Dozens of high-quality options are available today, but finding the right one depends on many factors.
The right to keep and bear arms was guaranteed by
our nation’s forefathers, but in today’s litigious society there comes
along with it an implied requirement to do so in a responsible manner.
Firearms stored irresponsibly are susceptible to fire, theft and unauthorized
use that can have tragic consequences.
How we store our firearms when they are not in use, in a safe-and-secure
manner, is a personal decision, one determined by your home situation,
children’s age, the firearm competency of all the residents and your
neighborhood. More than likely the storage method is determined by
a combination of all the factors. Any way you look at it though, at
some point you may want to consider buying a safe for your firearms
and valuables.
Top of the line in Gun Vault’s 5000 series is the 5926, which weighs 322 pounds and has interior dimensions of 26x59x23 inches.
Finding the right gun safe can be just as difficult
as purchasing a new car. There are many different makes and models,
and each has its own features the manufacturer wants you to believe
make it the best. In fact, safes today look every bit as nice as
a new car and can cost as much as a good used car. So how do you
tell the difference between the luxury and economy models in the
safe business, and is there such a thing as a bargain safe?
My research leads me to believe that, as with most consumer goods,
you get what you pay for. Many of us will not think twice about spending
$1,000 on a gun, yet when it comes time to secure our firearms, we
are unwilling to spend more than a couple of hundred dollars on a bargain-basement
storage cabinet on sale in one of the “big box” stores. Having served
many years as a law enforcement officer, three of them as a burglary
detective in the mid-1990s, I had an opportunity to see firsthand how
easily a safe can be breached. I’ve also had the opportunity
to interview and interrogate many who make a living out of preying
on unsuspecting home and business owners.
First and foremost, there is no such thing as a burglar-proof or fireproof
safe. Given the time and opportunity, a sufficiently motivated individual
will eventually force open any safe, including a bank vault. A good
safe is designed to deter or prolong an intruder’s ability
to gain access to its contents or prolong the integrity of the contents
during a fire. Even bank vaults have burglar and fire alarms.
An educated consumer is a wonderful thing and, after
all, if you’re going to make this kind of commitment to protect
your firearms and valuables, a little education goes a long way.
Here are some of the key considerations when looking at a good, quality
safe.
Exterior
Construction
Safe walls can be constructed from thicknesses of
steel that vary from 3/16 inch to 12-gauge steel. Seven-gauge or 3/16-inch
steel is .187 inch thick, 10-gauge is .135 inch, 11-gauge is .120 inch
and 12-gauge is .105 inch.
The thicker the steel, the more difficult and time consuming it will
be to breach. Thicker steel also means a heavier safe. Unfortunately,
thicker steel also equates to a more expensive safe.
While I have seen safes that weighed more than 1,000 pounds dragged
out of a business by just two people, the more difficult you make it
to remove a safe from its location, the more likely someone is going
to move on to an easier target. Any safe you consider purchasing should
come pre-drilled with mounting holes in the bottom for bolting it to
the floor. Safes should be secured with lag bolts into concrete anchors
or lagged into the floor joists.
Safari Safe’s Serengeti has a 1 1/2-inch thick door, measures 36x72x24 inches inside and weighs 890 pounds.
Hinges
Exterior hinges allow a door to swing open 180 degrees,
providing full access to the interior. Internal door hinges typically
cannot allow the door to swing further than 90 to 100 degrees. While
this may limit some access to the inside of your safe, internal hinges
will prevent the door from opening so far that the spinner knob damages
an abutting wall. Internal hinges also need a place to recess into
the interior, and therefore could create a “hot spot” in
the fire protection.
There is also the argument that exterior hinges provide an opportunity
or a weak point for a forcible entry through the door. My experience
and research leads me to believe that a safe door equipped with locking
bolts that extend beyond the door jamb of all four sides probably isn’t
any easier to force open than a door with interior hinges.
Door Construction
A quality gun safe will have bolts along the entire outside perimeter
of the door. The bolts come in a variety of sizes, and several of
the manufacturers even went so far as to admit a 1 1/2-inch bolt
really won’t provide more security than a 1-inch diameter bolt,
despite the fact their size is usually increased in higher-end safes.
Active bolts are the ones operated by the spinner dial or handle
on the outside of the door. They should extend a minimum of 1 inch
beyond the jamb of the safe opening when fully extended. Dead bolts
are typically found on the hinge side of a door. Dead bolts do not
retract into the door, but provide door integrity on the hinge side
when the door is fully locked.
Look for active locking bolts on a minimum of three sides of the door.
Active bolts or dead bolts on the hinge side should also be present.
Five active bolts—three on the open side, one on top and another at
the bottom—should be the absolute minimum when considering a 60-inch
tall safe.
Internal Lock Protection
Because it is the primary access, the untrained, uninitiated or novice
often think the door is the weakest part of the safe. Most forced-entry
attempts begin there.
That’s why quality gun safes are made with additional safeguards in
the door, including a hard plate and relockers. Hard plate is generally
an additional layer, sometimes layers, of steel plate hardened to extreme
hardness ratings that will dull all but the most expensive carbide
drill bits. Some manufacturers go so far as to add a layer of ball
bearings to their hard plate for additional protection. If penetrated,
the ball bearings begin spinning, stopping the drill’s entry.
A relocker is a device—usually spring loaded—that drops a deadbolt
into the door’s locking device during a breach. Once tripped, a locksmith
will have to get proprietary information from the safe manufacturer
to locate the specific drill points necessary to unlock the bolt group.
The C35, from Cannon Safe, has 36x72x24 inches of interior space,
a 1 1/2-inch thick door and weighs
890 pounds.
UL Certification
Underwriters Laboratories, or UL as it is commonly
known, has been in existence since 1894. It tests more than 19,000
types of products, components, materials and systems annually to ensure
a product carrying the UL label has the kind of quality customers have
grown to expect. It has two different standards by which it rates gun
safes. The “Residential
Security Container,” standard number 1037, is the yardstick
commonly used for most residential gun safes. To receive this rating
a manufacturer must submit drawings and all proprietary blueprints
and schematics related to the particular model being submitted for
testing. UL’s
engineers and technicians review the plans, and after careful consideration,
attempt to gain entry at the locations deemed most vulnerable. The
safe must withstand a five-minute attack. If the door is breached
or if the technician can create an opening in one of the five sides
large enough for a 4-inch sphere to pass through, the safe fails
to receive the UL certification. It is interesting to note only 18
inch or shorter pry bars, hammers less than 3 pounds and drills with
carbide bits less than 1/4 inch in diameter are permitted to be used
in this test. The limited testing procedure may not seem realistic,
but it’s designed to simulate items found in
the average homeowner’s garage or workshop.
Another UL certification you may see, although less
frequently, is a “TL” rating. It’s listed under UL standard number
687, and is much more intense because it’s written for commercial safes.
A TL-rated safe has been subjected to a variety of more complex tools,
for longer periods of time. A TL-30 rating would mean the safe withstood
a severe attack for a minimum of 30 active minutes. A TL-30x6 rating
means the safe withstood a severe entry attempt for a minimum of 30
active minutes on all 6 sides of the safe. This is 30 minutes per side.
The tools permitted to be used for a TL attack are “any common hand
tools, high-speed electric drills with carbide bits no larger than
1/2 inch, abrasive cutting wheels, power saws, and portable mechanical
and electric grinding tools.” Again, even before the UL technicians
begin their work, they have already studied the engineering drawings
and determined the weakest points. The TL rating is not encountered
often in the residential gun-safe business due to the expense of creating
a safe capable of withstanding these types of attack. This rating is
typically reserved for ATMs and high-security, burglary-resistant safes.
Lastly, the great thing about UL is that it follows up certifications
with unannounced inspections of the manufacturing facilities to ensure
the company is not deviating from the submitted plans.
continued on page 2
From the Ground Up
Building your own house? Have an unfinished basement? Consider building
a safe room. Several gun-safe companies make vault doors just for
this type of application. Remember, your room is only as secure as
its weakest point though. Breaching an adjoining wall could provide
easy access to your safe room unless you plan ahead. Solid reinforced
concrete walls, floors and ceilings are the best material from which
to build a safe room. A more practical and cost-effective method
is a poured concrete slab floor, block walls filled with concrete
and reinforced with 1/2-inch rebar and topped off with a 1/2-inch
steel plate ceiling. Vault doors are equipped with inside-release
mechanisms and offer swing-in and swing-out variations.
Sourcebox
American Security Products
(800) 421-6142;
www.amsecusa.com
Browning ProSteel Safes
(800) 333-3288;
www.browning.com
Cannon Safe
(800) 242-1055;
www.cannonsafe.com
Champion Safe
(801) 377-7199;
www.championsafe.com
Ft. Knox Security Products
(800) 821-5216;
www.ftknox.com
La Gard
(310) 325-5670;
www.kaba-mas.com
Liberty Safe and Security Products
(800) 247-5625;
www.libertysafe.com
SentrySafe
(877) 736-8794;
www.sentrysafe.com
Sargent and Greenleaf
(859) 885-9411; www.sargentandgreenleaf.com
Winchester Safe
(817) 561-9095;
www.granitesafe.com
