On Monday, a New York Daily News columnist claimed that the best way to get the public to adopt unproven “smart gun” technology is to force it first upon those with a critical need for a functioning firearm—police.
The author, Washington CeaseFire’s Ralph Fascitelli, builds his case on shaky ground. He claims gun designer Ernst Mauch “proved” smart gun technology with “rigorous field testing” in the harshest climates. But our November 2015 test of his Armatix iP1 showed it to be maddeningly unreliable.
Fascitelli cites a “John (sic) Hopkins” study that suggests 43 percent of gun owners are interested in smart guns. Perhaps, but they certainly weren’t interested in the iP1; not a single one was sold. The iP1 debacle cost Mauch his job.
Fascitelli says cops want smart guns, offering a comment from a former leader of the International Association of Chiefs of Police as proof. But the IACP has never represented frontline cops, who are loath to put their lives on the line to be gun control’s guinea pig.
Cops will adopt smart guns only when the technology proves itself reliable and affordable—not before, and certainly not to satisfy an agenda.
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