NEWTON, MASS. (WHDH) - After Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, hotels in Massachusetts are taking stricter security measures in an effort to prevent such a tragedy.

Hotel owners and other public facilities now have the option of using new technology that can detect hidden firearms and explosives.

Mark Hamilton, of Huresis Corporation in Newton, says a newly developed portable device can instantly detect everything from drugs to bombs to weapons packed away in things like a suitcase.

After watching the lives lost in the Las Vegas horror, company executives felt compelled to speak out.

“If you brought a bag full of guns into a hotel and you scanned them with our device, you would see the guns,” Hans Grodzins said.

The handheld BackScatter X-Ray Imager costs about $42,000. Grodzins says it is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of preventing future shootings.

The device displays real time images, giving it an upper hand over other security machines.

“It’s a technology that never existed before. It’s a technology that’s desperately needed,” Grodzins said.

The company says its new technology will save lives in the future.

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