#Tech

Kansas-based SmartGunz have announced that their Sentry 9mm pistol, the company’s first product, will begin shipping in the 2nd quarter of 2021. Physically the SmartGunz Sentry is a 9x19mm 1911 pistol, but it utilises RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to enable the gun to be used by its designated user.

Good news: your agency has just ordered a long-awaited batch of rifles and pistols to complement and eventually replace the current inventory in use. Bad news: you are given the Herculean task of keeping a detailed track and record of the weapons’ use, both in training and in actual operations, so that an adequate maintenance program can be established and followed. Good news, again: enter the WeaponLogic Ecosystem, from Israel, that the Secubit company presented for the first time at the recent LAAD 2019 Defence and Security Exhibition in Rio de Janeiro.

QinetiQ North America, a US subsidiary of the UK-based defense company, has an interesting product to pinpoint hostile gunfire quickly while dismounted from a vehicle:  Man-portable gunshot detection.  Their EARS system has been operational for a while as a vehicle and building mounted gunshot detection system.  In 2008, after much development, they fielded their SWATS (Shoulder-Worn Acoustic Targeting System).  PEO Soldier gave it the acronym IGDS (Individual Gunshot Detection System) as well.  Unlike ShotSpotter, which is not portable and can detect shots over a multiple square mile area, the EARS technology can detect shots from 700m on in.  Shots fired within 50m do not register, as to not overwhelm the user with detection of their own unit’s fire.

Presented at the 2016 International San Francisco Smart Gun Symposium (ironic, considering the city shuttered its last gun shop in 2015), then 18-year-old Kai Kloepfer presented a new handgun design that incorporates a fingerprint reader. Young Mr. Kloepfer is sponsored by angel investor Ron Conway, who’s Smart Tech Challenges Foundation is spending $1.5 million for the development of “firearms safety technology.” Kloepfer is one of about 15 start-ups that Conway is sponsoring.

Smart guns are at the front of the gun industry’s mind right now. This is due in large part to Obama’s recent order that the Department of Defense, Justice Department, and Department of Homeland Security must come up with a viable plan to speed along the progress of smart gun technology. In the wake of Obama’s executive order announcements at the beginning of January 2016, a company by the name of Sentinl took it upon themselves to make a big announcement: they just happened to have a product coming out of R and D capable of fulfilling Obama’s request.

Discussions about smart guns have been underway for some time now and has, in recent years, been actively pursued by a handful of tech companies. In fact, Jonathon Mossberg who is indeed part of the almost 100-year-old O.F. Mossberg and Sons company, started his own smart gun research a few years ago. His company, iGun Technology Corporation, first set its sights on shotguns. Their idea was to use magnetic spectrum token technology which works much like RFID. The 12-gauge shotgun was designed to fire only within a certain range of the token which was, in this case, a ring meant to be worn on the shooter’s trigger hand. In 2013 the National Institute of Justice called the gun “the first personalized firearm to go beyond a prototype to an actual commercializable or production-ready product.” And, of course, Jonathon Mossberg is not the only one involved in the smart gun race.

New Scientist has reported on a company that is developing a “Variable Velocity Weapon System” that works by

Perfect for gun bloggers!