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BROOMFIELD, Colo. (KDVR) — A Colorado native created the first commercial biometric gun with fingerprint and facial recognition.

Biofire Technologies founder and CEO Kai Kloepfer started working on smart guns nearly 11 years ago, in the wake of the Aurora theater shooting. 

“I had been to that movie theater, and so that’s really for me what prompted me to start thinking about, you know, rather than building a robot or some other piece of technology, would it make sense to think about some piece of technology on a gun?” Kloepfer said.

Kloepfer started working on the idea for a science fair project. Over a decade later, the Biofire Smart Gun has been crafted with home defense in mind.

“I’ve never talked to a gun owner that wanted their kid to find their gun,” Kloepfer said. “If we can provide them better tools that ensure that there’s no possibility for mistakes, that their kid will never have access to that firearm, I think that’s really important.”

Smart gun ‘still instantly accessible for the owner’

According to the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, nearly one-third of middle and high school students in Colorado report they have access to a gun.

“So the smart gun is basically a firearm that it’s always locked by default, but it’s still instantly accessible for the owner,” Kloepfer said. “So, if a kid finds it, if maybe an assailant takes it away from somebody, it’s going to be unusable. We’ve chosen to use both fingerprints and facial recognition where either the fingerprint or the face can be used to unlock the gun, because it makes it a lot more reliable.”

Biofire Technologies unveiled the Biofire Smart Gun on April 13. 

“We have orders from almost every single state in the U.S. And I think that’s really indicative of how this can be a solution for any American,” Kloepfer said.

The Smart Gun will ship to customers through the same Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives legal transfer process required of all traditional firearms. Biofire will begin fulfilling customer orders in early 2024, in adherence with all applicable state and local regulations. It is now available for pre-order.