Abstract: A novel smart holster for retaining firearms, facilitating substantially immediate uninhibited access to qualified and authorized personnel, thereby preventing removal of the firearm by an unauthorized individual and geared towards aiding in any weapon retention technique including a holster and wireless remote unit. It is understood that the terns “receiver” and “transmitter” are used for the sake of clarity, in order to indicate whether a particular component resides on the wireless remote unit (“transmitter”) or on the holster (“receiver”), as preferably both the remote unit and the holster feature a transceiver. The holster may optionally be incorporated with a mechanical lock and remote unit, which can either be installed as a complete system, or retrofitted on existing holsters with minimal modification.