Biometrics
Already in broad use to provide a measure of security in accessing restricted areas, smartphones and cars, features like grip pattern detection store information on a gun owner, keeping anyone other than that person from firing the weapon. According to a report in the Huffington Post, this technology can store data on more than one person when the weapon is shared, like in cases of law enforcement or the military.
Safe Zones
Location Awareness
Existing GPS technology could allow guns to know their own location and whether another gun is in close proximity. In an opinion piece for CNN, Jeremy Shane, who served in the Justice Department under President George H. W. Bush, explained that leveraging this kind of software could keep a shooter from unleashing multiple shots into crowded public spaces or discharging a weapon when no other guns are nearby.
Target Recognition
Shane also suggests employing vision and optical sensing technology now being used for military and medical purposes. Sensing technology could then prevent the gun from being fired if a child is at the other end of the barrel.