New Jersey should begin enforcing smart-gun mandate

[SecularMotion]

More than a decade ago, New Jersey mandated that handgun merchants switch to selling personalized “smart” handguns once the technology became viable. That effort to make firearms safer for gun owners and their families now has provoked a nasty and dangerous crusade to keep the guns off the market.

The latest victim of this campaign of intimidation is Andy Raymond, co-owner of Engage Armament, a Rockville, Md., gun store specializing in custom assault rifles. No gun control advocate, Raymond decided to carry the Armatix iP1, a handgun that requires its handler to wear a matching watch for it to work, to provide his potential customers a wide choice of firearms.

Instead of sales revenue, however, he got death threats from gun nuts who do not want to see the New Jersey law come into effect. If no one in the country sells the iP1, the law will remain dormant. As did the owner of a Los Angeles-area gun store who was also set to carry the smart gun, Raymond gave in, deciding not to sell the product. When The Washington Post asked him if he would ever carry the iP1 under different circumstances, he replied, “I just can’t.”

Now New Jersey’s lawmakers are thinking about lifting the mandate, with the idea that doing so would blunt the opposition that has cohered around smart guns and ease their entry into the market. Once more consumers know about, experience and trust the technology, the thinking goes, more of them will choose products with simple electronic safeguards against unauthorized use. The number of suicides, accidents and other tragedies, which kill thousands every year, would drop.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/05/editorial_new_jersey_should_be.html

[spin]

1. I feel the mandate should be lifted. ...

The following excerpt from the article makes a lot of sense to me.

Now New Jersey’s lawmakers are thinking about lifting the mandate, with the idea that doing so would blunt the opposition that has cohered around smart guns and ease their entry into the market. Once more consumers know about, experience and trust the technology, the thinking goes, more of them will choose products with simple electronic safeguards against unauthorized use. The number of suicides, accidents and other tragedies, which kill thousands every year, would drop.
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/05/editorial_new_jersey_should_be.html

[Packerowner740]

10. Sounds reasonable to me.

[sarisataka]

3. Wasn't it last week

that the claim of "smart" guns being mandated was fear mongering and an NRA talking point?

I fail to see how it would reduce suicides significantly since the owner would also have the watch that makes it work. Still it is promising technology and it will be interesting to see how it develops.

[clffrdjk]

4. Tell me secmo

What is so great about that gun that you feel it should be the only gun?

[mwrguy]

5. Enforce the law

If gun nuts don't like it then they can petition to have it changed, but it is currently the law of the land.

[clffrdjk]

7. Equally for everyone?

Or will it not apply to some people?

[IronGate]

8. It is not the law of the land, it's the law of NJ,

which, it looks like, may be changed to lift the mandated part of it.
So it looks like the "gun nuts" took your advice and petitioned to have it changed.

[Straw Man]

6. Because ...

... it isn't infringement to make a .22 pistol that costs $2000 the only handgun legally available in New Jersey. I mean, you can still buy a gun, right?

It's amazing what philosophical contortions some people who consider themselves progressives will go through to support gun control.

[shedevil69taz]

9. One manufacturer making one weapon in one caliber so far...

Does not make it a viable technology