There are 1.7 million homes with children and unlocked firearms. Every 30 minutes, there is a shooting of teens or children. Gun safety is a serious issue, but gun use is still widespread. Kai Kloepfer, 19, is passionate about preventing gun violence, and that is why he developed Biofire Technologies: a company which embeds fingerprint scanners into the handles of guns.
Here, Kai Kloepfer has connected two things which seem to be contradictory: safety, and guns. Guns are generally seen as a dangerous, destructive tool; in a word, unsafe. This is seen in the many efforts which have been made to make guns safer: putting a safety on guns, gun-training, locks, increasing the costs of ammunition, and more, and yet people are still getting hurt.
Kai sees that guns need a fundamental change, a change which requires responsibility. That is why he created Biofire Technologies, which creates guns with a fingerprint scanner built into the handle, to ensure that the gun is only used by people who have been scanned into the gun’s fingerprint ID system.
The potential of this technology is tremendous. There is no fear of children finding your gun and hurting themselves. It takes away a lot of the incentive for thieves to steal a gun, as they will be unable to use it. You can know that your gun is only being used by people you trust.
This technology will not eliminate gun violence, but it is a big step in that direction. This technology fundamentally changes how guns will be used by people in the industry, by requiring safety to be considered with every use.
Sources:
Biofire Technologies: https://biofire.io/
Forbes Profile: Kai Kloepfer: https://www.forbes.com/profile/kai-kloepfer/?list=30under30-youngest
I think this a great idea and will definitely help to ensure that firearms are only used by those to whom they belong. It is also a great way to ensure that children stay safe and are not hurt accidentally by any guns.
I think the technology is very interesting and can be useful, but I see a down fall in the case of an emergency. I’m curious to what happens when an intruder breaks in an someone who needs to use the weapon isn’t scanned in?
This technology is very innovative and very useful. I have never even considered this a possibility, but now it makes so much sense to have something like this on guns. This would make guns a lot safer, but also let the people who want to use the guns still be able to use them.
This is definitely a new way of looking at a problem. Instead of eliminating guns, why not make individual guns safer? I wonder how the current product compares to other fingerprint scanners right now–whether or not it is quick and accurate.
This is a fantastic idea that addresses a big problem. As long as the company can make their fingerprint readers accurate enough that the user intended for using the gun can use it when needed. I think this company will do extremely well in the next few years.
This is a really great idea. Out of curiosity how much would a finger print scanner cost? This idea addresses a huge problem, gun safety, and has the potential to be profitable.
What a great idea! A real solution that I think is a win for everyone. Then again, the price and reliability will greatly affect who will want to buy. Nothing would be worse than pulling out your sidearm and it can’t read your fingerprint when you need it the most. Hopefully that won’t be a problem.
Cool idea, even for a young child to have. I know that the issue of gun violence is a huge problem, and it is also very polarizing. This idea seems to be away to find a middle ground for those who enjoy/want to use firemans, as well as, those who see the harm that guns cause. I would like see how this works in person, as I find it very interesting and have some questions that I would like to ask the developers.
I like the idea and think this is a step forward in the right direction. However, I would question the reliability of fingerprint scanning. It is a relatively new technology that is not 100% reliable. If your finger is dirty or wet it could increase the time it takes for the weapon to fire. To concealed carriers, those extra seconds count in a firefight. I think it will obtain mass adoption cnce the technology has reached 100% reliability.
This is a huge step towards “smarter” gun policies and safety features. Of course a product like this is a huge disruption to the current industry and I cannot imagine it will be taken kindly to by all sides. I am 100% for this product, but can see issues as far as the actual reliability/efficiency/operation of the scanner goes in the situation where the gun needs to be fired.
I think this is an interesting idea and would likely minimize the amount of accidental child shootings in the US. I am skeptical that it will minimize crime, however, because I believe that there would still be a lot of guns without this scanner available that criminals would be more likely to get a hold of. These print-less guns would likely be cheaper to obtain, and criminals would have more incentive to use these guns for obvious reasons. I also worry about situations in which someone is home alone during a break in and they can not defend themselves because their prints to not access the gun. I suppose you could register a few members of the family for the gun and just exclude the children. Things to consider…