A teenager who survived a deadly 2025 school shooting in Nashville has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of an AI gun detection system that failed to identify the weapon used in the attack.
Ars Technica reports that the legal action, filed in Davidson County court last month, targets Omnilert, the company behind the AI-powered security technology, and System Integrations, the firm that resold the system to Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. The January 2025 shooting at a Nashville high school resulted in two deaths, including the shooter, and left the teenage plaintiff injured.
The lawsuit alleges that Omnilert knew or should have known about substantial operational weaknesses in its gun detection technology. These limitations, according to the filing, could lead to detection failures during genuine emergencies due to factors including camera positioning, the distance between weapons and camera sensors, camera angles, lighting conditions, and overall weapon visibility.
Omnilert cofounder Ara Bagdasarian declined to respond to questions from Ars Technica regarding the lawsuit. System Integrations similarly did not reply to requests for comment.
The school district had invested heavily in the technology. In 2023, the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Board approved a contract exceeding $1 million to add an AI detection layer across the district’s network of cameras and associated security infrastructure.
Following the shooting, MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted explained at a press conference that the shooter’s position relative to the cameras meant the imagery “wasn’t close enough to get an accurate read and to activate that alarm.”
The lawsuit extensively references marketing materials from Omnilert’s own website, archived on the Internet Archive shortly before the shooting, accusing the company of overstating its product’s capabilities. The legal filing notes that Omnilert claimed its AI-powered visual gun detection “could have mitigated or prevented tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School” by identifying threats earlier. The company invoked one of America’s most horrific school shootings to suggest its product could prevent comparable tragedies. The lawsuit claims that Omnilert’s pre-shooting commercial website made no reference to false alarms, false positives, or any detection limitations.
Chris Smith, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, expressed serious doubts about the fundamental premise of AI gun detection technology. He described the approach of relying on specific situational conditions for the system to function as questionable.
Smith acknowledged his initial skepticism upon learning about AI gun detection systems. “I just thought that it was kind of bullshit. I have a Tesla, and I think Tesla’s self-driving is bullshit,” he said. “It’s not ready for prime time! How could you possibly be entrusting of that? That’s your plan to protect kids from school shootings? Why is this any better than a metal detector?”
Other critics have voiced comparable concerns about the allocation of public funds toward such technology. David Riedman, an education and security expert who maintains the K-12 School Shooting Database, stated, “I’ve never seen a school shooting where there was a lack of notification.” He added that the funds MNPS dedicated to deploying these detection systems “could have gone to a counselor or something else to a kid in crisis. Every decision that you make is pointing away resources from something else.”
Smith indicated that, to his knowledge, this represents the first lawsuit brought against Omnilert or any comparable company. He emphasized broader motivations behind the legal action, stating, “I thought it was important beyond Mr. Hanin’s own injuries to raise awareness of the whole situation.”
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.
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