The IDF logo. IDF veterans developed a new gun lock system. Photo: IDF.

JNS.org – Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veterans have developed a new gun lock that can prevent accidents and keep the owner’s weapon secure.

Zore X is a caliber-specific device that has two modes. The first mode is “awareness” — alerting the owner if someone tries to tamper with the gun. For the second mode, if someone tries to load the gun while it is locked, the locking mechanism “immediately expands, preventing the gun from being loaded.”

The Israeli start-up Zore has also developed a watchdog alert system that notifies gun owners on their smartphone that someone is tampering with their firearm. CEO Yonatan Zimmerman and CTO Yalon Fishbein co-founded Zore and have already raised $94,000 of the start-up’s $100,000 goal on Indiegogo crowd-funding platform.

Zimmerman told Geektime that Zore was founded to deal with the well-known problem of friendly fire in the military. The specific catalyst for the invention came when 21-year-old IDF Capt. Tal Nachman was killed by fellow soldiers who misidentified him as a Hamas terrorist near the Gaza border in 2014.

“We don’t believe that the solution will come from Silicon Valley. It needs to come from people that know and understand the importance of guns,” Zimmerman said.