Sliwa is an unlikely gun guy. He didn’t own any guns when he came to Colt, and one of his first ideas for the so-called smart gun came from a scene involving a stolen gun in the movie “Lost in Space.” But Sliwa may be the man for the moment. Hired specifically for his high-tech brilliance, he has applied for his own patent on a smart gun for self-defense, and he expects to have a consumer or police version on the market in two years. Sliwa thinks Colt, maker of the first revolver and the military M-16, is about to introduce the 21st-century gun. If he’s wrong, Colt itself could be history. “We’re betting the company on this,” he says. “It’s very stressful.”
Sliwa nearly panicked when he arrived at Colt a year ago on a mission to jump-start the smart-gun project. “We’re essentially a 1950s company with old equipment,” he says. “It’s like going to General Motors and telling them they have to make Hovercrafts. They’d say, ‘What the heck are you talking about?’ " He hired scientists from around the world to work on the project, which is kept top secret because of competitors.
Here’s how the law-enforcement version of the smart gun works: a cop wears a wristband with a small radio transponder in it. A receiver in the battery-powered gun picks up the signal and releases a pin that blocks the trigger. If someone grabs the gun and tries to fire it without the wristband, the pin stays in place, and the gun won’t work. An early model overheated, but Colt says that problem’s been fixed. A second prototype is now being tested by the Justice Department. With several million dollars invested, Colt is now at work on Sliwa’s “nightstand gun” for consumers, which can be activated for self-defense but will not work in the hands of an intruder or a child. Some legislators have already suggested making all guns smart. Sliwa rejects that, but says he would favor requiring guns to be either smart or safely locked.
Critics are skeptical. Some law-enforcement types doubt that a smart gun will ever be reliable. What if the radio signal malfunctions in a life-or-death situation? The concept is controversial among anti-gun activists. Some think it could save lives; others worry that it will make guns seem too safe. “It’s simply going to expand the universe of people who are going to be into guns,” warns Tom Diaz of the Violence Policy Center. That’s what cash-strapped Colt is banking on; Sliwa’s market research shows that 30 percent of those who don’t own a gun might buy one if it can’t be misused by their kids. If that’s true, Steve Sliwa could end up looking pretty smart, indeed.
Sharp Shooter
