Personalised, electronic handgun headed for commercialisation

The 100% electronic O'Dwyer VLe "Smart Gun"O'Dwyer VLe "Smart Gun" is to incorporate biometric authorising technology that should enable it to meet new US requirements for "personalised" handguns according to a joint release from Metal Storm and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).Legislation passed last year in the State of New Jersey requires that "three years after it is determined that personalized handguns are available for retail purposes, it will be illegal-. for any dealer or manufacturer to sell, assign or transfer any handgun unless that handgun is a personalized handgun". The States of New York, Ohio and Tennessee as well as the US Congress, are understood to be preparing similar legislation.The Dynamic Grip Recognition (DGR) biometric authorising technology recently patented by the NJIT will enable the creation of a 'personalised' handgun that is both childproof and personalised to the owner so that absolutely no one else can use it.The O'Dwyer VLe is not only differentiated by its biometric protection, it is the world's first 100% electronic handgun and uses new ballistics technology developed in Australia by Metal Storm that has no moving parts, no separate magazine, no ammunition feed, and outstrips conventional firing systems. The seven shot single barrel VLe can fire multiple rounds with a single pull of the trigger at a rate equivalent to 60,000 rounds per minute so that a three shot burst appears to be a single shot.The biometric system will be incorporated into the prototype design that previously specified a security system based on an electronic keying that recognises authorised users who are wearing a special transponder ring.According to Metal Storm, the O'Dwyer VLe electronic handgun allows for the incorporation of a range of 'personalising technology' the original design of the weapon rather than as an 'add on'.The sense of this approach to reducing shooting incidents is obvious (gun deaths in the US in 2000 totalled more than 28,000) and the market in the US (where more than 943,000 handguns were manufactured in 2001) and internationally for this kind of technology is undoubtedly significant.

Arsenal Firearms' Double Barrel Pistol shoots two bullets at once

It's been a popular design for shotguns for over a century, so why not handguns? With a design that looks like two guns were melted together, the new handgun from Arsenal Firearms is definitely a handful. Thanks to the gun's dual barrels though, the AF2011-A1 Double Barrel Pistol is capable of firing 16 rounds in a span of three seconds by shooting two bullets at the same time.

Aside from the separate barrels, the rest of the AF2011-A1 is made of conjoined parts, so that it uses a single slide, grip, and safety. It can however be customized to use a single trigger or two separate triggers, so the left and right barrel can be fired independently. Most of the internal parts - firing pins, springs, housings, etc. - are actually interchangeable with standard Colt 1911 parts. The pistol holds 16 .45 ACP rounds split between two columns, which connect to a single base plate and can be loaded like a single magazine.

Arsenal says the gun can be handled like any other .45 caliber handgun and is surprisingly accurate, considering its non-traditional design. At 15 yards (13.7 m) from a target, all 16 bullets will group in an area about the size of an orange; at 25 yards (22.8 m), that area grows to about the size of a watermelon. The dual barrels also pack quite a punch, with two bullets making up 460 grains of weight hitting a target one to two inches apart from each other, depending on the distance. That means one full payload from the AF2011-A1 can deliver in three seconds what would take a regular 9 mm pistol almost ten times as long to fire, including reloading. Check out the video below to watch Dimitry Streshinskiy, co-creator of the AF2011-A1 Double Barrel Pistol, demonstrate the handgun by firing a fully loaded magazine.