New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, who wrote the Garden State’s so-called “smart gun” law, now admits that the law is fatally flawed. She says she’ll introduce legislation this fall that encourages development of “smart gun” technology, but does not mandate it.
Weinberg’s so-called “Childproof Gun Law,” passed in 2002, would outlaw the sale of conventional handguns three years after any handgun is commercially available that "can only be fired by an authorized or recognized user.” Twelve years after the law was passed, New Jersey’s attorney general admitted what everyone already knew: Such firearms don’t exist.
Even if they did exist, many consumers—particularly those purchasing firearms for self-defense—would be rightly suspicious of technologies that render firearms inoperable. While New Jersey’s law specifically exempted law-enforcement officers from its mandate, we believe all New Jersey residents should have the right to choose the firearms appropriate to their own situations.
