Biofire Ready To Launch Pre-Order Smart Firearms With Biometric Technology

JAKARTA - United States citizens can now order 'Smart Gun' pre-messages that require facial recognition technology and fingerprints to shoot.

Startup firearm manufacturer Biofire is selling a futuristic-looking 9mm caliber pistol for 1,500 US dollars (Rp27 million) with orders to be delivered by 2024. The smart weapon scans two forms of biometric identification, optical fingerprint sensor and 3D infrared facial recognition, to ensure that only the true owner of the weapon can activate a firearm.

Technology reduces accidents and stolen or incorrectly used weapons. Colorado-based company hopes its gun will help reduce the level of firearms violence in America.

According to the non-profit organization Gun Violence Archive, more than 13,900 people have been killed by firearms in the US in the first four months of 2023 alone. Biofire's marketing statement estimates that their smart weapon could prevent about two-thirds of the death from suicide-induced firearms in the US every year, an estimate that would save 22,000 lives by 2018.

However, Biofire estimates are accused of inflating. Analysis by Engineering & Technology (E&T), an internal publication of the UK's Institution of Engineering and Technology, estimates that only about 6,109 annual firearms deaths will most likely be prevented.

Whether that's what Biofire estimates or what E&T estimates, it will only happen if these advanced firearms are successfully marketed, on time, as planned.

"Our goal is not only to start collecting orders, but to produce as many of these products as possible that people want to buy," 26-year-old Biofire founder and CEO Kai Kloepfer told the Denver Business Journal. "This is a great concept and I think it will be a good thing for the world."

According to Kloepfer,'smart weapons' can have a direct impact that does not require a lot of political approval.

Biofire along with its competitors in the'smart weapons' space, such as LodeStar Works and SmartGunz, has claimed over the years that their products are almost ready to be marketed but with a launch date that is still uncertain.

Last year, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) firearms industry trading association, Lawrence Keane, expressed doubts over the company's repeated promises.

"If I had five cents for every time I heard someone say they would take us to the market with the so-called "smart weapon", I might be retired now," Keane said, quoted by the Daily Mail.