Central Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer this week called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to use the City’s purchasing power to push gun manufacturers to create smart guns that meet the needs of law enforcement, including the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
Under the initiative, the City would add a smart gun to the list of approved firearms available to NYPD officers, consistent with operational needs. This would give officers greater choice in choosing a firearm, while spurring gun manufacturers to develop a smart gun appropriate for law enforcement.
Currently, the NYPD does not directly procure service handguns for its officers; instead it publishes a list of approved firearms and allows officers to select the gun that is best for them, with the officer being reimbursed for the cost of the weapon by the Department. To date, no smart gun has been approved for use because gun manufacturers have failed to produce a weapon that both integrates this life-saving technology and also meets the demanding standards of police.
“The United States has five percent of the world’s population, but fifty percent of the world’s guns,” Jeffries said. “There are more than 300 million firearms circulating throughout the country. We are in the midst of a gun violence epidemic that requires all hands on deck at every level of government. Smart gun technology is one of the most effective tools we have against the proliferation of illegal guns in New York City and across this nation. “
“Americans are facing an epidemic of gun violence that kills more than 30,000 people a year,” Stringer said. “We must address this scourge in the same way we would fight back against any other plague – by using the best technology available to reduce the risk of injury or death. We should harness the purchasing power of the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies around the nation to pressure gun manufacturers into creating weapons that use fingerprint technology and other modern safety features. We can change the market for smart guns, not just for police, but for everyone. We have the tools today to improve gun safety: let’s start taking action to protect our police, our kids, and our communities.”
City, state and federal governments purchase 40 percent of the guns sold in America, giving military and law enforcement agencies unrivaled purchasing power when it comes to handguns. The NYPD is by far the largest municipal law enforcement agency in the country, second only to the Department of Defense when it comes to arming its personnel.
Jeffries and Stringer’s call to allow the NYPD to purchase smart gun technology comes after President Obama last week similarly directed federal agencies to examine whether smart gun technologies could be incorporated into government purchasing for military and other personnel, consistent with operational needs. Some of the existing smart gun technologies include:
- Personalized Firearms: guns that use finger or palm prints or radio frequency identification to ensure that only a gun’s true owner/authorized user can fire the weapon;
- Loaded Chamber Indicators: to ensure that users always know when a weapon is loaded;
- Magazine Disconnect Devices: to prevent a gun from firing if the magazine has been taken out, even if a round remains in the chamber;
- Microstamping: to trace bullets found at crime scenes to specific guns; and
- Child-Proof Locks/Grips: to prevent accidental deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between 1999-2010, over 8,300 gun deaths were unintentional, including nearly 1,800 children.
“If an iPhone can be embedded with fingerprint activation, so can a firearm,” added Jeffries. “The gun manufacturers have been reluctant to adopt life-saving smart gun technology, so they will have to be compelled to make it happen. New York City is one of the largest purchasers of firearms in the nation, and we should use our leverage to push for more responsible gun industry practices. I look forward to working with Comptroller Stringer, a leader on social justice and corporate responsibility, to encourage City Hall and the New York Police Department to make this happen.”
