TRENTON — A dozen years ago, New Jersey became the focus of a national debate by passing a law requiring guns sold in the state to be equipped with technology that recognizes the owner and allows only that person to fire the weapon.

Proponents said these smart guns would prevent children from accidentally shooting unsecured weapons owned by their parents. Opponents said they would hinder gun owners when an assailant invaded their homes.

But then the debate largely died because the law had one big “if.” Nothing would happen, it stipulated, until the technology actually existed.

Now the smart guns are being manufactured — and the fight over them is being revived.

Today, gun control advocates filed a lawsuit aimed at forcing New Jersey’s attorney general to issue reports that could usher in the smart gun requirements in New Jersey.

“This is a very straightforward lawsuit. This was an extraordinarily important law that was passed, that was designed to save lives,” said Gregory Little, an attorney for The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, at a Statehouse press conference.

New Jersey’s law, signed in 2002 by then-Gov. James E. McGreevey, said the state’s smart gun requirements would kick in within three years of when it became available for sale in the United States. Because the technology did not exist then, the law required the attorney general to determine when it became available for sale and produce progress reports to the state Legislature every six months.

Such a gun has now been manufactured by the German company Armatix. It was shipped to gun dealers in California and Maryland, but gun rights activists convinced those dealers not to sell them for fear of triggering the New Jersey law — the only one of its kind in the nation.

The Maryland store owner, Andy Raymond, recently made an internet video in which he said he received “numerous death threats” over his effort to sell the gun. Raymond said he still believed he was in the right to offer the gun, but conceded that “maybe I was wrong” and apologized to New Jersey gun owners.

Gun control advocates today said the state attorney general’s office has been shirking its responsibilities because it has not produced smart gun reports as required by the law..

Carole Stiller, president of the Mercer County Million Mom March, which is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she was told one report was produced under McGreevey’s administration in 2003. Since then, all gubernatorial administrations from both political parties have not filed the reports.

“Frankly, I’m shocked that over the past decade the attorney general has not complied with this law,” Stiller said.

Donna Dees-Thomases, founder of the Million Mom March, said the lack of action only came to activists’ attention after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. that left 26 people dead, including 20 children.

“It wasn’t because (Gov. Chris) Christie is a Republican. But because in Newtown, there was a new reality in our world,” Dees-Thomases said.

Little said the lawsuit seeks a “simple ” and “straightforward” remedy. “We want the attorney general to do his job and issue a report,” he said.

Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the office would not comment on pending litigation.

Scott Bach, president of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, called the law “ill-conceived.”

“New Jersey’s smart-gun law is a dumb as it gets. It forces you to use an unproven technology to defend your life, and then exempts the state from liability when the gun goes ‘click’ instead of ‘bang,’” Bach said. “If it’s such a great idea, then law enforcement shouldn’t be exempt, and the free market should be able to determine its viability.”

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), who sponsored the law, said she’s willing to repeal it if the NRA agrees to stop opposing the retail roll-out of smart guns.

"I would be willing to work to repeal this law if, in fact, the NRA and the gun owners of America would make a public declaration that they will not stand in the way of the research, development, manufacture and distribution of a child-proof gun,” she said.

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