Inventor Lynwood Farr holding a gun with the device attached.
(Photo by Julia Thatcher/Cronkite News)
Gun device aimed to make it safer for people to keep guns in homes and for people who conceal carry. (Photo by Julia Thatcher/Cronkite News)
Close up view of device aimed to make it safer to keep guns in homes and for people to carry. (Photo by Julia Thatcher/Cronkite News)
LAKE HAVASU — In a speech on Jan. 5, President Barack Obama called on people and gun manufacturers to develop technology that would make guns safer.
“If a child can’t open a bottle of aspirin,” President Obama said, “We should make sure that they can’t pull a trigger on a gun.”
Lynnwood Farr, an inventor in Lake Havasu, said he has created just that.
“As you heard our President talk the other night about gun safety and how we need to improve it, we’ve already improved it,” Farr said. “We are aiming at four market groups, the first being children, the second being dementia/Alzheimer’s where mistakes are made, suicide and also gun theft.”
The gun clip is secured around the trigger and removed in the same way as a cap on a medicine bottle.
“The gun owner can have access to his gun within one to two, three seconds max,” Farr said.
However, if the device isn’t removed correctly, the alarm will sound, alerting the gun owner.
The group says that they haven’t had any negative feedback, and have been working with groups like the NRA to create a product that gun owners will be happy to use.
Former homeland security special advisor Jerry Iannacci is working with Advanced Warning Systems LLC.
“I’m pretty impressed with how readily accessible once the devise is on and is removed by the responsible gun owner,” Iannacci said.
The clip is getting some kick-back though from gun owners. Former Marine Joseph Ochsenfeld said he isn’t opposed to the idea, but he personally wouldn’t use it.
“It would be more practical that if you need it, have it easy to use, and when you don’t need it, have it actually locked up,” Ochsenfeld said. “I feel like that’s somewhere in the middle of both.”
The company is continuing to develop the product and says phase two will include a cell phone app to alert the owner of the gun if the alarm has been triggered. The device is available for purchase through Insyte, and retails for $149.