Steve Westly

The debate about guns in America is stuck in an endless loop. For decades, after every tragic mass shooting, we reignite the same debates about reducing the size of gun magazines, the availability of certain types of weapons, and loopholes in background checks. Opponents debate whether these or any efforts can reduce gun violence without infringing Second Amendment rights. Passions flare, and nothing happens, until the next tragedy begins the process anew.

After too many years of gridlock, it is time to think outside the box. Fortunately, while our political process has not offered solutions, our entrepreneurs and scientists have. Thanks to technological innovations over the past decade, we can make real progress to increase the safety of gun ownership, and keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous criminals. These technologies are not science fiction. They are here now.

The first is tracking technology to find and reclaim stolen guns. Car manufacturers like Tesla track the locations of cars using GPS. Millions of people use “Find my iPhone” to track the location of a missing iPhone or iPad. Gun owners can use this technology to stop the flow of lost and stolen guns to criminals. The last thing a responsible gun owner wants is for someone to steal his weapon and use it to commit a violent crime. Yet it happens every day. In California alone, 70,000 guns have been reported stolen in the last five years, and nearly 4,000 of them have turned up at crime scenes.

Just last year, when Kate Steinle was murdered in broad daylight at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, her murder drew national attention because it was committed by an undocumented immigrant. But what went relatively unnoticed was that the murder weapon had been stolen from a federal agent from the Bureau of Land Management. It is notoriously hard for law enforcement to find and confiscate stolen guns. We can make their jobs easier by outfitting guns with computer chips that can be activated remotely when a gun is reported stolen to help law enforcement recover it and return it to its lawful owner.

NRA wants you to remember the ladies: Jason Sattler

The second is fingerprint recognition technology that ensures guns are used only by their lawful owners. Again, millions of Americans already use this technology to ensure only we can use our smartphones every day. Yet innocent people die every day because guns fall into the wrong hands. And it’s not always criminals. Just last year, 265 people, many of them children, were accidentally shot by other children using unsecured guns. We can do more to help responsible gun owners keep their guns from falling into the wrong hands.

Unsurprisingly, there is broad support for this technology. Nearly 60% of Americans, and 43% of gun owners, say they would buy guns with childproofing technology. Even the NRA is on record supporting the development of this technology. To be sure, gun rights advocates don't want a government ban on sales of guns that lack "smart gun" technology; but they agree that Americans should at least have the choice.

Government can help provide that choice by investing in research that will enable the gun industry to bring effective, affordable smart guns to the marketplace. The Obama Administration has taken the first step, recently calling for the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security to increase investments in “smart gun research.” Whichever party wins the White House should continue these investments, and state and local governments should follow their lead to offer millions of gun owners across the country the chance to make their weapons at least as secure from theft as their cell phones.

When Democrats win, so do gun makers: Column

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

Finally, some 75 cities are using technology that can instantly tell police dispatchers where a gun has been fired (within a range of 20 feet), and whether it’s an individual firing a single-shot pistol or a mob firing semi-automatic weapons. It is seen as a useful tool, although its impact on arrests and gun violence is unclear so far.

We may broker peace in the Middle East before we can broker a political compromise on guns in America. Increasingly frustrated gun control advocates continue to square off against increasingly angered gun rights advocates, exposing cultural fault lines that fracture the path to political compromise. No single solution, technological or otherwise, can stop all gun violence. But we don’t need to wait for the grand political compromise. We can take meaningful action now. We have the technology to make gun ownership safer, and we can put that technology to work saving lives today.

Steve Westly, founder of The Westly Group, is a former California state controller and chief fiscal officer and was California co-chair of Obama for America. He holds a 1.5% share in ShotSpotter, the system that some police departments are using to help locate gun firings.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.