptively alert on threats.
Modern gun and threat detection technology makes this possible - the only thing that’s stopping it from curbing the gun violence epidemic is adoption.
To solve the adoption problem, I would direct you to a recent example of how government has successfully promoted adoption of a technology beneficial to society: solar energy.
When you started your first job in the executive branch as vice president, solar energy was a bit of a curiosity, installed only by environmentalists with disposable income. But then, government got involved in a productive fashion and provided incentives for solar adoption. This turbocharged market demand and, in 2020, solar represented 43% of all new electricity-generating capacity added in the United States.
Imagine, if you will, taking a similar approach with gun safety. What if the government provided businesses, local governments, educational institutions, etc. with tax incentives to install gun detection technology to make the places where people gather safe from gun violence? The managers inside that Boulder grocery store, or the Fedex facility, could have detected the assailant’s weapons when he was getting out of his car in the parking lot. The store would have been automatically locked down, and authorities alerted before the first step, limiting or eliminating the damage done.
Like so many industries where digital innovation has re-invented markets and delivered benefits to the community at large, digital innovation in weapons detection and threat response can provide a means for communities to “harden” themselves to gun violence. Digital technology can be used to provide a multi-layered approach to early detection, early alerting, and pre-emptive and proactive protection. These solutions scale, are always-on, are cost-effective, can be deployed in all buildings and venues, and provide advanced information not available to solutions based on human observation.
Providing businesses and communities with adoption incentives for these technologies is the most readily achievable way for the country to finally put a measurable dent in the gun violence epidemic - and since it does not bring the Second Amendment into play, it would likely have bipartisan support.
After a detailed analysis of the tragic and unfortunate incidents in Boulder, Indianapolis, and other locations over the past few months, I can say, with a heavy heart, that all of them could have been made less severe – or prevented all together – if the locations where they occurred had early warnings from modern gun and threat detection technology.
You, Sir, could be the President whose legacy includes elimination of tragic shootings.
I would be very interested in scheduling a meeting with you to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
Peter Evans
CEO, Patriot One Technologies