'Smartphone' Handgun A Nightmare For Law Enforcement: Ocean County Prosecutor's Office

TOMS RIVER, NJ — It's advertised as the ideal defensive weapon: a handgun designed to look like a smartphone when it's not in use.

The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office says the firearm is a law enforcement nightmare, but an attorney who specializes in New Jersey's firearms laws says the handgun isn't the issue, it's the person using it.

The handgun, created by a Minnesota-based company called Ideal Conceal, is described by the company as a double-barreled Derringer-style handgun that can fire two .380-caliber rounds. When folded up, it looks like a smartphone. But a click of the safety releases the grip "and you're ready to go," the website says.

"This product is a defensive weapon designed with the utmost safety in mind," the company's website says. On the Ideal Conceal Facebook page, the company says the firearm is awaiting patent approvals from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office before it goes into production. The copany's owner declined comment for this article.

Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office and a retired New Jersey State Trooper, said the firearm poses significant hazards for law enforcement.

"It takes concealment to a whole new level," Della Fave said Monday, after posting about the firearm on the prosecutor's office's Facebook page. "If someone wants to do you harm, it's easy for them to hide it."

"It's hard enough for the (Transportation Security Administration) folks trying to screen people. Smartphones so easily go through," he said. Whether the internal firing mechanisms would be visible on an airport X-ray is not clear, he said. "I would hope (they would be). I pray it would."

Evan Nappen, an attorney with an office in Eatontown whose practice focuses on firearms laws and who has written five books on New Jersey's firearms law, said the Ideal Conceal handgun is just another of many types of handguns that are designed to be concealed as other items. Because the Ideal Conceal's grip must be moved into place before the gun can be fired, Nappen said, it isn't any more of a threat than any other gun.

"It's a tough job the police have," Nappen said, "but I don't think this thing ups the ante tremendously."

"A handgun's going to be a handgun," he said. "To me it boils down to the person: Is the person going to commit a wrongdoing or not? The focus should be on that."

Lisa Farbstein, spokesperson for the TSA, said the agency is aware of the handgun.

"TSA officers are well-trained in detecting prohibited items," Farbstein said. "Firearms are not permitted past TSA checkpoints. They can travel in checked baggage if properly packed and declared at the airline check-in counter." Anyone caught with a firearm at a checkpoint is subject to arrest and may receive a civil citation from TSA, she said.

Those penalties are stiff: fines of $3,000 to $7,500 and criminal charges for carrying a loaded firearm or an unloaded firearm with accessible ammunition, or $1,500 o $3,000 for carrying an unloadd firearm, according to the TSA website.

Della Fave said there have long been firearms designed to pass as everyday items, but with the smartphone design, "here they go taking it to a whole other level."

Nappen said he viewed the design as more of a novelty.

"It's not like someone can hold it up and say, 'Here, look at my phone,' and fire it," Nappen said. "It only fires two shots. It doesn't even have a magazine."

"If I was looking for something for self-defense, I would choose something like a ,357 Magnum, a gun with more firepower and stopping power, a gun with more accuracy. This doesn't even have sights on it," Nappen said.

Federal laws are very stringent when it comes to firearms designed to look like other objects, Nappen said, with objects that can be fired "as is" — where the user doesn't have to assemble the firearm to use it — are essentially prohibited under the same law that covers machine guns, he said. Firearms like the Ideal Conceal handgun that require steps before they can be fired are legal, Nappen said.

"Someone trying to manipulate an item" is going to get the attention of a police officer anyway, Nappen said.

New Jersey has some of the most stringent firearms laws in the United States. While residents are entitled to apply for firearms purchaser identifications cards — which, when granted, allow residents to purchase shotguns, rifles and antique cannons — those seeking to purchase handguns must seek an additional permit to buy a handgun, and handgun purchases are limited to one every 30 days.

Concealed carry of handguns in New Jersey is even more tightly regulated; permission must be granted by the chief of police in town or by a Superior Court judge, and is only granted when the person seeking to carry a handgun "has demonstrated a justifiable need to carry a handgun," according to the state statute. The requests are rarely granted.

Gov. Chris Christie in 2016 pushed for legislation that would more clearly define the "justifiable need," NJ.com reported. The Christie administration pushed a regulation that would add evidence of "serious threats" to the circumstances that could demonstrate a special danger to the applicant's life, including those that "are not directed specifically at an individual but which establish more than mere generalized fears or concerns." The state Legislature rejected Christie's calls to loosen the regulation and Christie later vetoed the bill approved by the Legislature.

Ideal Conceal is based in Minnesota, where concealed carry permits are more easily obtained.

Della Fave said the danger from the Ideal Conceal handgun is that "it's designed to be overlooked by law enforcement and security screeners."

"I could see some bad guy who has the mindset of wanting to carry (a gun) unnoticed carrying it," he said. "Even if they are stopped and frisked, it could be missed" because it looks like a smartphone.

"I don't see it as any more of a threat than anything else offcers have to deal with" Nappen said. "This is just another item, like a shiv or anything else" that can be used as a weapon.

"Last summer we raised the alarm regarding an iPhone case that was designed to look like a gun, that we expected would cause significant problems for both users and police," Della Fave said, noting there were a couple of incidents as a result of the gun-shaped case, including one in Canada where police were called because a man using the case had it tucked in his waistband while sitting on a beach with his family. In July 2016, a man was arrested in a London airport after he carried his iPhone in the gun-shaped case into the airport.

"This one actually has the capability to do harm," Della Fave said. "As if a cop's job isn't hard enough now they go and add this thing into the mix."

"As long as there have been weapons there have been hideout weapons," Nappen said. "If an individual wants to carry a firearm for defense without any kind of crazy firepower, this might fit their need. If the choice is no gun or a two-shot .380 in a case where you need deadly force to protect yourself, I'd take the two-shot .380 over nothing."

"Again, the object isn't intrinsically bad," he said. "You could take a hundred good guys and one of these things and not have a problem. I don't think there's any law or regulation that's going to stop someone with a bad intent."

Image via Shutterstock