Gun control advocates are looking for new options, including some tech strategies. On Wednesday, seven measures failed in the U.S. Senate, including an amendment that would have expanded background checks. Some gun control advocates are now looking in new directions. So-called ‘smart guns’ are firearms that only authorized users can fire. But so far, there’s not a single one on the market in the U.S.

A year ago, Marketplace Tech host David Brancaccio drove solo across the country trying to deal only with technology and no people, as part of a series called Robots Ate My Job. Jamie Kitman, New York editor for Automobile Magazine, is now trying to make the drive the other way — meeting as many interesting human beings along the trip as he can. Kitman, who is driving a $240,000 McLaren MP 4-12C sports car, caught up with Marketplace Tech on the second day of his journey after he’d hung out in Chandler, Arizona with an outfit that has a fascinating way to design cars.

Computer glitches at home can be frustrating, but what about when they keep an entire airline company from taking off? American Airlines had to cancel over 400 flights and deal with massive delays yesterday when employees couldn’t access its computerized reservation system Sabre, which is used by multiple airlines, helps with scheduling, booking, printing boarding passes, and tracking checked bags.

A researcher used an smart phone app to hack the cockpit of a virtual airplane. The setting was a computer security conference in Amsterdam. The FAA and several makers of cockpit equipment say that feat would be much harder, if not impossible, in a real aircraft. We asked regular contributer Chester Wisnewski at computer security firm Sophos if he gives this much credence. He doesn’t — but he does think the story could make flying safer. 

Can the IRS look through your email without a warrant — and does that run contrary to the Fourth Amendment? Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU seem to suggest as much, but the IRS has said it doesn’t use email to target taxpayers. While millions of Americans pop their returns into the mail today, we look at issues of data, privacy and the law. 

Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival kicks off the season of big summer music festivals across the U.S. and beyond. So what’s on the festival’s homepage? A link to the Coachella app, of course. But with friend locator apps and visual sharing apps like Instagram and Vine, the list of tech that will be front and center at concerts this summer is growing. But at Coachella, the list goes beyond applications — there is cooling technology that goes into the festival too. 

Baseball, with its passion for tradition, is higher tech than you think. Major League Baseball is now working with wireless engineering company Qualcomm to make sure that fans can use their smartphones while at the ballpark. And there’s been much work over the last decade to insure that things go smoothly for people who pay to watch games online. MLB.com CEO Bob Bowman says things were different in the early, herky-jerky days of streaming.

Funding follows high-tech weaponry. The Pentagon won’t say what they are, but the Air Force has now officially designating six technologies as ‘weapons.’ Reuters reports the vice commander of the Air Force Space Command telling a conference, ‘This means that the game-changing capability (of) cyber is…going to get more attention and the recognition that it deserves.’  Recognition and more importantly money, since military budgets tend to favor weapons.

An appeals court in the Golden State has ruled it is illegal in California to use a handheld mobile phone to navigate while driving. The ruling suggested that if State law seemed arbitrary, given that it is legal to manipulate other devices in a car, people should take it up with the legislature to change the law.