Do your homework before you buy....

Unsafe Gun Safes Can Be Opened By A Three-Year Old - Forbes

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Whew, saw that "sobering" in your title and thought it may
be my safe thats drinking all my beer. Then I realized it may be a subconcious metaphor. Then I realized my safe is sober and I need another beer. Thanks for clearing that up!

I never realized it was that easy to open one of these cheapo safes. Though I do enjoy the corporate blinders of "we're certified" and willful ignorance of this issue as if it means their product is worth a hoot.

Mmmmm Beer!

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Dum vivo cano

If this is the most common way to secure guns from kids we're in deep trouble.

Cheapo safes are a poorly kept secret. They don't work ... Good safes aren't cheap, and cheap safes aren't good.

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I'm with the banned ...

For sure, I for one do not trust "safes" that are too light, small or cheap. You get what you pay for!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

As in just about everything.

I wouldn't pay $0.50 for a "safe" with electronics, keypad or biometric thing-a-majig. Prerequisite is a tumbler in my mind.

Nor would I consider anything that can be picked up to be a "safe". If it is that light, it is not safe by definition. My lightest vault is over 400# empty AND bolted to the floor. Prolly 2000# full of ammo.

People have caved to technology. I choose to remain master and not become slave.

If its opened with a typical punched out key, and its built much like a roll around toolbox or a wall locker, its not a safe. Its merely someplace to stick a weapon to secure it if your in the same room with it, and even then its really not worth the money. I call a good gun safe a gun vault, as they are built like a bank vault with locking pins and combination tumbler, and are usually fire rated. Short of a professional safe cracker no 3 year old or 28 year old is going to get into that vault, yet alone carry it away. I do have one large stamped steel gun safe I Use to store ammo in. At least it will not be a major shrapnel producer like a gun vault if there happens to be a fire. The common criminal that breaks in too your home is not going to be able to move or open these gun vaults, and having a suitable gun vault should be all part of being able to own a firearm(s). If this was the case and all arms are in there stored except for the one you have with you, Sandy Hook may not have happened. Only the wife and I know the combination and its staying that way. No need for anyo0ne else to know it.

IMHO keeping a gun in a GOOD secret hiding place is actually better than relying on a cheap safe to keep your handgun out of the hands of a kid or other person.

I have a really good safe ( Liberty President ) for all my firearms that weighs over 1300 pounds empty, and for my SD House guns, I would tend to really doubt anybody could find them without literally tearing the house apart. So far no one has found them in 35 years yet I can easily and rapidly access them. If you put your mind to it - you will be surprised how intuitive you can become.

I got the word on electronic locks before I got my safe. I've got a combination lock on mine and I can only hope that it would foil a determined child.

I have two safes, one weighs 800# and the other 400# empty. Both have rotary combination type locks. I refuse to use a digital style combo mechanism.

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

IF the burglar comes in and beats the dial hard enough to bend the rod on the inside that connects to the dial wheels, THEN you will wish like heck you used a digital lock.

And lets hope u never need to get into any of those safes in a hurry. Its like asking the burglar to hold up a few minutes while u load your guns.

I should know better.

This was posted here a while back. It's bogus. The children were taught to do this over a period of time. I will try to find the website that discredited this guy.

By the way. I am a professional locksmith. So I know how easy or difficult it is.

Sure someone can get lucky once in a while. But pistol safes such as Gunvault and Vline are as good as they get.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

These mini vault/boxes are notmeant to be an instead of for big safes...these are quick access boxes for the home and a way to keep your gun locked up in your car. I have been loking into them because I would like to keep one gun for fast access but safe from the kids.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Too bad parents don't teach the kids NO.

I knew where my Dad kept the key to his gun storage. But I KNEW that I had better not touch the guns or else my butt would be sore for a week.

That's all most of us needed in the 50's and 60's. Today we make the kid a youtube superstar.

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Doug "N Frame Addict"
CO

I agree that such stories don't have the whole truth in them and a lot of those demonstrations are crud. My peace of mind depends on keeping a determined and intelligent (too much for his own good) 13 year old and his pals out of my gun safe.

As a locksmith, can you tell us if those 'bump key' things are real? I'm pretty sure the 'tennis ball opens a car door lock' is foolish. (Or am I?)

Back when my kids were little I used a Master padlock behind the trigger of my revolver (when stored).

That wouldn't keep it from getting stolen but it would keep a kid from being able to fire it.

Let us know what you end up with Sip.

GF

At least today you have several choices available that are very fast to access and reasonably secure for your HD handgun. None of them are in that video though.

Couldn't agree more. Just got rid of a cheap safe last weekend. The size was okay (59" high) but is was just cheap and not fireproof.

It's worth to invest in a good safe, even if you have to get a credit. Because at last it is an investment!

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Jorge

I saw the youtube with the tennis ball method of opening a car door. If you think about it, it's impossible.

Impossible unless you have the electronic remote for the door lock being operated by the cameraman.

Kanewpadle: I have seen videos where guys try to impress that one lock is better than another, but they all have something to sell and I don't trust anyone with an agenda.

How good are modern tumbler locks? I have a 38 gun Stack-On Elite I keep some guns in and always worried about how secure it really is.

I'm in commercial construction and could easily get into most any safe with the right tools. Heck I can cut through an 8" concrete wall with a hand held saw in a matter of minutes.

Between the lock and the thin metal sides, are safes really safe?

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Kirk / Spock 2020

Well, given enough time and the right tools nothing and nobody is safe. But that's not the point. A burglar has neither one and therefore a good brand safe is harder to break into as a cheap one.

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Jorge

That child mentioned in the article killed because of one of those safes was a local LEO's kid. Supposedly the kid knocked over the safe and it opened. The safe was issued by the man's employer, who has a policy that all department issued firearms must be locked up when not in use. It it's too bad junk like this is allowed to be sold. I have an electronic pad on my large safe, but it will not open like those in the video. My bedside safe is a Cannon push button safe.

When my Kids were young I started educating them (@5 years old) about gun safety, what to do is they were at a friends house and found a gun, etc. etc. I also let them "play" with empty guns in order to take the curiosity factor out of it. I always hid (and still do) my SD House Gun in a GREAT place, but NEVER leave it their when I am not home - it comes with me. So in a nut shell if I was not home, my carry gun was not their either. All the others were locked up in a high security Gun Safe.

I was NOT too cheap to buy a night stand gun safe, I was just too paranoid that it would be easily found and possibly opened unintentionally, or it would not work when I needed it to either because of fumbling or a malfunction. Oh, when the Kids were under 15 Y/O I would unload my revolver as soon as I took it off and put the bullets in a speed loader in a separate but close hiding place. the whole loading process would take me only a few seconds, (yes not instant - I know) but it gave me better piece of mind even when I was at home.

Even with the drill points and the proper equipment. It still takes me a few hours to drill into some really good safes.

As far as my AmSec is concerned, the burglar better bring a lunch and a case of beer. He's gonna need them both.

Dont buy anything electronic if it has holes or something along the edges where you can stick things into. Cant remember if it was this forum of the FN forum someone had a video of a guy opening gun safes and grading them. He was doing some seminar thing where they had goodies in the gun safes and he showed how to open them and other people were coming up and doing it.......... spent a whole 20 seconds looking for it and cannot.

Cheap locks are easy to break into. Just because its digital, doesnt mean its "good". And also, just because its a dial, doesnt mean its good. It's like trying to compare a TL15 to a TL30. Of course they both work, but with the right amount of money the other one works much better.

If it uses the double sided key, it's pretty secure. Of course it won't stop a pry bar. But they are better than nothing. If it's a barrel type key, that's even better.

What people don't realize is that crooks use the fastest most convenient method available to them. They don't go around picking locks. They simply force their way in. And by doing so they quite often make things worse for themselves.

Safes are safe. No lock or safe can stop power tools. But a good safe can deter most anyone. Even with power tools. Most likely a thief won't have time. But if they remove your safe, you're in trouble.

I have many a safe that someone tried to force open. And I have seen more unsuccessful attempted than I have successful. I've found safes out in the middle of the high desert that someone beat the hell out of and still didn't get in.

A professional will get in. Sometimes quickly. But does that Professional want to risk everything to do so? Does he really want what you have?

I've had access to cash in the seven figures, prescription drugs, ultra secret manufacturing processes, guns and ammo, gold and silver, etc..... None of it is worth going to jail.

Oh and the tennis ball thing, it's a lie. I know cause I tried.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Why not just go strait to a TXTL? Or how about a GSA container?

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Shhhhh, lets keep that between me and you. We'll let them have the others.

I picked this one the other day. Box included for your viewing pleasure. I even have the keys..

It also says Gun Guard on top, Must be some kind of warning.

I'm feeling secure about now.

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Dum vivo cano

I never saw a firearm locked up until I went into the Army. Though now that I think about it I saw ammo locked up.

According to the article, the cops paid $36.00 per safe.

All you need to know, right there.

They were meeting an insurance requirement or some such need, and not REALLY tryin to keep anything secure.

Do any of you that ever had or still have a small pistol safe like the one the little kid opened really leave it down where a kid can play with it and try to get into it? Bolted back into a tight corner preferably up out of reach and out of sight is a whole lot better than nothing. Not everybody has a grand to spend on a safe,,

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It aint rocket surgery

This is a follow up by my local TV station to the original incident that started it all. The reporter breaks into the same model safe in about 20 seconds with a paperclip! That's at about 4:30 minutes into the clip.

Unsafe gun safes? Toddler's death raises oversight question | kens5.com San Antonio

I have a power tin shear that makes quick work of ductwork. Looking at my safe, I would suspect I could punch a screwdriver through the skin, run that shear around and open the entire side of it. Then bust out the gypsum (I assume they use gypsum for the fire rating) and cut through the inner steel the same way.

Or a 4" grinder with a carborundum blade. It couldn't take but a couple minutes to go through the side of nearly any portable safe. And by portable, I mean one you bought somewhere and brought home.

Am I right? All safes are is a couple layers of thin steel.

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Kirk / Spock 2020

I don't even know where you would find a $1000.00 quick access handgun safe. I do understand that $36.00 won't buy too much security in anything, especially a handgun safe.

And this safe, and others, were made where?

An old LEO custom was to lock a pair of handcuffs into the trigger guard behind the trigger on a revolver when they got home. That could be done with a Glock, I guess, but only if the striker was staged to fire, with the trigger forward. This would assume that the LEO was the only one in the house with a handcuff key. And you know what they say about "assume."

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

It would also call into question, how much good a gun would be in a 'rapid access safe' if you had to remove a pair of handcuffs before firing it.

What a tragic incident.

There has to be a way to achieve decent, affordable, rapid access, at a reasonable cost.

To-date I've depended upon Gun Vaults and Ft Knox pistol boxes.

I still laugh about the large gun safe for sale in an estate sale last year. The picture looked like some did exactly that, cut out a big square on the door around the electronic lock with an abrasive disk of some sort. Makes me wonder who they though would buy it ???

It's not a gun safe if your average toddler can pick it up along with the contents and throw it around. I thought you were talking about gun safes...

Attachment 109660

....even 6 sumo wrestlers and a small boy won't carry this baby out

FWIW, I was at Dicks today and carefully read the box labels of several of these "safes". All were made in China. I wouldn't have one of these if you gave it to me.

Mine has a steel plate behind the dial just for that purpose.

Oh yeah, and has five 1/2" steel rod locking points.