A Maryland gun store owner who was standing by his decision to sell the Armatix iP1 smart gun on May 1st has done an about-face and announced on May 2nd that the gun will not be for sale.
The pushback from customers and gun rights advocates was simply overwhelming.
Oak Tree Gun Club in California tried to sell the smart gun and faced a similar backlash from law-abiding gun owners.
The Maryland gun store is Engage Armament, and Maryland’s most recent gun control laws have put the business under such strain that store owner Andy Raymond was willing to try to anything to stay afloat. However, according to The Washington Post, after enduring a day “of protests and death threats” on May 1st, Raymond threw in the towel. He will not be selling the Armatix smart gun.
The catch with the smart gun is that New Jersey has a 2002 law in place which makes it clear that once a viable smart gun is available for retail sale then smart guns are all that will be legal in New Jersey.
GunsSaveLives.net published the law on their site:
It it within the public interest, and vital to the safety of our families and children, for New Jersey to take a bold and innovative step of fostering the development of personalized handguns by firearm manufacturers. To accomplish this objective, the Legislature determines that it should enact legislation designed to further enhance firearm safety by that, within a specified period of time after the date on which these new personalized handguns are deemed to be available for retail sales purposes, no other type of handgun shall be sold or offered for sale by any registered or licensed firearms dealer in this State.
There were many who feared an even partially successful debut of the smart gun in Maryland would lead to a non-smart-gun ban in New Jersey.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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