Submitted Photo Assembly Andrew Molitor, R-Westfield, speaking.

State Democrats have recently reproposed legislation that will attempt to require the Division of Criminal Justice Services to study the technological viability of personalized firearms, something that many believe would increase safety.

However, the bill has raised concerns for many, including those that represent the Chautauqua County area, who are worried that the bill will lead to limitations on Second Amendment rights.

The legislation, titled A1191B, was initially proposed for this session on Jan. 9, 2025. Though the bill would proceed to pass the state Assembly in May 2025, the bill would die in the Senate. Since the bill was returned to the Assembly, Democrats began quickly working to get the bill back through to the floor. The bill was able to pass the Assembly again on March 26, and is now once again on its way to the Senate.

The bill advocated for user-authenticated or personalized handguns. These are guns with technological implementations that prevent the gun from being fired by anybody besides the authorized users. The bill was initially proposed by Alex Bores, D-New York, who argued that the bill could help to continue to reduce unnecessary gun deaths across the state.

“Violence from accidental gun discharge causes incredible harm with more than 300 children unintentionally shooting themselves or someone else each year. In 2020, this resulted in the deaths of over 120 people. Personalized handguns would stop children from being able to shoot guns that are left out or improperly stored. This would help prevent school shootings as well, as most shootings have followed the shooter taking the weapon from their or a neighbor’s home. Moreover, approximately 380,000 guns are stolen from owners each year. Personalized handguns would prevent those weapons from being used in other crimes or against their owners,” said Bores in the bill’s justification. “This bill creates a sensible regulatory environment to review the safety of and viability of personalized smart guns. The past decade has seen significant progress in the technology of these weapons; this bill ensures that New York can implement these new safeguards as they become available.”

Though many assembly democrats have joined in support of the legislation, the bill has failed to gain any significant amount of bipartisan support. One of those with concerns about the bill is Assemblyman Andrew Molitor, R-Westfield. Molitor is concerned that the bill is an illusion, hiding gun restrictions under the premise of safety regulations. Molitor argued that if the bill were actually advocating for such research for safety purposes only, then the bill would have received a larger amount of bipartisan support.

“If this bill was truly a study so that the state could be helpful in supporting personalized firearms, then it would have received much more support. However, New York state has a long and troubling history of curtailing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding New Yorkers,” said Molitor. “This bill is merely the first step towards more restrictive access to firearms for responsible gun owners while criminals continue to ignore the law. Our society will be less safe as a result. I voted against this bill for those reasons.”