Latest in Stupid Firearms Safety

Now this is stunning in it's complete lack of intelligence in design. I caught this at Bruce Schneier.

Safety catches do not always prevent firearm accidents and even newfangled biometric guns, which check the identity of a user by their fingerprint, cannot stop thieves from using stolen ammunition in other weapons.

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

Meyerle is patenting a design for a modified cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. But 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 matched one stored in the cartridge.

When they are 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.

The system would undoubtedly cost more than a conventional gun, but many firearm enthusiasts would surely pay a premium for such added security.

Yeah, there's intelligent design. Let's make the gun even more impossible to get ready in an emergency.

I have to love the comments to the blog entry on this one though.
TOMBOT stated:

I have a better idea. Mount a retina scanner below the barrel. If the retina scan doesn't match the owner of the gun and bullets, it fires.

And Bob:

Amazing, what an inappropriate use of technology. This would take getting a "blue screen of death" to a whole new level. I hope they subsidise them for purchase by criminals and terrorists; cops arent going to go anywhere near these things.

And@nonymou5:

Hmmm, what trade-offs do we have?

1) Add extra cost to the firearm and ammunition to have a firearm that might not fire when I need it to do so.

2) Add complexity to a situation where I may need to react in a very short period of time.

3) Possible increase my safety if I was in a situation where the firearm would be removed from me and used against me.

Let's see if I am in a situation where the attacker can get physical possesion of my firearm then I am going to be harmed. The attacker may not use the bullets from my firearm but at this point the attacker could use any number of way to harm me. So the idea is to prevent the attacker from disarming me. Which would require me using a firearm that was proven reliable over time and have been reviewed by experts. The Colt 1911 style sidearm standard-issue handgun for the United States Armed Forces from 1911 to 1985.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_1911
A reliable firearm like the Colt 1911 is also very simple compared to the weapon described in the article. Hence what is the more secure weapon?

Does anyone have a solid set of trade offs to promote "Password-Protected Bullets" as more secure?

Also for "who" would "Password-Protected Bullets" be more secure.

Interesting that some in the security field get it.