CINCINNATI — Two Queen City entrepreneurs developed a way to put gun safety in the palm of gun owners' hands.
GunAlert hit the market this summer. It's a GPS tracking system designed to detect unauthorized movement, alert the user within seconds and aid them in recovering the firearm swiftly.
"What we're trying to do — we know that guns are out there, we're trying to make it easy for people to secure their guns and get notified if they move," said co-creator Tom Lehn.
After the Cincinnati native retired from a wireless company in 2020, his former CEO asked him to join with a patent creator to create the project. It took the two around a year and a half to develop, he said.
It's a passion project for Lehn, who said he's always kept safe storage and handling top of mind.
"I've been a gun guy since I was in Boy Scouts as a teenager," he said. "I was involved with Boy Scouts as a leader for over 35 years, taught kids gun safety and how to shoot guns. I believe that the more kids know about gun safety the better off we are."
GunAlert uses cellular technology and an enhanced motion sensor meaning it's always traceable and will detect motion at even the slightest movement.
The device syncs to a phone app and can be attached to the gun itself, a bag, case or safe.
"If any of those things are picked up and moved, it'll send an alert to my phone," Lehn said.
Once an alert is received through the app, users will get location updates every five minutes.
Gun owners can register as many GunAlert devices to the app and even include specific information including serial numbers. Lehn said that information can be helpful when communicating with police.
Location specifics of the firearms will only be stored on the user's phone. Lehn's Level 2 Security company does not keep that information in its servers, he said.
Lehn said the system also helps to reduce the risks of growing trends seen across the country and locally.
"It's estimated between 70 and 90% of shootings by people under the age of 18 are either from a gun either in the home or from a gun from a relative or a friend," he said. "Sometimes if you have a gun in your vehicle. You may not look at it every day. You may not look at it for a week. This product would enable you to be alerted immediately if somebody took it out of your car."
Keeping an eye on the trigger is top of mind in Cincinnati too.
City leaders joined together last week to introduce new legislation aiming to hold gun owners accountable if they aren't responsible.Cincinnati council member Liz Keating penned two new emergency ordinances.
They would make it a crime if gun owners don't immediately report their missing or stolen firearms and would require those who misplaced or mishandled a gun to pay $200 to get them back from police, a fee that Keating said would cover the typical processing and storage cost of each firearm.
The two ordinances passed out of the Public Safety and Governance Committee on Tuesday and head to full council for a vote.
"Both ordinances really make sense. They're common sense," Vice Mayor Jan Michele-Kearney said.
For Lehn, GunAlert is also common sense for gun owners.
"Our product is designed to enhance gun security, but it's still the primary responsibility of the gun owner to make sure they take care of their guns," he said. "The cool thing about this product, It doesn't matter what side of the gun issue you're on -- whether you're for guns or against guns -- everybody should be about gun safety."
GunAlert is available on Amazon and at Range USA stores and is compatible with both iOS and Android phones.
