Biofire Tech, a Colorado-based company, has announced that its facial recognition and fingerprint reader-equipped smart gun is now available for pre-order, Reuters tells us in a report.
The gun's design aims to prevent accidental shootings by children, reduce suicide rates, protect police from gun grabs, and render lost or stolen guns ineffective.
Failed demonstration?
Nonetheless, during a demonstration for Reuters, the gun's prototype failed to fire twice. Kai Kloepfer, the founder and CEO of Biofire, explained that the failure was due to the mechanical gun's pre-production and prototype components.
Kloepfer added that the software and electronics had been exhaustively tested and that the facial recognition technology had performed successfully during other demonstration segments.
Smart Gun Now Up for Pre-Order
Reuters tells us that the smart gun is anticipated to be shipped to pre-order customers as early as the fourth quarter of this year, with the standard model costing $1,499 and potentially becoming available by the second quarter of 2024.
If this timeline is met, it could become the first smart gun commercially available in the United States since Armatix's brief sale in 2014. Other American firms, such as LodeStar Works and Free State Firearms, are also working to commercialize smart guns.
Firearm Specifications
According to their official website, the BioFire Smart Gun is a semi-automatic firearm with a striker-fired action and features an electronic fire control system. It comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and a fully integrated laser sight with a wavelength of 635nm and a peak output of 5mW.
The Smart Gun also has a capacitive fingerprint sensor and a 3D infrared facial recognition system that allows only authorized users to fire the gun. The rear sight features RGB light-emitting diodes, while the front sight has a non-reciprocating blade with RGB LED illumination.
The Smart Gun has magazines that can hold up to 10 or 15 rounds, depending on the model. The firearm also has a 5" LCD captivate touch display and a quad-core processor with a cryptographic acceleration module to ensure security.
The BioFire Smart Gun also comes with a range kit that includes ANSI Z87.1 certified eye protection, active noise-cancellation hearing protection, a custom-designed cleaning kit, and a custom-made transportation hard case for the gun, Smart Dock, and magazines.
Dependable Smart Guns
While gun enthusiasts have expressed significant skepticism regarding the dependability of smart guns, Biofire maintains that they are focused on developing an extremely dependable product that will always unlock for verified users.
The introduction of smart gun technology has been met with mixed responses from pro-gun and pro-gun-control advocates. Proponents view it as a way to increase safety and reduce gun violence, whereas opponents argue that it could lead to the government tracking gun owners.
Smart gun technology is not a new concept, but it has encountered significant obstacles in the past, including reliability concerns and gun lobby opposition.
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