My once a year PSA to Guys and Gals here with gun safes

[chief38]

Every year or so I post this but because I have just recently witnessed a few instances in my own community that are "violators", it brought the following back to my mind once again - hence this post.

For those here who own gun safes and use them, please, please, please bolt them to the floor!! Bolting ANY safe to the floor instantly give the safe a much better chance of survival against an aggravated attack or actually being carted out. Even heavy and large safes are not difficult to remove from a garage for someone with some experience in moving heavy objects or appliances. Bolting a safe to the floor is inexpensive, requires little skills and takes but a half hour to do.

Secondly, please, please, please keep the safe from peering and curiously roaming eyes! If you must store your safe in the garage where strangers, neighbors and delivery people can regularly see and mentally note you have a safe there - that is NOT a good idea, at least IMO. Many LEO's and ex-LEO's here can probably back me up here, many break-ins and thefts are perpetrated by people who are not complete strangers, not by accident and someone who knows what they are breaking in for. Something as simple and inexpensive as an old blanket, discarded cardboard box or whatever can be used to cover a safe. That could drastically improve your chances of not being broken into. Most garages are fairly easily accessed and rarely alarmed.

I also would like to add that while it might look "cool" to display your beautifully painted and pin striped safe in your den or living room, you would be much much better off storing it and bolting it down in a closet or in a room no outsiders regularly go into. "Out of sight is out of mind"!

PS: Please do not say you live in a good neighborhood! Good neighborhoods are the places often broken into as they are the ones with the expensive items to steal! Delivery people, service people, and anyone entering your premisses probably does not live in your "safe neighborhood" and we never know who they are and where their background lies.

I hope this has at least enlightened some here. While crime will always exist, we certainly do not need to assist it!

 

[45Smashemflat]

Along those lines, you can sometimes get a good deal on a "scratch and dent sale" when one of those nice shiny safes gets scrubbed by a forklift or something. Doesn't matter if you are going to hide it anyway, as per the recommendation…

 

[chief38]

As I have suggested more than once right here on this very forum, anyone who is truly interested in the best security for the buck, do not buy a "gun safe"! Instead, get a used jewelry safe. Jewelry safes are much more robust, thicker, better designed, heavier, more highly rated by insurance companies and UL ratings and usually have better locks. Yes, they will not have the glossy, pin striped paint jobs, they will not come with built in rifle racks but that can easily and inexpensively be done by you and a close friend. Since it should not be "on display" anyways, the paint job matters not! Buying a much better and stronger safe used can cost even less than a fancy Dan "gun safe" can. Something to look into.

 

[Hawg Rider]

Thanks for the PSA, Chief. I agree with keeping the safe out of sight and bolted to the floor. My "gun closet" is located in the closet of a back room, away from prying eyes of most visitors and contractors, and that's where I keep the Liberty gun safe, a metal gun cabinet, boxes, holsters, accessories, etc.

 

[ladder13]

My house is alarmed, backed up by a hardwired and cell phone dialer, I now have hardwired inaccessible cameras unless you come with extension ladders, and my safe is in a storage area, not out in a room for all to see.

 

[chief38]

My house is alarmed, backed up by a cell phone dialer, I now have hardwired inaccessible cameras unless you come with extension ladders, and my safe is in a storage area, not out in a room for all to see.

Excellent! After reading your posts for years I'd have bet on your preparedness. For Guys & Gals like us - this stuff is second nature. For others, it sometimes needs to be emphasized. I try.......

We are central station alarmed and my hidden safe is as well. In fact last month I had some your brother fire fighters pay us a visit (due to my carelessness) after I inadvertently set off my CO detector by accident while changing the hard wired devise's back up battery. I learned that from now on when I change batteries I must temporarily suspend the alarm response for an hour while doing so. I also learned that for CO you can not "call off" a response. They must come automatically. The Fire Fighters were gracious, glad we were not in harms way but I still felt like a dummy - should have thought of that first!

 

[Smoke]

Along those lines, you can sometimes get a good deal on a "scratch and dent sale" when one of those nice shiny safes gets scrubbed by a forklift or something. Doesn't matter if you are going to hide it anyway, as per the recommendation…

I'm going to say the same thing I say every time this topic comes up. Make sure you check your local Wany ads.

We bought a $600 Liberty Centurion for $325 off Facebook Marketplace. It's previous owner was a lieutenant I think in the Air Force who was PCSing to SHAFE in Belgium and didn't want to ship the safe.

 

[H Richard]

If you are building a new home, it isn't too expensive to have a poured concrete walk in vault, your choice of size, to be added within your basement. I did a interior 4'x 7' vault that met all my needs about 20 years ago. This was within a 11' x 21' gun workshop loading room, which also had a steel fireproof door.

 

[Legendarylawman]

My gun safe project. Weighs 6500 pounds. LOL. Door alone weighs 2200 pounds. I need help moving, maybe I can call those guys, LOL.

Carl

 

[Grimjaws]

I keep my Liberty Safe in my computer room. It's on the ground floor but no basement below it so concrete under carpet - 4 concrete bolts hold the safe in place. You'd need a truck to hit that thing to move it. I also have a small fire safe inside with my passport, important paperwork, etc for a double level of fire safety.

Computer room has a door that I can lock so when we have service done on our tankless hot water or ac or heat across the hall I can keep it closed and out of sight.