Colorado has a history with gun violence so it’s only appropriate that 17-year-old Kai Kloepfer, a high school student from Boulder, would want to apply biometric user authentication to firearms. Kloepfer just won the $50,000 Smart Tech for Firearms Challenge for his smart gun prototype.
Angel investor and gun reform advocate Ron Conway became the main backer of the $1 million Smart Tech prize to spur gun safety solutions earlier this year. “Let’s use innovation to bring about gun safety. Let’s not rely on Washington,” Conway told the SF Examiner in January. According to the Smart Tech Foundation, a total of 15 innovators will receive a part of that million dollar prize. Kloepfer is the first to get the award.
The gun works by recording the fingerprints of the user inside its self contained data base, which means no information is uploaded to any other server. This makes the weapon's computer very hard to hack, and does not jeopardize the owner's personal information.
Kloepfer came up with the idea two years ago when he needed something for his high school science project. “The idea came to me right as I was falling asleep. It was kinda in the back of my mind because of the shooting,” said Kloepfer, alluding to the Aurora, Colorado shooting that had been on everyone’s mind at the time. The shooting was just an hour’s drive from his home. “I scribbled it down before I went to bed and fell asleep and then in the morning I began my research,” He explained.
Kloepfer’s parents helped him in monetary increments to get the parts needed for each improvement. It would eventually cost $3000 for the whole thing to come together. “At first it was just a concept on paper,” he tells me. The gun went from phase to phase with each science fair. “Right now it’s a prototype on a plastic model. Its not entirely there but it works,” he says.
There is NO reason why this kind of technology should not be embraced the NRA and gun owners around the world.
And if they did so it could dramatically reduce the number of accidental shootings, increase the safety of our loved ones, and do a great deal to qualm the fears of those calling for stricter gun laws.
Can you see this with cps' guns too...no criminal could ever fire a cops' gun at him. This is beautiful. And I bet the NRA will hate it. They prefer that anyone with a gun in their hand can fire it. I mean, this would mean no toddler could kill a bad cousin. No schoolkid could take Daddy's gun from the nightstand and take it to school and hurt someone else. No crazed stalker could wrest away a woman's gun and shoot her with it. Now, tie this to registration, and we have the best of both worlds...the NRA still has their penis extenders, and the rest of us know that only registered users have them, and that only the registered user can fire them. This would cut down on home invasions by people looking for guns too. I love it! (So the right will hate it.)
ReplyDeleteSo when you develop Alzheimer's, dementia, medication reaction, drug/alcohol influence, the gun will check your fingerprints, not your mental state. YUP, that's sound safe.
ReplyDeleteRight. No one will be able to take a gun away from somebody suffering from those things and shoot them with it!
DeleteSo, 4:10 am--you would rather have ANYBODY with "...Alzheimer's, dementia, medication reaction, drug/alcohol influence" be able to shoot that gun? At least fingerprint smart technology would only allow one person, the person who has their fingerprints registered on that gun, to shoot that particular weapon.
ReplyDeleteArchie Butt
@Archie Butt
DeleteNeither a fingerprint check nor a background check makes any difference if a person's mental state is not good when the weapon is fired. Obviously my preference is to have as little firepower as possible in the hands of as few people as possible with regular monitoring to determine fitness to continue to own and safely store the weapon.
Clearly there are problems with the fingerprint system. For example, a stolen gun could easily be re-programmed for new fingerprints.
As you might guess, I have been faced with a dementia patient armed with a loaded 45. Perhaps that shapes my view of the right to bear arms.
Yes I most certainly do know that and have written about it in the past.
ReplyDeleteHowever their main argument was the fingerprint database which this seems to do away with.
WasillaBilly Palin Gives Her 'Side' Of The Brawl Story
ReplyDeleteEver the publicity whore, Sarah Palin is now rushing to give her 'side' of the story, which as usual has just enough facts to be accurate and enough spin to be ridiculous.
There are times where it's best to just let stories die. That is, unless you're Sarah Palin and are so narcissistic you just can't resist spinning things your way, via an unnamed "friend of the family."
Here then, for your enjoyment, is WasillaBilly Sarah's version of The Great Anchorage Brawl:
...Oh yeah, right. Sarah Palin only thinks about Sarah Palin. She doesn't give much of a damn whether her kid is a "vet" or not, but she sure as hell has an inflated sense of her own importance. Forgive me if I don't buy that particular bit of spin.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/09/wasillabilly-palin-gives-her-side-brawl
A company did this with an ID bracelet - the gun fetishists threatened the life of the CEO of the company, and IIRC, the Wicked Witch of Wasilla claimed no one shoudl have to wear identification to shoot a gun.
ReplyDeleteWaiting for the same loons to start screaming that no on should have to carry identification of a fingerprint (and "register" it with a gun, before they can shoot.
Watch some gun company buy the idea/patent it and shelve it - like the electric car . Be careful who you sell that invention to, kid. Be sure there's a clause that says if they haven't brought it to market in six-12 months, and for a price that is reasonable for comparable "dumb" gun... you get your patent back.
ReplyDeletegreat advice!
DeleteNot sure this is patentable, as it is just really a re-application of existing technology. Regardless, the notion of 'buying the patent and shelving it' is a joke, as nobody would buy an overpriced gun with this bulky, expensive, non-user friendly, sure to fail, system on it anyways.
DeleteStupid drunk or just stupid people have fingerprints too.
ReplyDeleteNot saying this is not a good improvement,
Hope it is better than the biometrics of my phone or of the narcotic cabinet at work.
ReplyDeleteBoth are huge failures and are constantly using back up codes. could conceivably be still standing at the narc cabinet at work waiting for it to pick up my prints lol!!
About time for the death threats against this kid to kick in from the gun freaks. I hope somebody with money and a conscience backs this up and it gets implemented.
ReplyDeleteYeah, what could go wrong there. Honestly, in the extremely rare situation where one actually needed to use the gun, this could be worse than not having one at all... like when the recognition software fails and the assailant decides to beat you to death with the useless hunk of metal.
ReplyDeleteActually many home owners weapons are used against them so this would prevent that, also the theft of the weapon would do no one any good since it couldn't be used by them.
DeleteBecause I can just about bet you woke up to surf the web without any doubt your computer would work today.
Intelligun has this already. Unlocks with owner fingerprint, locks immediately when user takes hand off gun.
ReplyDeleteAlso Sentinl has a biometrical locking gun.
ReplyDeleteThe NRA will not embrace this. There have been similar inventions prototyped for the grip alone and for the trigger, none have ever been marketed.
ReplyDeleteWoman Upset With 11-Year-Old Playing Clarinet Busted After Pointing Rifle At Him
ReplyDeleteCheryl Ann Pifer, 60, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at her Grand Junction home and charged with menacing, child abuse, and prohibited use of a weapon.
The boy told cops that he was “outback doing his homework playing the clarinet” when Pifer came outside and screamed at him to “Get your ass back inside,” according to an arrest affidavit. The child told investigators that he told Pifer “it was his homework and he couldn’t [go] inside because the baby was sleeping.”
In addition to leveling the 7mm Mauser at the young musician, Pifer allegedly pointed the weapon at other children in the backyard, prompting police to file multiple felony menacing and child abuse counts against her. The boy told deputies that Pifer “yelled ‘Fire in the hole’” while aiming the gun at him and the other children from her front door.
http://www.alan.com/2014/09/14/woman-upset-with-11-year-old-playing-clarnet-busted-after-pointing-rifle-at-her/
But, but, then burglars can't steal guns and use them.
ReplyDeleteOh, excuse me.
What if the bad guy with a gun drops it and the good buy picks it up? He can't use it against the bad guy.
Yeah, the NRA will be all over this.
But, but, then you can't sell your gun to someone else cheap because they can't use it. I'll bet it will cost a mint to reprogram that gun. Oh, no. The NRA is for cheap guns anyone can use. Heaven forbid this will stop a 5 year old from killing a three year old.
A 17 year old kid thought of this? His parents must be so ashamed, after all the Palin kids have thought of, he comes up with this?
ReplyDeleteAll joking aside, it's a win-win proposition. His parents should be proud. No database of fingerprints needed, and it saves those pesky "accidental" shootings. If the gun goes "boom", then they know it wasn't an accident. No one's "rights" are infringed, but of course the gun manufacturers won't let it happen, hell, they're afraid of a simple trigger lock.