Teenage Inventor From Colorado Develops 'Smartgun'

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Every day in America on average someone dies from an accidental gun wound, and the person who dies is sometimes a child.

A 19-year-old from Colorado says he's working on a solution to accidental gun firings: a gun that locks and unlocks like a smartphone.

A CBS News report this week profiled Kai Kloepfer's company BioFire and called his invention a possible "revolution in gun safety."

Kloepfer's gun, which he developed in the basement of his parents' Boulder house, uses fingerprint technology. He showed CBS how when he holds and fires his prototype at a firing range, it fires like any other gun. But if an unauthorized user picks up the modified Glock .22 and tries to fire it, there's nothing but a click when the trigger is pulled.

Kloepfer is in his first year at MIT, and he admits he still has plenty of work to do before his smartgun would be available to the public.

"I think this could really be the future of firearms," Kloepfer said.

Kloepfer is now looking to take a big step with the idea, one he first came up with four years ago while doing a science project.

"I'm now at the point where I'm able to start raising money, building a team, sort of really transitioning it to a real company, a real startup -- instead of just a kid in his garage working on a science project," Kloepfer said.

Stephen Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, spoke with CBS about Kloepfer's smartgun. Sanetti said he is skeptical about any gun that operates on battery power like Kloepfer's.

In addition to a reduction in accidental deaths from guns, if it became widely used Kloepfer's smartgun could also technically lead to fewer suicides. Many are committed with guns that do not belong to the person who dies.