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
New Jersey Lawmakers wising up on smart guns :: 05/15/2015
New Jersey’s smart-gun bill was always a little bit foolish. The goal was admirable, but the attempted means to reach that goal were poorly conceived and counterproductive.
Lawmakers appear to have finally reached that same conclusion — more than a decade too late. But no matter; maybe the state can now get down to the better business of bringing smart guns onto the market in a meaningful way rather than creating inadvertent roadblocks.
Smart-gun recognition technology prevents anyone from firing a weapon except its owner. It can be an effective twist on gun control — a child playing with it or a thief stealing it, for example, would be unable to shoot with it.
A New Jersey bill passed in 2002 dealt far too much with speculation. It established that when smart-guns became sufficiently advanced to be sold to the public at some unknown point in the future, a three-year clock would start ticking, after which gun shops would be required to sell only handguns with the smart-gun protections.
The legislation was deeply flawed in that there weren’t enough specifics addressing the type of technology that would have to materialize, nor was it clear what would actually trigger the start of that three-year clock. One shop selling one gun, somewhere? What would constitute being “on the market?”
As a result, the National Rifle Association and its gun-rights sycophants took no chances, and did whatever they could to prevent the beginning of the three-year watch. The tiniest scent of gun control typically sends the NRA into fits of fantasy about vast government conspiracies, so it is no surprise that gun-shop owners who were openly considering selling a smart handgun reported being intimidated to keep the weapons out of their shops. That meant that the guns really hadn’t yet come to market, even though they were available.
So in the end, the legislation was managing to do the opposite of its intent; it was discouraging the arrival and circulation of the smart-gun technology. That now has top Democratic legislators like Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg reconsidering the original bill, with an eye toward changes that would drop the mandates on gun-shop owners while offering consumers some economic incentives to buy smart guns.
That’s a step in the right direction that the Legislature needs to make, because broadening access to smart guns would be a significant gun-control measure without the threat of banning certain weapons entirely. Gun-rights advocates relentlessly complain that gun-control laws are useless because criminals don’t abide by them. But if criminals can’t fire the weapons they steal, increased gun “control” has been achieved. Smart-gun technology could also minimize the risk of accidental shootings in the home.
When an active bill has been sitting around for 13 years doing more harm than good, it’s time to try something else. We urge the Legislature to do exactly that.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/05/14/lawmakers-wising-smart-guns/27316925/
