Enacts "personalized gun safety provisions" to establish safety standards and ensure that firearms can only be fired by authorized users

Manufacturers and others are required to comply with the standard four years from the date on which the commission's original standard is adopted. This time period acknowledges the gun manufacturers' need for time to research the technology and to retool. Antique firearms are exempt from the requirements because they are typically purchased and kept as collector's items and not for use. Firearms manufactured prior to the compliance date are also exempt. However, dealers are prohibited from selling or otherwise transferring those guns.

This prohibition is intended to prevent dealers and others from stockpiling guns that do not comply with the safety standard. Law enforcement and military personnel are also exempt from the requirements of the law. In addition to the standard penalties against those who manufacture, transport or ship firearms that do not meet the safety standard and against those who deface or alter the personalized characteristics of a firearm, the bill enables individuals who are injured or the representative of those killed by the discharge of firearms not meeting the standard to bring an action against the person who fires the weapon and the owner. The bill does recognize the defense that the firearm was being used by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty or for self protection.

Justification

There are approximately 40,000 gun deaths in the United States annually. Some 1,400 youngsters commit suicide with guns annually. In 1994, according to the NYS Department of Health, there were over 700 cases of hospitalization and over 300 deaths involving children due to firearms. In 1994, there were nearly 4,000 hospitalizations due to firearm injuries and more than 2,000 deaths as a result of firearm injuries. Deaths and injuries from firearms are a major public health problem. Various strategies to reduce the number of these tragedies have been proposed. These approaches primarily focus on the behavior of the individual, as opposed to the design of the firearm itself. Injury prevention professionals tend to advocate for the modification of the design of products rather than behavior modification as an effective way to prevent injury and death. Thus, many products including drug packages, cigarette lighters and motor vehicles have been modified to make them safer.

Changing the design of firearms so that they are personalized can also reduce the likelihood of certain gun-related deaths and injuries. Personalized or "smart" guns, which can only be fired by the authorized user, would be inoperable by the young child, the depressed contemplating suicide, and the criminal who steals a firearm.

While many young children are victims of unintentional shootings, teenagers are at even greater risk of dying from an unintentional gunshot wound. However, should a youngster find a personalized firearm, it would be inoperable regardless of the child's behavior thereby preventing many deaths and injuries.

Studies have shown that 40 percent to 70 percent of the guns used by felons are stolen, most from private homes. Since thefts, which total some half-million guns a year, are a significant source of guns used in crime, requiring all guns to be personalized could limit the availability of firearms to adults and juveniles in the illegal or secondary gun market.

A variety of technologically feasible designs can be incorporated into a firearm to personalize it. Magnetic devices, radio frequency transponders, and/or combination locks are just some of the designs which will prevent an unauthorized user from firing the weapon.

Effective date

First day of November.