In response to the school shooting in Connecticut last December, a group of San Francisco Bay Area technology investors is taking action. They are backing a collection of startup companies that are developing “smart guns” and other methods to curb gun violence. At a news conference on Thursday, Ron Conway, an early-stage investor who has backed companies like Google and Twitter, said,  “A year from now, we will be able to point to the Googles, the Facebooks and Twitters, who are working in gun safety.”

The group is envisioning a number of safety measures that would include data-sifting software to improve gun purchaser background checks, “smart guns” that will only fire with a technology check and more. The San Francisco technology effort is coming from Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit group that started after the Sandy Hook Massacre in Newton, Connecticut.

As the Sandy Hook Promise explains on its web page, “The Sandy Hook Promise Innovation Initiative is a “call for ideas” to reduce gun violence and a commitment by leading venture capitalists and angel investors to fund promising innovations in gun safety, mental health research and related new technologies. The Technical Committee to Reduce Gun Violence, which is a part of the Sandy Hook Promise organization, will be overseeing this initiative.”