A Smart Gun Promising to Change the Way We Think about Security and Safety

If you are a gun owner, you know the drill. Keep the gun in a safe. Especially if you have children. What if there was another, better way?

In Seattle, during one of our many so-called civil demonstrations, a gun was taken from a law enforcement officer’s car. A frightening situation. What if the perpetrator could take the gun, but not be able to use it?

It was after another gun-related incident, a school shooting, that the founder of TrueFire, Justin Gant, sought a way to create a fool proof access control device for a firearm. Pretty tough to do since, according to Justin, there have been very innovations in gun design for many years.

What happened next? A series of design iterations, testing, and test cases that are getting very close to establishing a standard for preventing an unauthorized use of a weapon, without disrupting the experience of the gun owner and the aesthetics of the gun. “It has to not be there”, said Erik Larson, his cofounder.

They are close to imagining a day where no one can access a device that they are unauthorized to use. No more need to lock the gun in a safe. No more frightening incidents around police firearms on the street.

We explore their idea, the stage of their design, and their passion for saving the lives of the gun owner, their friends and family, and law enforcement.