A Location-Based Smart Gun: An Attempt to Lockdown Firearms to Geographically Defined Areas

As mass shootings continue to make headlines, a call for advancements in gun technology has become urgent. As I will outline, there are only a limited number of smart guns, meaning “a firearm that includes a safety feature or features that allow it to fire only when activated by an authorized user.” This project hopes to develop a new approach to smart guns. Rather than limiting or identifying the gun owner, I hope to restrict the usage of a gun to zones defined by GPS coordinates, known as a geofences. I utilize an Android app to track the user. Depending on their location, the user may lock or unlock the gun via a Bluetooth connection with an Arduino locking mechanism. I believe this prototype could be implemented in both pistol and ArmaLite Rifle (AR) systems, ultimately saving many lives