How Byrna Technologies Is Working To Reduce Gun Violence In The United States Without Infringing On Gun Rights

Currently, there are over 440 million guns in circulation throughout the United States, and as the nation deals with a surge in gun violence every year there is an increasing need for non-lethal self-defense weapons. 

According to Bryan Scott Ganz, President and CEO of Byrna Technologies, most gun owners hope they will never have to use their firearms in a potentially deadly situation. This is commonly referred to as trigger hesitancy, and most people don’t want to be put in a situation where they would have to take someone’s life or seriously injure them using a firearm.  

Not only would most gun owners find themselves experiencing trigger hesitancy in the event a firearm would be needed, but using deadly force comes at a very high cost. In many states throughout the country, proving self-defense when using a firearm can be a daunting challenge. People could potentially find themselves in jail and paying large legal fees trying to prove self-defense in the event they had to discharge their firearm. 

To combat the growing epidemic of gun violence and give people an alternative to using lethal force with a firearm, Ganz has developed the Byrna, a non-lethal self-defense weapon that shoots pepper projectiles. As a gun owner himself, Ganz created the Byrna when his youngest daughter was still in medical school working in hospitals. He says she would leave the hospitals late at night in some of the bad parts of Boston, and he wanted her to feel safe and have the ability to protect herself. 

Ganz’s daughter didn’t want to carry a gun, so Ganz created the non-lethal Byrna for her. Since bringing the Byrna to market, Byrna Technologies has partnered with over 300 law enforcement agencies some of which are federal agencies. 

Now, Ganz sees the Byrna as one of the solutions to the growing problem of firearm casualties in the United States. He says in most cases that result in a casualty from the use of a gun the situation could have been avoided and the use of lethal force was not actually necessary. Most situations such as a home invasion or a potential robbery can be deterred with use of the Byrna. 

Byrna Technologies has developed a non-lethal shotgun round, which can be used in any type of shotgun, which according to Ganz is the most common type of gun in circulation throughout the United States. Combining the non-lethal self-defense weapons Byrna round with standard shotgun shells presents gun owners the option to use non-lethal self-defense weapons first and if their life is still in danger they can discharge a regular shotgun shell to deter a threat.

Despite the development of the non-lethal self-defense weapons technology, Byrna Technologies has been facing pushback from both the political left and right in the U.S. as well as from media platforms they try to advertise on. 

Ganz believes the opposition from the right comes from the mistaken belief that if there are safe, effective, non-lethal alternatives to firearms there will be a greater public outcry for gun control. Byrna Technologies is a strong proponent of the second amendment and Ganz himself is a gun owner, but believes in providing law enforcement and civilians with alternatives to deadly force.  

The opposition from the left comes from people who say Byrna Technologies is still promoting gun culture and advocating for the use of weapons. One of the biggest difficulties Ganz and the team at Byrna Technologies have faced is trying to advertise their products, which are consistently removed from social media and mainstream media platforms because they are assumed to be in the same category as traditional firearms. 

Ganz says he wants people to see that non-lethal self-defense weapons such as the Byrna are one of the solutions to the epidemic of gun violence in the country, as non-lethal self-defense weapons have saved countless lives, that would otherwise have been lost to accidental firearm discharges, cases of mistaken identity, and the unnecessary use of lethal force.

“Something needs to be done about the constant casualties and deaths as a result of gun violence in the United States. I don’t want to take anyone’s guns away, but instead, we are working to give people access to an alternative method for defending themselves,” says Ganz. “The Byrna doesn’t require any background checks or licenses to have, and it is legal in all 50 states, but there are some cities where you can’t carry it in public spaces.”

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