We propose to build directly upon our longstanding, prior r&d in AI/machine ethics in order to attempt to make real the blue-sky idea of AI that can thwart mass shootings, by bringing to bear its ethical reasoning. The r&d in question is overtly and avowedly logicist in form, and since we are hardly the only ones who have established a firm foundation in the attempt to imbue AI's with their own ethical sensibility, the pursuit of our proposal by those in different methodological camps should, we believe, be considered as well. We seek herein to make our vision at least somewhat concrete by anchoring our exposition to two simulations, one in which the AI saves the lives of innocents by locking out a malevolent human's gun, and a second in which this malevolent agent is allowed by the AI to be neutralized by law enforcement. Along the way, some objections are anticipated, and rebutted.

Students at The University of Texas at Dallas are using artificial intelligence to stop mass shootings before they start. "It's something that we haven't had before," said Ashlesha Nesarikar, a UT Dallas computer science major. The early-warning system the 19-year-old and her team developed is called iNotify -- it instantly analyzes security camera video to identify weapons and real threats. "We can add this extra level of context to, in real time, recognize whether someone is wielding a weapon and posing a threat to people in the community," Nesarikar said. The successful test flight from Virgin Galactic's spaceship, the VSS Unity, could be the first step for tourists wanting to take a quick trip to space.