WRITTEN BY BRENT WHEAT

Biofire’s Smart Gun will be the first of its kind to be widely available if it ships in December as planned.

Sasha Wiesen sleeps with a .40-caliber handgun in a safe by his bed. The commercial real-estate broker from Florida recently preordered a new type of firearm he hopes will make the safe unnecessary.

The new weapon is the Colorado startup Biofire’s 9mm Smart Gun, which can only be fired if it recognizes an authorized user with a fingerprint reader on the grip or a facial recognition camera on the back.

“I’m usually an early adapter,” said Wiesen, 46 years old. “It might be the gadget part of me that made me buy it, but it’s also the safety aspect.”

Guns that use technology to ensure that they can only be fired by their owners, called smart guns, have been developed and debated since the 1990s. The Biofire Smart Gun will be the first widely available for sale if it ships in December as planned.

Proponents tout smart guns as a way to reduce accidental shootings and firearm thefts. Gun-rights supporters have been wary, in part over concern that governments could outlaw sales of weapons that don’t have smart-gun technology.

Smart Gun prototypes on display at Biofire in Broomfield, Colo., where the gun maker has a test-firing range.

Earlier efforts to bring smart guns to market have failed, largely because of pressure from gun-rights activists or because they didn’t work as promised.

As with other technologies such as electric cars that changed long-established products, the question for smart guns is whether they can work at least as well as the traditional versions they replace and find customers behind affluent early adopters.

The Biofire Smart Gun costs $1,499. Similar handguns without high-tech features typically cost between $400 and $800.

Many gun owners remain skeptical about a firearm with high-tech features, said Michael Schwartz, executive director of San Diego County Gun Owners, a local gun-rights group.

“For most of our members, the primary purpose for owning a firearm is self-defense, so simple is better,” he said. “It has to be 110% reliable.”

Biofire founder Kai Kloepfer says thousands have placed preorders for the Smart Gun, available online.

Biofire founder Kai Kloepfer, 26, has been working on the technology since he was a teenager. He said he had built the fingerprint and facial-recognition systems so that if one function doesn’t work because a person’s hands are wet or the person’s face isn’t yet in view, the other will.

Biofire was founded in 2014 and has raised $30 million in funding from sources including venture capitalist Ron Conway, who has promoted smart-gun technology since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. The school shooting in Newtown, Conn., left 20 children and six adults dead.

Kloepfer said thousands of people had placed preorders for the Smart Gun, which is only available online, but declined to give a specific number.

During a media demonstration earlier this year, the Biofire gun malfunctioned. Kloepfer said the weapon jammed—but there were no issues with its fingerprint or facial- recognition systems.

Loaded and Locked

Biometric identifiers

activate the gun by recognizing

the user’s fingerprint or face.

2

A new smart gun developed by Biofire is designed so that only an authorized user can shoot it.

Grip sensors

1

located on the front and back wake the gun when a person picks it up.

When the gun recognizes an authorized user via one of its identification technologies, the trigger can be pulled.

3

Note: Left-handed version shown
Source: the company
Stephanie Stamm/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Kloepfer said he wasn’t a fan of smart-gun mandates, which some gun-control supporters have pushed in an effort to spur sales. Cooperating with such efforts could alienate potential Biofire customers who support gun rights.

New Jersey has a law, opposed by Second Amendment groups, mandating that all stores offer a smart gun for sale once one hits the market. Kloepfer said he wouldn’t submit the Biofire Smart Gun to the state’s Personalized Handgun Authorization Commission, which would make the law go into effect.

“We’ve taken a very strong anti-mandate stance for smart guns,” he said. “I firmly believe that this has to be a choice.”

Biofire’s Smart Gun can only be fired if it recognizes an authorized user with a fingerprint reader on the grip or facial-recognition camera on the back.

The firearms manufacturer Colt was among the first companies to develop a smart gun, in the 1990s. The Colt Z-40 was designed to fire only when the shooter wore a bracelet that emitted a coded radio signal. But it didn’t work during a demonstration for The Wall Street Journal, and gun owners boycotted the company over its decision to develop it. The Z-40 never made it to market.

A German company, Armatix, developed a .22-caliber smart pistol in the 2010s that used a radio-frequency identification watch worn by the owner. But gun shops dropped plans to carry it in 2014 after objections from gun-rights activists.

In addition to stressing the pointlessness of smart-gun thefts, advocates for the weapons have argued that they could prevent children from accidentally firing their parents’ firearms or teens from using them in school shootings or suicides. A 2003 study by gun-violence researchers found that 37% of accidental shootings could have been prevented by such technology.

A 2019 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that gun-owners who already stored their guns safely were 50% more likely to buy a smart gun, suggesting that their impact might be limited. The study also found that while about eight in 10 gun owners supported the sale of smart guns, two in 10 were likely to buy one.

An engineer with Biofire stepping into the smartgun maker’s firing range in Colorado.

Other startups are working on smart guns, though none plan to start shipping their product as soon as Biofire. Tom Holland, president of Kansas-based Free State Firearms, said his company was using a radio-frequency identification ring worn by the user.

“When people hear about the fingerprint swipe, it’s like, Oh, God, I can’t open up my cellphone half the time,” Holland said of the technology used by Biofire.

Holland said Free State plans to introduce the gun early next year. He said the weapon is being tested by half a dozen police agencies and that he has received a handful of preorders from consumers.

Wiesen, who previously worked in law enforcement, said he was drawn to the Biofire Smart Gun’s customizable aesthetics as much as its safety features. He ordered his in all-white.

“There’s something when you’re at the range and shooting your gun, there’s a cool factor involved,” he said.

U.S.A. — Cecil Trimble, a 35-year-old restaurant manager, took a fishing reel to Bass Pro Shop’s Tampa store last week to be spooled with new line. As he was waiting, he wandered over to the gun department and immediately spotted the object of his recent desire.

Trimble had been searching for a Sig P365 X Macro for weeks. The problem was, so had everybody else. Bass Pro wanted around $800 for the 9mm. Trimble didn’t hesitate. He told the salesperson he wanted it, completed a Form 4473, and handed over his Florida Concealed Weapon or Firearm License, which exempts him from a waiting period. Trimble had purchased numerous firearms from Bass Pro Shop in the past, so he expected to walk out of the store with his new pistol in minutes.

“The clerk came over and told me, ‘The ATF has approved you, but we’re denying the purchase,’” Trimble told the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project earlier this week.

Astonished, Trimble demanded to know what was going on. The salesperson said Trimble’s brother-in-law had tried to buy a firearm at the store a month ago but self-denied on the 4473, most likely because he misread a question. Unfortunately, Trimble’s brother-in-law, who had lived with him several years ago, moved out but never changed the address on his driver’s license.

“I asked the clerk how this had anything to do with me, and he said it was Bass Pro’s policy not to sell any firearms to anyone living at the same address as someone who has been denied,” Trimble said. “He hasn’t lived there for three or four years. I get the straw purchase thing, but he tried to buy a $200 revolver and I was trying to buy an $800 9mm.”

 

“The firearms manager agreed with me but could not get the GM of compliance on the phone to talk this out,” Trimble said. “As it stands now, I or anyone living at my address are barred from buying firearms from Bass Pro ever again.”

Trimble pointed out his brother-in-law is retired military, a Florida CWFL holder, and not a prohibited person. He must have misread a question on the Form 4473, Trimble said. The staff wouldn’t relent.

“My main gripe is this: what if I moved into an apartment and the previous tenant was denied. According to Bass Pro, I couldn’t disprove it’s not a straw purchase, and I can never buy a gun from them again,” Trimble said.

Bass Pro’s response

Neither Bass Pro Shop’s corporate communications staff nor Jarron Ritchie, general manager of the Tampa facility, responded to multiple calls or emails seeking their comments for this story.

Calls to Bass Pro’s firearm compliance directors were referred to their corporate communications staff, who did not respond.

Multiple calls to the Tampa store’s gun department finally produced a brief interview with “Joe,” who said he was one of the store’s managers. Joe did not provide his last name.

At first, he tried to blame the ATF, but he later admitted, “We do keep a data log on this.” However, he would not discuss or disclose their corporate background check policy.

“Again, sir, we are talking about things that I, at the store level, am not allowed to go into,” Joe said.

Takeaways

It’s important to remember that a gun dealer can refuse to transfer a firearm to anyone for any reason. In fact, they don’t need a reason to refuse a sale.

Also, the Biden-Harris administration has declared war on gun dealers. Federal Firearm License (FFL) revocations have increased by more than 500% since Biden took office. If the ATF was able to revoke the FFL of a big-box gun store like Bass Pro, the results would be cataclysmic for the store and its customers. Therefore, it is easy to understand why the sporting goods chain would want to be very careful when transferring firearms.

Still, Bass Pro’s straw purchase fears do not make much sense in this case. Straw purchases usually happen within 72 hours of a denial – not a month later – and nearly all of them involve the same gun – not a $200 revolver and then an $800 9mm.

Trimble was able to find and purchase a P365 from a local gun store the next day. The whole ordeal reminded him of another corporate mishap.

“Remember when Dick’s became anti-gun? This could be a slippery slope like Dick’s went through,” Trimble said. “They’re not preventing straw purchases. I answered that question on a federal form, which should be good enough. Bass Pro told me I’d get a call back from them the next day. I’m still waiting for that call.”

Legally, Bass Pro can concoct whatever policies they want, but they also should be willing to explain them when asked by the public. Even at the height of their lunacy, Dick’s still managed to do that.

This story is presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.

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About Lee Williams

Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.