MIT dropout developing smart gun only its owner can fire

Kai Kloepfer has a box he really wants to open. Inside, he hopes, is a device that will save countless lives.

But Kloepfer is keeping it inside the box as he walks through a Boston co-working space, not because it is a secret — because it is a gun. Rather, it is a nonworking early prototype of a gun outfitted with a fingerprint sensor that he hopes will be the first widely accepted smart gun to hit the market.

“I have people tell me it’s impossible to build a smart gun. As an engineer, as a scientist that’s ridiculous,” said Kloepfer, founder of Biofire. “Nobody’s ever built a proper smart gun, nobody’s ever actually done engineering and user research. That’s not something that can happen within the firearm industry.”

The handgun uses a fingerprint sensor on the grip, and will fire only if an authorized person is holding it, he said.