Smart Gun Technology: Why Criticism Doesn’t Matter

The recent commercial availability of the Armatix iP1 pistol has stirred a number of emotions and raised various criticisms of the technology, but any cool-headed evaluation of the situation will lead to the inevitable conclusion that none of it matters.

Earlier this year gun rights advocates convinced a California store to pull the iP1 out of the display case, and more recently a Maryland gun dealer was the victim of death threats for suggesting that the iP1 should be available for purchase. Part of the controversy has been a New Jersey law passed in 2002 which requires that once “smart gun” technology becomes viable and commercially available all new handguns sold in New Jersey must use this technology. Thus, making the iP1 available in California or Maryland might trigger this law into taking effect and leave New Jersey gun owners in a lurch. Therefore, a proper “pro-gun” position is to boycott a new gun—so the argument goes.