PA Bill Number: HB335

Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.

Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...

Last Action: Removed from table

Last Action Date: May 1, 2024

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Johns Hopkins prof wants Obama to push smart guns via exec powers :: 03/19/2015

A Sunday article in The Guardian newspaper could shift gun owner focus away from the current attack on ammunition back to so-called “smart guns,” as a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has reportedly suggested that President Obama could “used his executive powers” to "promote gun safety" with a "lucrative" federal law enforcement order of such firearms serving as “a high profile endorsement” of the technology.

Professor Stephen Teret, described by The Guardian as a “gun control expert” at the Baltimore-based public health institution, was quoted in the article stating, “I don’t know what is keeping President Obama from doing this.” Perhaps Teret should study up on government, or at least consult some members of Congress, particularly the House Budget and Senate Finance committees to find out why.

Buying hundreds or even thousands of firearms for the federal government isn’t exactly like ordering pizza for the White House staff. There will be oversight.

The school was renamed in honor of billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has, according to Wikipedia, donated $1.1 billion to Johns Hopkins University over the course of several years. With no disrespect toward Prof. Teret, American gun owners may not be that keen on “smart guns” and reading that someone from a school financially supported by a wealthy gun prohibitionist such as Bloomberg – so much so that the school changed its name in his honor – makes them skeptical if not downright suspicious of any push to promote such guns.

“This would not have to go through Congress,” Teret reportedly stated. “It’s something that the White House could do, or, short of that, the Department of Justice. Eric Holder is still attorney general for a little longer and he is very knowledgeable about the personalized gun industry. He or the president could take action before they leave office.”

Writing from New York for The Guardian, reporter Joanna Walters noted that “campaigners against gun violence” – that is, “gun control proponents” – have apparently been lobbying the president and Holder “to take far-reaching executive action by naming the government as a pioneer customer of the kinds of weapons that feature fingerprint-, palm print- or radio signal-activated security systems.”

That’s very interesting, and it will no doubt be more so when the federal law enforcement agencies have a chance to weigh in on the idea. When New Jersey passed its “smart gun” mandate, police were exempted, as noted in October 2013 by New Jersey gun rights advocate Scott Bach. There’s a message in that.

The Guardian story mentions a specially-designed pistol used by the James Bond character in the film “Skyfall” and suggested that these guns “fascinated” Bond fans. But the article features a photo of actor Daniel Craig, who plays Bond in the film, using a Glock pistol that he had just taken from a bad guy. The only technology at work there is the magic of cinema.

The Guardian also quotes Joel Mosbacher, a member of the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, described as a group of community organizations that has stricter gun safety among its goals.” Translation: The foundation is a coalition of gun control groups.

Bloomberg money helped pass a gun control measure in Washington last fall and it is also behind the nation’s most active gun control groups, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The terms “gun safety” and “gun sense” translate to gun control. Bloomberg money poisons the well where any meaningful dialogue on firearms is concerned.

Everytown is putting on this Friday’s forum on Guns, Public Health and Mental Illness at the Seattle Public Library main branch on Fourth Avenue. No doubt “gun safety” will be discussed, but as this column previously reported, it does not appear that a single representative from the firearms community is on the agenda.

Regarding the proposed push on “smart gun” adoption by federal law enforcement, don’t expect lawmen to rush forward to embrace this new technology. If some agency suddenly mandates their use, expect a lot of resignations and retirements or job changes.

Given a choice, consumers will make it. But the public does not care for mandates. The marketplace will decide whether such guns have a future beyond filling some niche.