Startup raises $17 million to develop smart gun

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Biofire Technologies has raised $17 million in seed funding to further develop its smart gun, which uses a fingerprint sensor to unlock the trigger.

Why it matters: Firearms were the No. 1 cause of deaths for children in 2020, according to new research based on CDC data, after decades of auto accidents topping the list. 35% of those were suicides.

Total firearm-related deaths, including both adults and children, also hit an all-time high in 2020.
The good news is that Biofire's guns only can be fired by authorized users, which should exclude kids or teens from using guns that their parents didn't secure.

Even if you're someone who decries firearms proliferation and supports stricter gun control, this is an innovation that should be welcomed.
"I see firearm ownership continuing to be part of American culture for the foreseeable future," says Biofire founder and CEO Kai Kloepfer. "This issue has become so politicized that really nothing is being done, even for things that shouldn't be political in any way, like kids getting hold of guns ... A smart gun isn't a cure-all, but we do think that we can have an immediate and substantial impact."
Kloepfer, who dropped out of MIT to pursue Biofire, adds that the gun is being beta tested with law enforcement and firearms experts, and that it doesn't have any RFID or other wireless capabilities that could turn off prospective buyers.
A recent Morning Consult poll found that 55% of current gunowners would be comfortable using a smart gun.
The bad news is that few of Biofire's investors are willing to be identified, reflecting continued VC skittishness around an area of such dire need.

The exceptions are Ron Conway, who's championed smart gun tech for years, and security expert Gavin de Becker.
But venture capitalists often like to take cover behind peers, particularly for nonconventional ideas, so the relative lack of "names" — including by the institutional investors that Kloepfer says are part of the $17 million — is counterproductive.
The bottom line: We've previously written about how Silicon Valley is failing kids by not investing more in smart gun tech. It also was the subject of a tech conference roundtable I moderated back in 2016, in which a then-teenage Kloepfer participated. Today's news is a giant step forward, but the race is still being lost.
https://www.axios.com/2022/05/12/start ... -smart-gun

If it is anything like the fingerprint ID on my old iPad or Keyboard that I use to log on we would be in a world of hurt. You have to press just right to get them to work. In a time of stress you would be screwed.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Startup raises $17 million to develop smart gun

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tonguengroover wrote: Sat May 14, 2022 1:13 pm Will it have facial recognition though?
"John, that you?"
"Nope."
>blam<
[/s]

Yeah, it's a dumb joke. The easier way to handle the problem that this solution is in search of is to lock up one's guns. If they're not on you, in front of you, or you can see where they're stashed, they're locked up. Not rocket surgery.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Startup raises $17 million to develop smart gun

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DispositionMatrix wrote: Sat May 14, 2022 3:07 pm It's this guy:
Gun invented that requires user fingerprints to unlock

A smart gun isn't a cure-all,...
This means those who have careers as part of the firearm prohibition lobby have nothing to fear.
...but we do think that we can have an immediate and substantial impact
An "immediate and substantial impact" would require compulsory adoption.
" immediate and substantial impact[" is when the trigger is pulled.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Startup raises $17 million to develop smart gun

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Make it mandatory for uniformed police force adoption first before mandating the general public be the beta testers for this new technology. I’m certain that idea would go over like a lead balloon. But that refusal is the perfect and unassailable reason to refute universal adoption of such technologies. If the police refuse to carry them on the job and trust their lives to potentially fallible electronic ID trigger locks how can the average individual be forced to do so by law?
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Startup raises $17 million to develop smart gun

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Bisbee wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 9:16 pm Make it mandatory for uniformed police force adoption first before mandating the general public be the beta testers for this new technology. I’m certain that idea would go over like a lead balloon. But that refusal is the perfect and unassailable reason to refute universal adoption of such technologies. If the police refuse to carry them on the job and trust their lives to potentially fallible electronic ID trigger locks how can the average individual be forced to do so by law?
So much this. Here in California, the proles have to buy "safe" guns on the roster, the police are exempt from that. If they really believe safe guns are necessary, then shouldn't the police, who carry them every day, be forced to use guns proven safe?
Aim past the target.

Image


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Re: Startup raises $17 million to develop smart gun

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gator68 wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 9:19 pm
Bisbee wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 9:16 pm Make it mandatory for uniformed police force adoption first before mandating the general public be the beta testers for this new technology. I’m certain that idea would go over like a lead balloon. But that refusal is the perfect and unassailable reason to refute universal adoption of such technologies. If the police refuse to carry them on the job and trust their lives to potentially fallible electronic ID trigger locks how can the average individual be forced to do so by law?
So much this. Here in California, the proles have to buy "safe" guns on the roster, the police are exempt from that. If they really believe safe guns are necessary, then shouldn't the police, who carry them every day, be forced to use guns proven safe?
And 10 round magazines? Yup.

Re: Startup raises $17 million to develop smart gun

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gator68 wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 9:19 pm
Bisbee wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 9:16 pm Make it mandatory for uniformed police force adoption first before mandating the general public be the beta testers for this new technology. I’m certain that idea would go over like a lead balloon. But that refusal is the perfect and unassailable reason to refute universal adoption of such technologies. If the police refuse to carry them on the job and trust their lives to potentially fallible electronic ID trigger locks how can the average individual be forced to do so by law?
So much this. Here in California, the proles have to buy "safe" guns on the roster, the police are exempt from that. If they really believe safe guns are necessary, then shouldn't the police, who carry them every day, be forced to use guns proven safe?

The California legislature does as they are told by the powerful law enforcement lobby in the state. Democratic legislators are just as obedient as Republican ones. In CA the category of "peace officer" is not limited to city police and county sheriffs deputies, ABC, DMV, public universities and community colleges, probation and parole officers, welfare fraud investigators, park rangers and more, are all technically exempt from the Roster. The only guaranteed way to beat it is to move out of CA.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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