NSSF Vice President: Caution needed on legislation for nascent ‘smart gun’ technology
In a recent opinion piece in The Hill, Lawrence Keane the Senior Vice President for the National Shooting Sports Foundation said:
The Hill’s June 2 article “Dems push smart tech handgun rules” highlights only half of the conversation surrounding the two bills introduced recently by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
The article effectively summarizes the legislation, but fails to emphasize that the so-called “smart gun” is still largely a concept. Our industry has never opposed the research and development of firearms equipped with authorized-user recognition, but we have yet to see one that is fully developed, safe and reliable.
While our industry does not oppose R&D in this field, we do oppose ill-conceived legislative mandates. Markey and Maloney should take note from New Jersey state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg who said she wants to repeal the smart-gun mandate law she authored in 2002 after concluding that the one-size-fits-all prescriptive legislation has proved counterproductive.
Read the full article at The Hill.
