NJ Gun backers protest smart-gun bill

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Gun backers protest smart-gun billThursday, February 07, 2002By ADAM LISBERGStaff WriterTEANECK - So-called "smart gun" technology is supposed to make firearms safer, but a dozen protesters who gathered Wednesday on Cedar Lane said it would make it harder for law-abiding citizens to use guns in self-defense.They demonstrated outside the office of Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck,saying that her bill to require smart guns was actually a "rapists' protection bill," because it would deter women from carrying guns to protect themselves.They also argued that Weinberg's bill would outlaw pepper spray and other chemical sprays that women often carry for protection. But the bill doesn't contain any such restriction, as even the protest organizers acknowledged later."Knowing the way Mrs. Weinberg and people of her ilk work, it may not be banned in this bill, but it's inevitable," said Lawrence C. Farrell Jr., a board member of Gun Owners of New Jersey, which publicized the protest.The demonstration outside Weinberg's office - as well as one outside the office of Sen. Peter Inverso, R-Hamilton, who sponsored a similar bill - was arranged by the New Jersey branch of a group of female gun supporters called Second Amendment Sisters.They said smart guns - which would allow a gun to be fired only if its rightful owner had a hand on the trigger - could introduce electronic glitches into a life-or-death shooting situation, and could also make guns too expensive for average people to own. They also suspect that Weinberg's bill was simply part of an incremental, long-term effort to ban all gun ownership."There are ways to be careful without requiring smart-gun technology," said Christine Levin of Rutherford, who was demonstrating with her husband and their three children. "I'd like to be able to defend myself, and for my children to be able to defend themselves."Weinberg's bill would require all handguns sold in New Jersey to be smart guns, starting three years after smart guns are first offered for sale. The bill calls for that happening several years from now. Weinberg said it was designed to keep guns out of the hands of children, not to simply get guns away from average New Jerseyans."The goal is not to outlaw handguns," she said. "We're not talking about taking guns away from sportsmen."Soon after the demonstrators hoisted an American flag and signs with slogans such as "Self-defense is a civil right," Weinberg came out and invited three of them to discuss the issue in her office."It's not going to be mandated until the technology has been proven," Weinberg said later. "I cannot fathom, in my wildest imagination, why or how anyone can be against this."The New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark has been working on smart-gun technology since 2000. Scientists there have developed a network of sensors in a gun's grip that recognize the musculature and movements of an authorized user. They believe a prototype that performs well in tests is at least three years away.Donald Sebastian, leader of the NJIT project, said he believes his team can develop a gun that recognizes a reasonable number of authorized users - such as a husband and a wife, or everyone on a police department - and decide within milliseconds whether the person pulling the trigger is allowed to fire it.Still, the demonstrators said they don't want to rely on a battery-operated, computer-controlled system to get in their way if they feel they needed to fire a gun to protect themselves."Self-defense is a basic right, and a gun is just basically a tool," said Sharon Hesof Teaneck, one of the demonstrators. "People are getting more concerned that smart-gun technology will ultimately lead to less safety." http://www.bergen.com/page.php?level_3_id=5&page=2390914