So far, the only states to attempt to regulate smart guns are Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey, but New Jersey’s law sparked controversy after it passed in 2002. That law mandated that once personalized handguns were available anywhere in the United States, all handguns sold in the state must be smart guns within 30 months.
Proponents and opponents said the New Jersey law caused a chilling effect on smart gun research and sales, as it would have triggered a traditional handgun ban in the state. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed legislation into law in 2019 that established a commission to set performance standards and approve smart guns, and eventually require gun retailers to sell them but not have to phase out the sales of traditional handguns.
Glaser said he is opposed to any regulation of smart guns, although he signaled an openness to a rebate program that would give consumers some of their money back if they bought a smart gun rather than a regular firearm, similar to incentives that have been used to get people to buy electric vehicles over gas-powered cars.
“I think that as soon as you start trying to regulate or mandate or anything, you risk a tremendous amount of resistance from the American public,” he said. “This should be a market choice.”
So far, there has been no other movement toward regulating or encouraging smart guns, unlike a bicameral bill reintroduced last year that would have banned the online distribution of 3D-printed gun blueprints. Spokespeople for the lawmakers behind that legislation — Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) — did not respond to requests for comment.
The NRA’s Dalseide said the organization “opposes any regulations that mandate the sale and the use of smart guns.”
Glaser said LodeStar Works would submit its smart guns for testing to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as any state-level regulators, before they can be bought by the public. ATF spokesman Erik Longnecker said in an email that evaluation and classification by the ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division is voluntary, but did not comment on smart guns’ future.
Glaser said the time is right for firearms to be more technologically driven, especially given that little has changed in them for a long time. He said gun manufacturers’ inability to combine both mechanical and electrical engineering is one factor that has hindered them.
“For us, it's somewhat of a mission that we think that the industry is so ripe for innovation,” he said. “It's one of the few industries out there that is not innovating in that way. I keep saying there's more technology in my coffee pot than there is in my firearm.”
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