Now, a Colorado-based weapons startup believes it has found a way forward for a nation where many are searching for anything that could help lower the toll of gun violence.
The concept behind BioFire's weapon is straightforward: think smartphone security meets handgun. The weapon will fire normally as long as the user's fingerprint or face is stored in its memory banks. For anyone else, the company says, the gun is little more than a paperweight."Guns are very, very different than cellphones -- they're designed to explode," said Kloepfer.
Kloepfer said BioFire's goal is to cut down on the deaths and injuries that are caused by people using someone else's gun without authorization -- like the child who takes a parent's weapon to school, or the person struggling with emotional or mental health problems who knows that someone has a gun in the house. The self-locking gun would not stop someone who legally bought and registered it, Kloepfer said.
Eleven years and over 350 iterations later, the inventor invited ABC News to his company's lab and gun range."I thought it worked really well, and I can see the application when it comes to both safety and still having the ability to put the gun in operation quickly," said Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and retired CIA paramilitary operator.