N.J. 'smart gun' research may get $1.1 million boost

The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | Jan. 07, 2004 | Steve Strunsky (AP)

[neverdem]

NEWARK - New Jersey-based research to develop safer handguns will get a $1.1 million boost from the federal government if a grant contained in a national spending bill is approved.

Gov. McGreevey joined U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine and U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, all New Jersey Democrats, in announcing the grant yesterday. The money is contained in an $800 billion appropriations bill that cleared the House last month and awaits action by the Senate.

The grant would go to the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, which has been working on prototype "smart gun" technology.

The money would be earmarked for refinements in the technology, which is being developed with a $1.5 million state grant. That grant jump-started smart-gun research after the Legislature enacted the nation's first smart-gun law.

According to the most recent timetable, New Jersey's smart-gun law could go into effect in five years.

Under the law signed by McGreevey a year ago, smart-gun technology would be required on all new handguns sold in New Jersey three years after the state attorney general certified that smart guns were available in the marketplace.

The technology refers to weapons equipped to be fired only by authorized users. Proponents say such technology would reduce suicides, accidental shootings, and handgun abuses, particularly among children.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology's prototype fails to correctly distinguish between authorized and unauthorized users once every 100 to 1,000 pulls of the trigger, those working on the research say.

Experts at the institute are aiming to reduce the failure rate to 1 in 30,000 pulls, adapt the technology to handguns, and bring smart guns to the marketplace within two years, Timothy Lang, an electrical engineer and professor who is working on the technology, said yesterday.

In addition to securing the state grant, the school has signed agreements with two companies to bring its patented "dynamic grip recognition" technology to marketable weapons. The technology uses sensors mounted in a gun's handle to recognize an authorized user's grip.

Other manufacturers are likely working on their own versions of smart guns.

"Every day, a million children live and play in homes where there are loaded guns that they have access to," said Menendez, who inserted the grant into the federal spending bill.

There is no federal requirement for smart-gun technology, and New Jersey is the only state to have approved a smart-gun law, said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association in Washington.

The NRA opposes the New Jersey law, Arulanandam said, because of what it regards as bugs in smart-gun technology.

[neverdem]

The US taxpayer should not be subsidizing technology that law enforcement agencies will reject. New Jersey has to inflict its loony obsession on the rest of the country.

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[Wally_Kalbacken]

Even if you could snap your fingers and invent perfect technlogy - how long would it take to penetrate the marketplace 100% - 80 years? I would look to anti-gunners to insist that all non-smart guns be turned in as soon as the allegedly smart ones hit the market.

[Prime Choice]

Wouldn't it be better for the person holding the gun to be smart? I never trust any technology to make decisions for me. I trust it only to follow my orders. And with "smart guns," that trust is lost.

That's why I'll never own a "smart gun."

[aomagrat]

Oink Oink

[Holly_P]

Off topic but--- I am searching and cannot find the article posted earlier today about the murder kidnappings today in Georgia. Anybody got a link?

[demlosers]

New Jersey has to inflict its loony obsession on the rest of the country.

It's part of their incremental objective moving toward a total gun ban. I wonder if the cops would use such a system after they get blasted by quicker bad guys because of delays in the recognition system?

[Atlas Sneezed]

Bang

[backhoe]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58120
I'm the Smart Gun Police

[neverdem]

Google Georgia+kidnap or Georgia+kidnapping

[facedown]

That's a great board.

[sgtbono2002]

Just some New Jersey Pork hidden in a much larger bill , nothing new here.

[SJSAMPLE]

Police, of course, will be exempted from this "life saving" technology. Go figure.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link.

[backhoe]

That's a great board.

Indeed it is- I'm johnr there, as I was on the Firing Line.

[backhoe]

Thanks for looking... I just want nothing to do with a weapon that may display on its tiny screen

"Abort, Retry, or Fail?"

Gives new meaning to The Blue Screen of Death...

[Renegade]

Oxymoron--" Smart gun reasearch sponsored by two of New Jersey's stupidest liberals"

[paul51]

"Every day, a million children live and play in homes where there are loaded guns that they have access to," said Menendez, who inserted the grant into the federal spending bill

I'd like to know the source of that 'data'.

[spunkets]

more pork for commies

[Fun Bob]

Exactly how many law enforcement agencies are going to adopt smart gun technology? I gauruntee you, zero. Why? Because cops know that the technology is dangerous and can render a gun useless in an emergency, self defense situation. Sweaty palms and a jittery hand will give prints rejected by nearly every fingerprint biometric device out there.