Smart gun operating on facial recognition goes on sale in US

A prototype of the Biofire Smart Gun is seen at Biofire Technologies headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, U.S., April 18, 2022. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight

BROOMFIELD, Colorado (Reuters) -Colorado-based Biofire Tech is taking orders for a smart gun enabled by facial-recognition technology, the latest development in personalized weapons that can only be fired by verified users.

But in a sign of the long, challenging road that smart guns have faced, a prototype twice failed to fire when demonstrated for Reuters this week. Company founder and Chief Executive Kai Kloepfer said the software and electronics have been fully tested, and the failure was related to the mechanical gun which was made from pre-production and prototype parts.