Congress funds gun safety tech research—smart guns and locking devices
H.R. 4918 — Advancing Gun Safety Technology Act · Filed by Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 8, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill authorizes the Attorney General to award 3–5 grants totaling up to $10 million in fiscal year 2026 to small businesses developing gun safety technology—such as smart guns, personalized firearms, and locking devices—that reduce accidental or unauthorized use. Eligible entities must submit applications describing their technology plans and report on development milestones (prototypes, testing, production planning, commercialization).
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward grant authorization for gun safety technology development. It is a public-health-oriented R&D program with no hidden mechanisms or narrow beneficiaries—small businesses are the intended recipients, and the public benefit (reduced accidental/unauthorized gun use) is the stated purpose.
What the text implies
- Success of smart-gun and personalized-firearm technology could shift market expectations and regulatory pressure on the broader firearms industry to adopt safety features, potentially increasing manufacturing costs.
- Pilot program results may inform future federal or state regulations on gun safety standards, creating a pathway for mandatory safety-technology requirements.
- Grant recipients may gain intellectual property and first-mover advantage in an emerging safety-technology market, creating competitive advantage for participating small businesses.
Who it affects
The bill funds research and development of technology that reduces accidental gun deaths and unauthorized use—particularly protecting children and unintended users. The public bears no direct cost (it is a discretionary grant program), and the technology, if successful, would reduce preventable injuries and deaths.
Who stands to gain
- small businesses in firearms safety technology sector
- smart-gun and personalized-firearm manufacturers
- locking-device and safe manufacturers
Named in the bill
Attorney General, National Institute of Justice, Small Business Administration, small business concerns, 18 USC § 921 (firearm definition)
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 4 Democrats.
- Aug 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Aug 8, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $429,548 in lobbying spend. A filing names 106 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Mark DeSaulnier, the sponsor, reported $295,607 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Association for Gun Rights — $429,548 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 6, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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