Minnesota entrepreneur hopes for win with gun shaped like a cellphone

Kirk Kjellberg has melded two everyday American accessories — the smartphone and the handgun — into a device that could land him in the middle of the country's roiling firearms debate. And make him a lot of money.

The Monticello entrepreneur has developed a pistol that's shaped like a cellphone, a product aimed at the growing ranks of conceal-and-carry enthusiasts. When the "phone" is unlocked, part of it slides out to become the gun's grip, revealing the trigger of a .380-caliber, two-shot derringer.

Kjellberg's company, Ideal Conceal, has worked with an engineering firm in Big Lake to develop the gun. Kjellberg said he has a U.S. gun manufacturer lined up to make the product, once the engineering is completed. He declined to name the manufacturer, but said production is scheduled to start in October. The gun will sell for about $400.

Kjellberg calls his cellphone gun a "defensive" weapon, aimed at a populace alarmed by endless news of shootings.

"These random outcroppings of violence are drawing a lot of people to conceal and carry," he said. "You never know when some idiot is going to shoot up a place."

Critics, however, say the cellphone gun could make policework more difficult — what looks like a simple phone may no longer be. And they worry that, because of the ubiquity of mobile phones, a phone gun could easily end up where it shouldn't be — like in a child's hands.

"This is not going to make anything safer," said the Rev. Nancy Nord Bence, head of the gun violence prevention group Protect Minnesota.

Whatever your take on the Great Gun Divide, Kjellberg's cellphone gun appears to be unique, though with important antecedents.

The derringer itself is an old conceal-and-carry classic — one was used to assassinate President Lincoln. Disguised guns have a long U.S. pedigree, too, said Jim Supica, director of the National Rifle Association Museums. For instance, Remington once did a brisk business in "cane guns" — firearms built into walking canes, a gentleman's accessory in the 19th century.

Kjellberg, 53, got the phone gun idea last year after a kid in a restaurant inadvertently got a peek at his own concealed handgun. Kjellberg has a permit to carry, and his holstered semi-automatic pistol was covered by his jacket. But when he got up from his seat, the gun was momentarily visible.

"The kid said, 'Mom, that guy's got a gun,' and the whole restaurant looks at you like you are crazy or something," Kjellberg said.

So he came up with the phone gun because almost everyone has a cellphone, and it's a generally unobtrusive device.

Kjellberg, whose family owns Kjellberg's mobile home park in Monticello, has no background in the heavily regulated gun industry or any kind of engineering experience.

He's the CEO of Inspired Directions, a firm that does "presentation coaching and consulting" and "relationship-based sales training," according to his LinkedIn page.

Another one of Kjellberg's companies, Microwave Utilities, has worked with University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute on a pothole fixing technology that utilizes a portable microwave. For a time, Kjellberg also worked in insurance adjusting. In 2010, he filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying a Florida land development he was involved in was crippled by the Great Recession.

To turn his phone gun idea into reality, Kjellberg turned to Eric Bondhus, head of Auto Launch, a 13-year-old product development firm in Big Lake. The company does mechanical and electrical engineering work, and has helped create everything from fishing sonar to med-tech devices — and guns.

"We make things into a working, manufacturable product," Bondhus said.

Bondhus said the phone gun is designed so that a young child can't open it.

But Nord Bence of Protect Minnesota has her doubts. "Anytime a child sees a phone — they're used to playing Candy Crush on it — we have to be worried."

She said a phone gun, due to its easy accessibility, could also be used by men to intimidate women in domestic violence situations.

Law enforcement agencies are wary of the phone gun design. If it becomes popular, officers will be asking themselves, "Is a person really carrying a phone or is it a weapon?" said Jim Franklin, head of the Minnesota Sheriff's Association. The problem would be acute in "lowlight" situations "where we have to react within split seconds."

Kjellberg stands by his creation as an efficient, close-range personal defense tool.

And he's gotten a lot of interest in it since he put a up an Ideal Conceal website and Facebook page during the winter. About 4,000 people have made purchase inquiries, he said. "We're getting e-mails every day from gun stores — some days 50 or more. It's gone viral."

Mike Hughlett • 612-673-7003