New digital gun lock to help prevent incidents involving unlocked guns

Omer Kiyani creates gadget called 'Identilock'

DETROIT – This week's incident involving a 13-year-old boy being fatally shot by teens playing with their grandmother's revolver has brought attention to people who don't properly lock up their guns.

A new product is hitting the market, and it's designed to prevent those tragedies from happening.

People use their fingerprints to unlock cellphones and tablets, but what if they could use them to lock or unlock guns?

Omer Kiyani created a gadget called "Identilock," which allows gun owners to use their fingerprints to lock and unlock weapons within three milliseconds.

"Identilock is a fingerprint-based trigger lock," Kiyani said.

Kiyani said that no matter how hard someone tries to pry open the case, if they don't have access, they won't be able to get it open or take the weapon out.

Kiyani developed and engineered the product in Detroit.

"The reason I did this is that I wanted to keep my family safe from the very gun I bought to protect them," Kiyani said. "This allows that."

He believes the product could have helped the nine children who were killed or injured over the last year and a half while playing with guns in Wayne County.

In April, an 11-year-old boy shot himself with his father's rifle while he was home alone on the city's southwest side.

A local mother is spending six months in prison after her 4-year-old boy shot himself in the hand. The child got hold of his great-grandfather's gun, and the great-grandfather received five years of probation.

On Monday, a 58-year-old grandmother was taken into custody, and faces 15 years in prison for not keeping her revolver secured from her teenage grandson, who shot and killed another 13-year-old boy.

"This is going to be challenging for both sides," said Local 4 legal expert Neil Rockind.

Rockind said while the teenager broke into the room, found the gun and loaded it, if the case goes to trial, a jury would consider whether there's true neglect by the grandmother.

"Some of them may well relate to the grandmother taking what she believed was reasonable steps to keep the gun away from the children," Rockind said.

The grandmother will appear in court at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in a few weeks to answer to involuntary manslaughter charges.

Prosecutors also charged her grandson with manslaughter.

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is sending a "no tolerance" message when it comes to unlocked guns.

For more information on the product, click here.

Sign up for ClickOnDetroit Email Newsletters (click here) for more stories like this.


About the Authors:

Derick is the Lead Digital Editor for ClickOnDetroit and has been with Local 4 News since April 2013. Derick specializes in breaking news, crime and local sports.