Legislators Push for ‘Smart Guns’ to Keep Stolen Weapons from Being Fired by Criminals

In the 1990s, it became clear to firearms manufacturers, scientists and politicians alike that guns could be made safer if the legally registered owners were the only ones who could fire the weapon. This birthed the idea of the “smart gun,” a device that, much like a smartphone, would only be usable by the gun’s owner, drastically decreasing the risk of theft or fatal accidents.

But it’s 2024, and most New Yorkers still have no clue what a smart gun is.

Awaiting the Senate, the Safer Weapons, Safer Homes Act, is set to initiate a statewide roll-out of user-authenticated firearms (UAF), known colloquially as smart guns. The bill requires the state of New York to certify the “technological viability” of UAFs, approve a roster of UAFs available for retail sale and require at least one UAF to be available for purchase at all licensed firearms retailers.

“Many of the people who I spoke to this bill about were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve heard about this for decades. That’s fantasy,’” said Assembly Member Alex Bores, the bill’s sponsor. “But being able to say, ‘No, they’re being sold in the US right now,’... spurred everyone to realize this is where we have to act now.”

Bores said he’s heard a statement made by many New Yorkers, that most gun crimes in the City are committed with stolen guns. Although there’s no direct public evidence to support that claim, the ATF reported a staggering 93 percent of the 12,910 guns recovered from crimes across all five boroughs were linked to out-of-state sales. And most of these guns, according to the office of the attorney general, were likely trafficked.

Bores’ bill could be a step towards making a stolen gun useless. This stops the gun from being used in a future crime, and holds more users accountable for the crimes they did commit with their guns—making themselves easily traceable by the police. If a law, he said, it will hopefully cut the incentive for stealing a gun in the first place.

“What I’m trying to do is replace guns that are now ‘dumb’ guns, and therefore less safe, with ones that are safer, thereby reducing the violence that comes from accidents or stolen weapons,” Bores said.

A “dumb” gun, Bores said, is any gun without the personalization technology that prevents anyone other than an authenticated user from operating the firearm. Last year, he said, 411 children were killed in the US due to accidental gunfire, unleashed by playing with dumb guns.

Additionally, he reported that 10 percent of police officers shot on the job are killed with their own weapon. The grandson, nephew and cousin of law enforcement officers, Bores said the law, if in effect, could protect his family members and numerous other public servants from having their weapons taken.

“All of them have spoken to me about their fear of someone taking their gun and using it against them,” he said. “This is an ongoing threat nationally and here in New York, and if we can move some of these guns that are dumb guns, that can be shot by anyone, to use our authenticated firearms, we can make everyone safer.”

After the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, the country’s largest gun manufacturer promised an industry-wide reform, promoting the development of smart guns. Manufacturing company Smith & Wesson were horrified that anyone, let alone a child, could get their hands on a gun that didn’t belong to them.

Although the technology has been promised since the ‘90s, Bores said, the NRA sponsored an industry-wide boycott that took smart guns out of the conversation.

Controversial legislation, namely a 20-year-old New Jersey state law, was also culpable in the delay of the product’s immersion into public use. Called the Childproof Handgun Law, it had to be revised in 2019 after major blowback from the NRA, which called it a “dumb policy.”

Many, including Bores, partially credit the law with effectively ending the deployment of smart guns, because its radical nature required sellers to recall any gun without the technology.

The Safer Weapons Act, however, will be supported by the NRA, Bores said.

“The NRA said, ‘We won’t oppose laws that are just encouraging the development of smart guns as an alternative and letting people choose.’ They were just against the mandates,” he said. “We didn’t get opposition, at least while we were passing it, from the gun industry, because it’s just encouraging a safer alternative.”

Any life, Bores said, is worth saving. He noted that although more gun-related deaths come from suicides than homicides, the bill will still prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands.

“While this doesn’t stop the original purchaser from suicide, it does stop a child in the home or someone else,” he said. “If you have children that go through a particularly difficult time, the means by which they could have an awful incident is important...I do think, in terms of lives saved, that is a pretty substantial piece of it.”

Bores said he believes the bill will, hopefully, be signed into law at the start of next year. At least six law enforcement agencies in five states have purchased smart guns, and at least two have already gone forward with further orders.

“A firearm that is stolen isn’t usable,” he said.“There are already consumers purchasing it, and so I think it’ll start to make consumers safer, and thereby all of us safer.”