OLR Report 2013-R-0036 provides information about "smart guns." It specifically examines the extent to which they are commercially available, their cost, safety, and relevant legislation.
Smart guns use a variety of technologies, including biometrics and radio-frequency identification (RFID), to allow a gun to be fired only by its owner or other authorized user. Smart gun technologies have been studied and promoted for two decades but remain in the prototype phase. Smart guns are not commercially available at this time and we have found limited information on their safety and no information on how much they would cost in commercial production.
According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a group that advocates for smart guns, Maryland and New Jersey are the only states that have laws addressing smart gun technology. Maryland requires an annual report on the status of smart gun technologies. New Jersey requires on-going monitoring of the commercial availability of smart guns. Once they become commercially available, the law would bar the sale of handguns that do not have their safety features.
In 2000, the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University published a model handgun safety standard act that is similar to New Jersey's law. Legislation similar to New Jersey's law was introduced but not acted upon in California in 1997 (SB 697) and 2001 (AB 1219) and in Pennsylvania in 2011 (SB 931).
For more information, read the full report.
