photo by: Submitted

A handgun specially-equipped with safety technology from Baldwin City-based Free State Firearms is shown.

Sen. Tom Holland would be fine going from Kansas politician to firearms pioneer.

As I’ve reported before, Holland — a rural Baldwin City Democrat — leads a Douglas County start-up company that hopes to become the first in the country to mass-produce and sell a new type of handgun that uses RFID technology to greatly reduce the odds of accidental shootings.

The company took its biggest step yet this week. Holland announced on Tuesday that his Free State Firearms company has signed its first deal to begin selling its Sentry 1911 handgun — a specially equipped Colt 1911 9MM handgun — to the general public.

“This is huge,” Holland said. “We’ve been working for more than four years to get to this point.”

The Sentry 1911 is unique because it is equipped with an RFID chip — the type used by warehouses to track the location of boxes — that acts as a safety device for the handgun. It does so by preventing the gun from firing unless the RFID chip in the gun detects a second chip, which is located inside a ring that is worn on the hand of the shooter. The gun will only fire if the ring is in very close proximity to the gun.

The end result is if a child or someone else were to get hold of the gun, it could not be fired unless the child also had gotten hold of the ring. Holland thinks that is unlikely.

“You can keep it on your finger 24/7,” Holland has said of the ring “In essence, you have the keys to the safe with you at all times.”

The company is now set to find out whether buyers flock to the idea. Holland on Tuesday announced a dealership agreement with the Ottawa gun shop and firing range Gun Guys II to begin selling the Sentry 1911 firearm. It becomes the first location where the general public can purchase the firearm, but likely won’t be the last. Holland said the company hopes to expand into other markets in the near future, mentioning Chicago, Denver, Oklahoma City, Austin and other markets in the region.

The deal comes at a time when Holland is ending his 22-year career in Douglas County politics. His term as a state senator representing parts of Lawrence and portions of Douglas and Leavenworth counties will come to an end in January when new legislators take the oath of office. Holland did not seek reelection, in part, because he wanted to focus on this venture.

“It is time for the next generation to pick it up,” Holland said of his political seat. “That lets me focus on where my interests have always been, which is being an entrepreneur. I want to bring some true value propositions to the public.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, speaks at a press conference on June 12, 2024 at the Kansas Statehouse.

Holland said he began thinking about the firearms idea more than five years ago, when he was watching a television news program that featured a German company that was trying to introduce its version of a “smart gun” to the American market. The gun, though, was getting pushback from the U.S. firearms industry, which at times has been skeptical of such technology-enhanced guns as a way for the government to track firearms or that the devices may open the door for new government mandates.

Holland remembers thinking to himself that that the German company had a good idea but that it needed to learn how to better work with the industry than against it. Thus far, Free State Firearms hasn’t run into those problems with the industry, Holland said.

“It has been encouraging,” Holland said of the industry’s early response. “We have had two major — and I mean large — firearms companies reach out to us. They aren’t actively engaged with us, but they are very interested in what we are doing. That tells me we are on the right track.”

Free State Firearms is not yet a large company. Holland said it is still very much in a start-up phase, and the manufacturing of the handguns occurs in a small space in Baldwin City with a small staff. The company does not forge any of the guns’ pieces, but rather assembles the guns from pieces that it buys from a firearms supplier. Free State has a third party make its patented electronic parts that are incorporated in the Sentry 1911.

Free State is licensed as a firearms manufacturer through the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The company is not licensed as a retail firearms seller, which means it won’t be selling the products online or otherwise selling directly to ordinary consumers.

Instead, the company will pursue a dealership model where gun stores sell the firearms for the company. Ideally, they will be gun stores that also have gun ranges. Holland believes it will be beneficial for potential customers to fire the gun before purchasing and ask questions of gun shop employees.

Ed Christoffersen, owner of Gun Guys II in downtown Ottawa, said that is how his store intends to market and sell the Sentry 1911. Christoffersen said he thinks the gun will appeal to gun owners who have younger children in the home and who want that extra level of protection that goes beyond gun safes, trigger locks or other such devices.

“We will learn about the market fairly quick,” Christoffersen said.

He said family and friends of employees at the gun shop have been intrigued by the new product and eager to try it out. He thinks that will be the response from the general public too.

“There’s a high level of interest and they are excited to see it,” he said.

Fine-tuning details of the firearm will be an important next step, including the possible release of other models, Holland said. The Sentry 1911 has a recommended retail price of $3,495, which is a couple of thousand dollars more than what you would pay for a standard Colt 1911.

Holland, though, said he wanted the company’s first product to be its highest-end product. The Sentry 1911 is all stainless steel, equipped with night-vision sights and is of a quality that meets the standards for law enforcement agencies. Free State has made some sales to law enforcement agencies that have purchased the firearms for officers who transport prisoners and want an extra layer of protection in case a prisoner tried to take a gun from an officer, Holland said.

Future models may end up costing half that $3,500 price tag, but Holland said the company is counting on early adopters to purchase the high-end models and help prove market demand in the process.