On May 19, 2023, I noted that Colorado’s Biofire swore they had made a functional “smart gun” but that all my attempts to test it — whether to have them send one for review or to have me go to their facility to test it — had, at that point, been denied or met with delays and/or silence.
I became aware of Biofire’s “smart guns” because of a member of the PR firm that represents the company began emailing me months before my May 19, 2023 article. The subject of the emails was the launch of the “smart gun.”
However, when I asked for a model to review the member of the PR firm indicated they were not sending models for review. He offered me a Zoom meeting with the CEO of Biofire, which I rejected, because that does not allow me to use the gun and run it through malfunction tests.
The member of the PR firm offered me the opportunity to come to Biofire headquarters and see and handle the gun. I gave him dates I could come and he said those dates did not work. So I gave him more dates and, as of May 19, 2023 — and now, as of August 7, 2024 — the latest response received from him was an indication that he has not been able to nail down any date that works and an apology for the delay.
On August 6, 2024, Biofire put the following post on X:
After seeing the post, I emailed Biofire’s support team to ask if they could send a “smart gun” for two weeks for review or if I could come to their facility and shoot one.
Biofire’s Lauren Wilganowski responded to my email, saying, “At this time, we are not able to accommodate, however, I’ve taken down your contact info, and I will add you to our list as we do local events… stay tuned!”
Wilganowski then directed me to Biofire’s website or X account to see more about the “smart gun.”
Here is the problem: Videos of a gun that is supposed to be “smart” fail to communicate if the gun would work in real-life conditions. This is extremely important because the Biofire “smart gun” features a biometric fingerprint reader — which to date has failed on all smart guns when the user’s hands are wet, muddy, or the user is wearing gloves.
Such biometric readers have also failed if the user’s hands are bloody, which they may be in a real-life situation where the “smart gun” owner is under attack.
Watch video:
Biofire suggests they avoid this problem by having a secondary unlocking device — a facial recognition device — built into their “smart gun.”
On their website, Biofire suggests the gun unlocks quickly so the user can “pick up and fire your Smart Gun without thinking twice, every single time.”
However, they did not address how often both unlocking mechanisms fail, as they appeared to do when Forbidden Weapons was allowed to handle the Biofire Smart Gun.
While Forbidden Weapons was shooting the gun on camera, it failed to fire. So the shooter pulled back the slide — to eject and/or reseat the unfired round — and raised the gun again, but it still did not fire. Either both locking mechanisms — the biometric fingerprint reader and the facial recognition camera — failed to unlock the pistol or the pistol simply failed to fire the round that was in the chamber.
Watch video:
One has to consider what would result if the Biofire “smart gun” locked up in a similar fashion on a homeowner under duress. Would the homeowner be seriously wounded or perhaps even killed by an intruder?
In the end, there is no way to know how smart the Biofire smart gun is until I get my hands on one or they allow me to come to their facility and test it. Until then, the video from Forbidden Weapons raises serious concerns about reliability.
The Biofire “smart gun” is priced at approximately $1,500, which is roughly three times the amount one would pay for a traditional Glock, Sig Sauer, or Smith & Wesson 9mm.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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