Gun Safes

[Willie]

Would you buy a gun safe that can be opened by a three year old?

Read the article and watch the video.

http://tinyurl.com/cuxuosl

 

[jeepfreek]

I was really thinking of picking one of these up cause they would be nice to keep in the bedroom with little kids in the house. HELL NO.

Holy crap those are not secure.

 

[Bapak2ja]

Well, now that is an eye opener—that's a fact!! I think it is time to contact the retailers and the manufactures. Perhaps the NRA and NAGR would be interested in this, too.

I bet we see a few of these offered for sale soon!

 

[nucone]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[trapperDave]

wow

 

[scottka]

Wowsers... The first couple of those made my jaw drop.

 

[Beemer]

I am curious to hear others opinions on the ones made by Gun Vault. I have one that has been kicked around, moved and bounced. Never once has it opened by itself. Others experiences?

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Pretty impressive.

One thing I've learned as a controls engineer is that the engineer will never be able to anticipate how a person will use a machine once it's turned over to production. I've been amazed over the years when I've gotten calls about malfunctions only to find out that an operator actually operated the machine differently than intended thus highlighting a hole or bug in the program. I suspect a couple of these demonstrate something similar. Of course, I'd like to think somebody might jam a screwdriver or fingernail file into a lid to defeat a lock and try to design around that.

 

[woowoo2]

I am curious to hear others opinions on the ones made by Gun Vault. I have one that has been kicked around, moved and bounced. Never once has it opened by itself. Others experiences?

I feel my GV2000 is reasonably secure.
I have it bolted to a piece of furniture.

But... No safe is totally secure.

 

[a10waveracer]

This is pretty eye opening. The worst part, in my opinion, is that just applying a force to the box (by dropping it or hitting it with a hammer) was enough to cause some of the safes to open.

Thanks for posting this.

 

[Libertarian01]

To All,

What I find pathetic and negligent is the inability of American businesses to simply say, "Wow! We did not anticipate this. Thank you for letting us know and we will work quickly to correct this oversight" or, "As a retailer we appreciate this information and we will no longer offer this product to our customers until the manufacturer corrects this design flaw."

Either way it punches a hole in the common statement when we hear of someone doing something epically stupid or grossly negligent, "No one would ever do that. Business people aren't that stupid." Yes, they are.

It doesn't bother me that there was an oversight. Like GodfearinGunToten explained, not every possible scenario can be anticipated. What does bother me is the manufacturers and some of the retailers response to this information.

This also illustrates the benefit of a free media. When information is made available to the citizens they can make better and more intelligent decisions. Kudos and a big +1 to the author of the story!!!

Regards,

Doug

 

[revance]

I am curious to hear others opinions on the ones made by Gun Vault. I have one that has been kicked around, moved and bounced. Never once has it opened by itself. Others experiences?

The GunVault ones won't open from being dropped or banged. Their design is quite different than all of those others. They don't use the typical solenoid to block a sliding bolt design like all the others. They can be easily bypassed, but not without intimate knowledge of the design (or with a large flathead screwdriver). They will keep them safe from your children, but not a determined thief.

That being said, I have had 3 fail on me in ways that prevented them from opening. One the craptacular design of having a motor wind up a steel cable caused the cable to eventually snap (I have heard they have corrected this) and the other the buttons stopped working (these were the new buttons, not the old ones). So essentially you can get an old one and have the cable break, or a new one and have the buttons fail. On the third one, the electronics went flaky. It would just start randomly detecting button presses and then locked itself out from bad codes. I found this out when it started beeping like crazy one night. I found that it only happened when it was plugged in. Their customer service is terrible as they never respond to any emails. So sadly, I definitely wouldn't recommend them.

 

[revance]

After seeing this, I decided to try to break into a cheap Harbor Freight safe I have in my closet for ammo. I pushed one of the LEDs back into the door, stuck a paper clip through the hole and was able to depress the solenoid quite easily. The whole thing only took me a couple minutes. After getting it open, I was able to push the LED back into place so nobody could tell it was ever tampered with. At least I have it bolted down so the trick of dropping it doesn't work. I decided to stick a block of wood inside the door to block access to the solenoid.

 

[Titanium Man]

Interesting. Very alarming indeed...............thanks for the information.

 

[canav844]

I've been aware of this flaw for quite some time, and even attempted and repeated it in one of the big box stores
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8i3zVGQFKo[/ame]

If I want it safe it goes into a real safe, if I want it kid proofed it goes in the Pelican with 2 master locks. The best place for it though is really on my hip.

 

[revance]

I've been aware of this flaw for quite some time, and even attempted and repeated it in one of the big box stores
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8i3zVGQFKo

If I want it safe it goes into a real safe, if I want it kid proofed it goes in the Pelican with 2 master locks. The best place for it though is really on my hip.

In their defense (and from my post, you can tell I have zero loyalty to them)... the GunVault in that video was either defective somehow or had been tampered with. I have tried it on numerous GunVaults and NEVER replicated it. Also, having taken several completely apart, I don't see how it is physically possible (unlike those vertical solenoid designs).

Did you personally manage to do this? If so, wen was it manufactured?

 

[chrisccraig]

I have a gun vault finger scanning safe for a handgun. Ive had it about 3 years. Its never needed batteries yet, never given me a problem yet. I would recommend.

 

[dnurk]

I've been aware of this flaw for quite some time, and even attempted and repeated it in one of the big box stores
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8i3zVGQFKo

If I want it safe it goes into a real safe, if I want it kid proofed it goes in the Pelican with 2 master locks. The best place for it though is really on my hip.

I have that exact model and it is not possible to open with the two knuckle tap. Like you I heard urban legend of this being possible a while back but have no idea how common it is. I'm just pleased that my mini vault has functioned flawlessly for years.

The one interesting part in all this is that I plan to do a web search on how any lock or safe I purchase in the future can be defeated. In the day of the Internet, if you have kids in the house you can pretty much guarantee they will find videos online of any exploit that exists for stuff in your house.

Having said that, the absolute best safety device your child can have is gun education. I started with my son when he was 3 and have been acclimating him to firearms ever since. He has the 4 rules memorized at 5 years old. I would NEVER trust his safety around guns to just a $150 piece of metal and plastic.

 

[griffin]

This happened in 2010? There have been youtube videos online for years showing how these "safes" can be opened very easily by rapping on them and other methods. This is no secret.