Renewed push for smart guns could trigger a new furor over the technology

After vehement protests helped block the nation’s first smart gun from entering the marketplace, proponents of the technology are gearing up for another fight, intent on capitalizing on renewed interest in gun safety following a spate of high-profile shootings.

Ernst Mauch, the renowned German firearms engineer who designed the gun but left its manufacturer, is in the United States this week exploring starting a company to build another smart gun, perhaps with one of his previous competitors.

Mauch wants to persuade police groups to back the technology, which lets only authorized users fire guns, hoping that will assure Second Amendment advocates and consumers that smart guns should be embraced, not rejected. The head of the International Association of Chiefs of Police said this week that agencies are eager to test and perhaps adopt smart guns.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in New Jersey are considering doing away with a controversial law mandating that all firearms sold in the state be smart guns if one were sold anywhere in the United States. Gun industry groups, particularly the National Rifle Association, fiercely oppose the law. An announcement about the mandate is expected Monday.