Recent Smart-Gun Revival Among Start-Ups
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Start-up companies are investing in smart guns technologies, in a time where the debate on gun laws is heating up. In a recent showcase, different companies branded their products as safer to use guns.
Smart guns mark a common ground between those who favor unfettered access to firearms and those who want tighter controls placed on them. “The reality is that guns aren’t going away … so we need to figure out how to make guns safer,” according to thetrace.com.
Some of the new guns offered include the Armatix iP1, a sleek .22-caliber pistol, was designed to work only if its user was wearing a wristwatch with a radio-frequency identification chip embedded inside. The gun’s debut drew plaudits from gun violence prevention advocates, who had long seen such gadgetry as a bulwark against accidental shootings and other gun-related deaths.
Another company built a fingerprint-activated, .40-caliber handgun, said the weapon could be selling as early as 2020.
A Swiss company, SAAR, is aiming to roll out an assault-style rifle with user-recognition technology for law enforcement within months, first in Europe, but with an eye toward the American market. And Pennsylvania’s LodeStar Firearms could be offering a 9mm pistol activated by radio-frequency identification (or RFID) or a pin code in 18 months.
Not all of the designs featured at the showcase were smart guns, per se, but they incorporated many of the same state-of-the-art safety features. One entrepreneur demonstrated a docking station called Everwatch that emits an alarm and fires off a text message to gun owners when their weapon are picked up. Safety advocates believe such accessories may be more appealing to owners worried about built-in electrical components failing them during an attack. Another company, Identilock, already has on the market a biometric trigger lock. It’s so popular that Identilock’s been unable to keep up with demand.
Add-ons like trigger locks have been around for years, so it is little surprise that gun owners would embrace a more sophisticated version over older, clunkier locks that rely on keys or combinations.
