Gov. Kelly vetoes school AI gun spotting provision
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TOPEKA (KSNT) – On Wednesday, Governor Laura Kelly line-item vetoed a provision that would earmark $5 million in grants to outfit schools with AI surveillance cameras to catch people carrying guns.
The provision would’ve required AI software to comply with certain security industry standards, already be in use in at least 30 states and be capable of detecting “three broad firearm classifications with a minimum of 300 subclassifications” and “at least 2,000 permutations,” among other things.
After numerous high-profile shootings, school security has become a multibillion-dollar industry. In state capitols, some companies are successfully persuading policymakers to write their particular corporate solutions into state law.
ZeroEyes also appears to be the only firm qualified for state firearms detection programs under laws enacted last year in Michigan and Utah, bills passed earlier this year in Florida and Iowa and legislation proposed in Colorado, Louisiana and Wisconsin.
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On May 10, Missouri became the latest state to pass legislation geared toward ZeroEyes, offering $2.5 million in matching grants for schools to buy firearms detection software designated as “qualified anti-terrorism technology.”
“We’re not paying legislators to write us into their bills,” ZeroEyes co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer Sam Alaimo said. But “if they’re doing that, it means I think they’re doing their homework, and they’re making sure they’re getting a vetted technology.”
Opponents grilled the requirement to have the product in at least 30 states. “Probably the most egregious thing that I have ever read” in legislation, said Jason Stoddard, director of school safety and security for Charles County Public Schools in Maryland.
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