The Smart Tech Challenges Foundation Weekly Firearms Safety Summary aggregates the top firearms safety stories of the week.

5. STOLEN GUNS — NOTHING NEW, NOTHING GOOD:  A 32-year-old San Francisco woman was waking along the waterfront at Pier 14 on the Embarcadero with her father when a man randomly shot and killed her. The gun used to kill this young woman had been stolen from the car of a federal Bureau of Land Management. Stolen guns are responsible for a significant number of deaths in this country, with hundreds of thousands of guns reported lost or stolen each year. The issue of stolen guns is nothing new, and there has been little progress in curbing this widespread problem. Tampa police in Florida for instance have investigated 21 homicides and more than two dozen shootings this year alone, and what they’ve found from this onslaught of gun-related crimes isn’t all too surprising: most of the guns used in these crimes were stolen. So far this year, 177 guns have been reported stolen to Tampa police, up from the 140 reported stolen during the first six months of 2014. These guns are not coming out of organized crime. They’re taken from homes or cars, burglarized then sold on the streets. In fact, given the number of gun-related incidents this year, and the widespread use of stolen guns, the Department of Justice’s Burearu of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has dedicated a field office team to the issue of gun violence in the city of Tampa. (San Francisco Chronicle, The Tampa Tribune)

4. THE AVERAGE AMERICAN GUN OWNER: Dr. Bindu Kalesan, a gun violence researcher at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, conducted a nationally representative online survey of 4,000 U.S. adults in 2013. She found a wide range of gun ownership rates across the country, as well as the profile of an average gun owner in America — He is white, married or divorced, with a high income, and over the age of 55. The study also found that Alaska has the highest rate of gun ownership, with high gun ownership rates strongly correlated with high gun death rates. (The Huffington Post)

3. MORE GUNS, MORE VIOLENCE — IS IT WORTH IT?: The city of San Francisco has a law on the books that requires residents to keep handguns locked when stored at home. Why? Because the data about defensive gun use overwhelmingly shows that victims fail to defend themselves or threaten to defend themselves with a gun when confronted by a criminal. 99.2% of the time, self-defense measures are not taken with a gun. Instead, the more and more people that choose to own guns, the greater the increase in violent crime overall. Moreover, guns in the home typically lead to more accidental shootings then anything else, and so this safe storage law addresses the larger problem of accidental gun death. Besides, with technology today, safes can operate better and open faster for that remaining 0.8% of the time a gun may be used in self-defense. (The San Francisco Chronicle)

2. SHOOTINGS ARE CONTAGIOUS: A study published last Thursday found evidence that school shootings and mass killings spread “contagiously,” and 20% to 30% of such killings appear to be the result of “infection.” According to researchers, the contagion period lasts about 13 days. Interestingly enough, the national press plays an important role in spreading this contagion because the news of shootings beaches people who are vulnerable. Those vulnerable people are those who have regular access to weapons and perhaps are mentally ill. Once “infected” with knowledge of a shooting from national media coverage, data shows that a person is more likely to commit a similar crime. This research comes just after House Speaker John Boehner defended the House Appropriations Committee vote to both funding of CDC research into the causes of gun violence in America. Boehner: “The CDC is there to look at diseases that need to be dealt with to protect the public health. I’m sorry, but a gun is not a disease.”  (CNN)

1. SHOULD THE PRESIDENT EMBRACE SMART TECHNOLOGY?: Hill contributor, Ralph Fascitelli, contends that since legislative progress has yet to be made in curbing gun violence in America, the President should explore new technological options. Fascitelli makes a strong case for smart guns, explaining that they utilize a variety of technological constraints including biometrics identification, or an RFID digital handshake. “It’s reasonable to believe that smart guns could reduce firearms deaths by some 10,000 lives, a figure that represents almost a third of all gun deaths annually. (The Hill)