Guns can be made safer and childdashresistant. If we can send a motorized computer to Mars, certainly we can advance our technology to make guns safer and childproof. The technology is available, like keydashoperated internal locks or loadeddashchamber indicators, and guns can be made childproof by installing childdashresistant triggers, which show whether a gun is loaded. Firearms can be personalized, like the Smart Guns, which use radio signals to prevent anyone other than the authorized users from operating them (Witkin 1998). 2. After years of sparring with the National Rifle Association, gun control proponents have begun to target the gun industry with lawsuits, whereby the manufacturer is held liable, just like the tobacco and automobile industries. A growing number of cities, like Chicago and Miami, and victims of gun violence are suing the gun manufacturers who illegally flooded the cities with cheap handguns. In February 1999, a federal jury found several gun makers liable in three New York City shootings because of negligent marketing practice. Lawyers at Sarah Brady's Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, which now has sixteen cases pending against the industry, say they won't let up until gun makers perfect Smart Gun technology that would keep anyone but the owner from firing the weapon (Bai 1998). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the annual cost of intentional and unintentional gun injuries was more than $20 billion per year, with 80% of the cost covered by the taxpayers' money (Sugarmann 1997, 52; Spitzer 1995, 69; CSGV 1997b). The gun makers, like cigarette makers liable for smokingdashrelated diseases, must be held liable for the cost of treating gundashrelated injuries.