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New Jersey is moving to implement a controversial two-decades-old law requiring the sale of so-called "smart" guns in the state. On Thursday, the state Attorney General's office announced that the Personalized Handgun Authorization Commission has approved “performance standards and qualifying criteria” for personalized handguns to be sold in the state, which officials described as a key step to implementing the long-delayed law. Under the new criteria, manufacturers seeking to be added to the state’s personalized handgun roster must demonstrate the handguns have reliable personalization technology, features to avoid accidental discharge or damage and comply with state and federal law, the...

Will You Only Be Allowed To Carry Smart Guns In The Near Future?

Rob Regent of SGW Designworks breaks down the inner working of the 9mm smart gun, which works only for the designated user, during a presentation for shareholders and potential investors in Boise, Idaho, U.S. January 7, 2022. REUTERS/Brian LosnessJan 11 (Reuters) - Personalized smart guns, which can be fired only by verified users, may finally become available to U.S. consumers after two decades of questions about reliability and concerns they will usher in a new wave of government regulation.Four-year-old LodeStar Works on Friday unveiled its 9mm smart handgun for shareholders and investors in Boise, Idaho. And a Kansas company, SmartGunz...

Dems in Washington are picking up where the Obama administration left off in 2016 on the subject of "smart guns" and mandating their exclusive sale.Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney joined with a group of anti-gun advocates this week to raise the curtain on proposed legislation that would mandate a fundamental change in firearms technology in America. The New York Democrat's bill would require all new handguns sold in the U.S. to use “personalized” technology within five years and extend its usage to legacy firearms offered for sale within 10 years.WHAT IS A "SMART GUN?"Smart guns, typically employing some sort of authorized-user...

Smith & Wesson still feels the wound it suffered two decades ago when it decided to invent smart guns. The idea was to invest heavily in the development of personalized weapons that could be fired only by a single person: the gun’s owner. This was considered a nearly science-fictional proposition in the late 1990s, years before the world was filled with smartphones and finger sensors. But consumer backlash against the project drove the gunmaker to the verge of ruin, and Smith & Wesson recently told shareholders that the corporate bleeding touched off by this long-ago episode has never fully stopped....

Armatix LODESTAR FIREARMS IS DEVELOPING A NEW SMART GUN CHAMBERED IN 9MM THAT IT HOPES WILL GAIN WIDESPREAD ACCEPTANCE AMONG AMERICANS.A new smart gun company says its pistol will serve as the gateway to mass acceptance of smart guns in the United States.According to The Trace, LodeStar Firearms based out of Philadelphia is in development on a smart gun chambered in 9mm and featuring radio frequency identification (RFID) tech which will ward off hackers. The MSRP on the gun will be about $750 and the goal is to have it available in 2019. The pistol is designed by Ernst Mauch,...

A New York Democrat has introduced a measure to the U.S. House which would require the sale of handguns with authorized user technology. U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney reintroduced The Handgun Trigger Safety Act last week which pushes “smart guns” by ordering within five years that all newly manufactured handguns include technology enabling only authorized users to fire the pistol. Existing handguns would have to be retrofitted within 10 years. The lawmaker argues a mandate to only sell guns so enabled with lock-out features would save lives. “How many more kids have to die? How many more police officers...

The New York Times has a problem with guns. The problem is both personal and professional, namely: the fellows who run the Times do not know all that much about guns, and they do not care to take any steps to learn about them. The problem manifests itself heterogeneously: they cannot seem to get guns right no matter how they approach them. They do not understand concealed carry laws. They do not understand gun statistics. They do not understand assault weapons bans. They do not understand the rules of NRA conventions. They do not understand Australia’s gun control laws. They...

A Washington-based “biohacker” has created the first implant-activated “smart gun.” A biohacker is a person who experiments with body implants including magnets and in this case, RFID keys. Smart guns use these keys to ensure that only authorized users can shoot them. The biohacker, Amal Graafstra, has successfully implanted an RFID tag in his hand that serves as a radio-activated safety when it’s in range of his smart gun. It’s a proof-of-concept system to illustrate that it is indeed possible. Graafstra founded and runs his business, Dangerous Things, from home. Current RFID-based smart gun technology uses wearable tags, such as...

Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday rejected legislation to increase the sales of smart guns, saying the measure would make the state “inhospitable” to legal gun ownership. Christie, a Republican, conditionally vetoed the measure that would have required state gun retailers to keep an inventory of smart guns, which can be fired only by authorized users. He sharply criticized the Democrat-led Legislature, which sent him the bill for the second time this year in June. He had previously pocket-vetoed the measure. “This bill is reflective of the relentless campaign by the Democratic legislature to make New Jersey as inhospitable as possible...

RENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) — More smart guns would be sold in New Jersey under a measure that cleared the state Assembly Monday. As WCBS 880’s Kelly Waldron reported, the measure would create a roster of so-called smart guns, which can only be fired by authorized users, available for sale. The bill would also require most New Jersey gun retailers to carry a couple of smart guns in their stores.

All Things Considered is an iconic program from National Public Radio (NPR).  They have a reliably "progressive" approach to the world, but sometimes they stumble onto inconvenient truths.  That is what seems to have happened a month ago when NPR ran this story on how a naive investor pushed Colt to develop a so called "smart" gun, which is actually a "stupid" gun. First, the push for the "stupid" gun came from the new owner of the company, Donald Zilkha.  He was a banker from New York City.  He did not own a gun.  I suspect, he knew nothing...

CPRC's Dr. John Lott talked to Coast-to-Coast AM's large audience about President Obama's push for smart guns.

A couple of days ago, on 27 April, 2016, an 11 year old boy in Alabama shot a burglar. From wvtm12.com: Home school student Chris Gaither, 11, was alone Wednesday morning when he heard a noise. Someone had broken into his house and walked upstairs. Gaither said he was scared, but wanted to be prepared so he grabbed a nine-millimeter hand gun.“When he was coming down the stairs, that’s when he told me he was going to kill me, f-you and all that,” Gaither said. The pistol would not have been useful to Chris Gaither if it had been...

With yet another push from President Obama to revive initiatives to develop “smart gun” technology, it looks like it’s time to revisit the issue once again. The most common question I got in response to my previous piece on the many problems with smart guns is, “even if you’re correct that smart guns are a bad idea, why is the NRA so opposed to letting the market even try to get it right?” The NRA’s official position is that they don’t care one way or the other about smart gun tech, and that the market should decide, but we all...

President Barack Obama is opening a new front in the gun control debate, readying a big push for so-called smart gun technology — an initiative that the gun lobby and law enforcement rank and file is already mobilizing against. As early as Friday, Obama is set to formally release findings from the Defense, Justice and Homeland Security Departments on ways to spur the development of guns that can be fired only by their owner, according to industry and gun control sources. Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett is slated to preview the announcement for stakeholders on Thursday afternoon. It’s an intensification of...

The gun control movement's latest hobby horse is the smart gun. President Barack Obama included federal support for smart gun research in his recent executive orders, delighting activists who insist that a locking mechanism capable of preventing criminals from firing stolen weapons would surely be popular with gun buyers -- if only the gun industry would drop its opposition. The bad news for anyone looking to the smart gun as a technological quick fix for gun violence is that, absent a government mandate requiring all guns to be "smart," a robust market is unlikely to materialize. And even if new...

Some possible good news on the Second Amendment front is emerging from New Jersey. One of the most intrusive (and frankly, unworkable) gun control laws in the country may be heading for the scrapyard as legislators in the Garden State slowly come to the realization that they just can’t force everyone to have “smart guns” instead of conventional firearms. Leading Democratic state lawmakers are seriously considering scrapping New Jersey’s longstanding but never-implemented law requiring all handguns sold in the state feature “smart gun” technology that allows only the weapon’s owners to fire them, NJ Advance Media has learned. There are...

The Attorney General told a House subcommittee they’re considering “gun-tracking bracelets” as a “common sense” way to reduce gun violence.

Should New Jersey require guns sold in the state to come equipped with technology that recognizes their owner and allows only that person to fire them?