The director of safety at a church in California had told a podcast he's working with technology experts on a software that will detect guns onsite.

Matt Montana told the 'Higher Ground With Billy Hallowell' podcast how his church is preparing to use AI to apprehend gunmen as they enter the premises.

“I came on staff here a little over three years ago after retiring from law enforcement,” he said. “And as I assessed the safety needs of our community…I really felt it was important to kind of identify some sort of technology that would allow us to identify if somebody had weapons on our campus.”

Montana is working alongside ZeroEyes, founded by a group of other ex-navy seals.

They describe it as a “human-verified proactive gun detection and situational awareness software that integrates into existing digital security cameras with a mission to stop mass shootings and gun-related violence”.

Rob Huberty, COO and co-founder of ZeroEyes, told 'Higher Ground With Billy Hallowell' that a school shooting in Parkland had prompted the software's invention.

“A bunch of us, we saw a video of the shooter who was out, and he had his gun out in front of a camera, and he actually talked to another student. He said, ‘get out of here. It’s going to be bad,'” Huberty recounted. “And we said, ‘There’s an opportunity here to see a gun and do something before anything happens. What if somebody was watching this?'”

Montana, who spent the last 14 years of his career as part of an FBI international terrorism squad, urges churches to be proactive with security. For him, those seeking to kill other innocent people is "just a fact of life". 

“I think it’s extremely important for me personally, for churches, houses of faith to recognize that and be vigilant — not to be paranoid, but be vigilant.”