Posted on 07/22/2015 7:34:34 AM PDT by w1n1
Not long ago, I was in the market for a small handgun safe. After visiting a local gun shop and bringing home something made by GunVault, I took my new safe out of its box, and wondered if I’d spent too much. Up close, the device looked insubstantial. A nagging suspicion motivated me to go online, where I quickly discovered research by Marc Tobias and Tobias Bluzmanis of Investigative Law Offices and Security Laboratories. Their work confirmed my suspicion about the safe. It could be broken into easily.
Tobias and Bluzmanis, who specialize in evaluating security systems, did an analysis of handgun safes in 2012. Their investigation began with a Stack-On product called the Strong Box. About 200 of these had been issued to personnel of Clark County Sheriff’s Department in Vancouver, Wash., after the ten-year-old daughter of a Clark County Deputy was accidently shot and killed by her brother who had managed to get a hold of his father’s department-issued handgun.
I Started Thinking of these Safes as Chinese-made, Battery-Operated Toys for Gun Owners.
The Sheriff’s Department instituted a policy that all department-issued weapons must be secured in gun safes. Thus the Strong Boxes, which were issued to personnel between 2003 and 2004. In 2010, however, the three-year-old son of Detective Ed Owens died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the boy’s sister was able to remove a handgun from their father’s department issued Strong Box.
Tobias and Bluzmanis found that the Stack-On safe in question could be vibrated open. Lifting it by one side several inches from a floor and dropping it was all that was needed. Their investigation then broadened into an examination of other Stack-On safes, as well as safes made by AMSEC, Bulldog Vaults and GunVault. None of the safes they examined proved secure. Tobias wrote a piece for Forbes magazine on their findings, and posted video of their examinations on his YouTube channel.
He also filed a class-action lawsuit against Stack-On in 2012, prompting Stack-On to settle out of court. Tobias and Bluzmanis are now examining Stack-On’s latest product designs and are considering filing another lawsuit. Read the rest of this Gun Safe Cracking story here and their testing procedures.
Yes, those old wood and glass gun cabinets are beautiful, but no longer practical for weapons storage these days.
When I was a kid, the musket hung over the fireplace.
(I’m not kidding and no, I’m not that old!)
And the small bore rifle stood in the corner at the bottom of the stairs.
The other enemy of our hardware is fire.
Now, we’re talking money, but can’t count on an insurance co.
And some pieces are irreplaceable.
That’s pretty cool.
We also have to consider fire.
Then it starts getting expensive.
Wish I had one like they had in "The Wire".
If I have a fire...they are all fried.
True. I meant to say that no common burglar or child is going to get in a good safe bolted to the floor. If it’s real safecracking pros then you have bigger problems.
Pretty much. They lack the skills, the tools, and the time. The idiot teenager next door who wants to steal some stuff he can fence ... and then score some weed ... won't bother with a halfway decent safe.
If you have enough invested that is over and above the cost of a steel safe, that’s the best bet.
Some of them have steel bars that go into the door frame, electronic code touch pad, can be bolted to floor or wall, are pry proof, too heavy to move and will resist fire up to a certain temperature for a specified duration. Which is better than having to show an anti-gun insurance company a pile of melted barrels.
Winchester makes some for a popular farm supply chain and often they go on sale at Christmas.
This is not the only place that sells them, but just a for instance.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/winchester-10-gun-granite-safe-with-electronic-lock
I only buy stuff on sale.
Ammo: harder to replace now if it were burnt or stolen.
Very interesting video!
Thanks!!
Most “safes” are not safes at all but at actually Residential Security Containers (RSC’s).
We have a home security system with cameras, and I also have Liberty’s SafeElert installed in my safe. If the safe moves at all, I get an instant text.
This will monitor the safe for temp, humidity, and whether there is movement of the safe. Additionally, it will call/email/text you should there be any untoward action, or should the humidity level go over a prescribed level set by you.
Very nice.
Forgot to include the link!
http://www.libertysafe.com/accessory-safelert-monitoring-system-ps-17-pg-85.html
My dogs do much of that, already
They call them “security cabinets” not safes.
Saying that, Stack-on should stick to tool boxes.
That’s a security cabinet not a “gun safe” the two are being confused all the time.
“we should go to the trouble of keeping said collection a secret as much as possible. “
Therein lies the best protection. Keep your mouth closed about what you have.
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