Of course, if you’re like me, and you don’t have 40 minutes to spare (I had to watch it in four installments from the toilet), here’s the gist:

• That padlock that came included with your new firearm is crap.
• Gun cabinet wafer locks are laughable.
• Most trigger locks are crap.
• The majority of handgun safes on the market can be picked open with little effort.

This dude can torture test a pistol box like no one I’ve ever seen.  Of the three safes he showcased:

• The BioBox is awful.
• The GunVault MicroVault is so-so.
• The LockSafe biometric safe is semi-beastly.

Here’s the video.  I’ll warn you–this gentleman, while very articulate, has quite the fun-lovin’ mouth–I deem this clip NSFW:

Safe to Armed in Seconds: A Study of Epic Fails of Popular Gun Safes from Deviant Ollam on Vimeo.

What’s the best pistol safe for the job?

Mounting this sucker

The 15 places…

Wrap up

Fifteen places?  That’s at least one in every room!

What kind of psycho keeps a gun in every room?

Not me, unfortunately; I’d have to be a psycho with a much higher paying job to pull that off.  Until I reach such a pinnacle in home defense, I’m just your everyday, run-of-the-mill freak, forced to wear a pistol when I walk from room-to-room.  Believe me, if I had the money to safely scatter two dozen pieces around the house, I would.  I realize it’s totally overkill and far from necessary, but so is putting potpourri plug-ins in every room, and with all the headaches and nausea they cause, they’re arguably just as dangerous…

The objective of this article isn’t to brag about how many firearms I have hidden around my house, it’s to demonstrate that with the right pistol safe, and maybe a few surplus Makarovs, I could secure them just about anywhere with very little logistical trouble.

What’s the best pistol safe for the job?

I had to choose a unit that could be tucked away in the corner, and mounted virtually anywhere.  After a healthy dose of research, I settled on the V-Line Desk Mate for the project.  I chose the Desk Mate for a number of reasons:

The Simplex lock

Attaching a pistol safe to the bottom of a love seat, or underneath the stairs can be very tricky when you’re tethered to an AC adapter.  Due to the hidden and general freestyle requirements of the project, I decided I was best suited with a powerless unit…green, if you will.  One of the primary reasons I chose to use a V-line product is because everything they make operates using the Simplex locking mechanism.

Simplex locking mechanism

In addition to the unit’s leash-less lifestyle, it also has a better reputation for reliability than the majority of its electronic keypad and biometric counterparts, and it beats the inconvenience of fumbling around looking for a key.  I decided that this time around, I wanted to stray away from electronics, particularly after a recent, rather nasty breakup with my previous bedside pistol safe.

Remember the post I wrote a couple months ago, bragging that my Winchester Evault was “still ticking” (of course you don’t)?  Well, regardless, it’s no longer ticking.  After a decent run of four years, I’ve joined the ranks of other Evault owners who know first-hand why Winchester stopped making them.

The Simplex lock is a workhouse.  It’s nothing fancy; no lockout threshold, multiple user profiles, or one million possible combinations (I believe it has 1,081 to be exact); it’s just a five-button box that I know is going to open up the same 10 years from now as it does today.  For a quick access pistol safe under the coffee table, it has pretty much all I’m looking for.

Mounting options

For this project, almost as important as the locking mechanism, was mounting versatility.  Included with the Desk Mate was a “quick release” mounting bracket.  The bracket can be installed just about anywhere that will support 10-12 lbs (more on mounting details in a moment), and once it’s on the surface, the Desk Mate can be securely fastened in about 30 seconds.  I only have one bracket, but others can be purchased separately.  With multiples, say one at the office and one at home, you could transport the safe back and forth without any effort, other than the initial set up.

Desk Mate mounted under a plywood "table".

By employing some super strong neodymium magnets (more on that in a second) and the said quick release bracket, I was able to mount this pistol safe with more up-down, and left-right configurations than the Contra code.  I haven’t tried it yet, but V-line also produces an optional “Universal” mounting accessory, which offers a little more support and flexibility.

Dimensions

I wanted a pistol safe small enough to mount in tight spaces, but large enough to house a full-framed handgun, and possibly a spare magazine or flashlight.  At 7.5” x 10.5” x 2.5”, the Desk Mate fits the bill.  I was able to fit it between the driver’s seat and my center console, and after removing the optional sliding steel tray, I didn’t have any issues locking up a standard Glock 17.  With the tray, my compact M&P 40 fit, along with a 15 round magazine with no problems.

Compact S&W M&P 40 with magazine in V-line sliding tray.

The Desk Mate’s dimensions worked out well for me, but if you want a little more room, and want to stick with a V-Line product, you might consider their Hide-Away.  It’s virtually the same pistol safe, but roughly 150% larger.  You could fill it with more ammo, tactical gear, a bigger hand cannon, or possibly a backup gun.  Definitely something to consider, depending on the contents of your arsenal.

The V-line Hide Away

Other features

As implied, short of reliability, the V-line doesn’t have a lot of fancy features, but there are a few more selling points worth noting:

The glossy black finish with the gold trim not only looks sharp, but it holds up very well.  While I’m not generally concerned with aesthetics, during the length of this project, industrial adhesive, self-tapping screws, and rare earth magnets didn’t leave a mark on this thing.

The recessed door is a nice addition, acting as a sound pry deterrent.  As demonstrated in the image below, I couldn’t even begin to fit a quarter in between the door and the frame.  Your common knucklehead snatch-n-grabber is going to need more than a flat head screwdriver to get this open in a hurry.

Sorry George, you're not welcome!

The piano hinges are also a nice touch.  They certainly don’t make the unit bullet proof, but a continuous hinge adds additional reliability in both security and everyday function.

I finally quit taking pictures on my phone. Looks pretty sharp, eh?

To open, you pull the door outward, so it hangs down below the hinges.  This adds a little more than an inch to the overall length; not generally a problem, but it’s a factor you’ll want to consider if you’re mounting the safe in any snug locations.  You’ll also want to consider the extra space you’ll need to remove the gun in a hurry.  While it’s technically possible to mount this model in a drawer, you’d probably be better off with their Top Draw unit (shown below), if you plan to keep a burner in your desk or nightstand.

The Top Draw opens--you guessed it--from the top.

Mounting this sucker

If you’re mounting the Desk Mate as originally intended–right-side up, and directly underneath a sturdy surface–there’s nothing to it:

Drive four screws into the mounting surface to fasten the quick release bracket, slide the pistol safe into the two tabs in the rear, and tighten the thumb screws inside.

Mounting the quick release bracket to a plywood tabletop

The method mentioned above is probably going to be perfect for 95% of the customers who purchase this product, but for the sake of the project, I made a couple simple modifications.

I didn’t want to drill 200 holes in my house just to take a few pictures–CORRECTION–my wife didn’t want me to drill 200 holes in the house…

I drove screws for a few shots, but I primarily relied on heavy duty mounting magnets to hold the pistol safe in place for most of the pictures.  These aren’t the toy magnets you use to put a beard on Wooly Willy; this is a rare earth monster, capable of holding almost 60 lbs (only 1.5″ long).  It’s very strong for its size…ants have nothing on this thing.  I got it from K&J Magnetics.  They have some crazy stuff for sale on their site…for $1000, you can get a magnet strong enough to hold a 1200 lbs steel safe to the wall.

This 25 lbs barbell is held up by three pieces of duct tape and a 1.5" mounting magnet.

Anyway, I used a combination of Gorilla brand duct tape and mounting magnets to secure the safe in places where I wasn’t allowed to drill.  I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this method for the long term, as the duct tape will almost certainly lose its grip (100 MPH tape might work, but I didn’t have any to test with).  Doing so, you’ll also negate the added security provided by the quick release bracket when it’s screwed down.  If, however, you’re not terribly concerned with someone walking away with the pistol safe, you can screw down the mounting magnet, leaving only two holes in a small pattern.

This 1.5" neodymium mounting magnet has a pull force of 60 lbs.

As you’ll see in a moment, I mounted the pistol safe in quite a few unorthodox positions (vertically, sideways, reverse cow…).  The obvious concern here is that the gun could fall out when you open the door.  For the safety of the gun, and ourselves, we don’t want that to happen.  I implemented a low-tech solution for this issue, again employing the help from my dear friends, magnets and duct tape.

The objective of this modification is to keep the handgun fixed until it’s ready to be removed.  Again, it’s only necessary if the safe is mounted non-traditionally.  For this, I purchased a $2.00 square, flat magnet from K&J (13 lbs pull force), and stuck it to a small piece of duct tape, sticky-side up.  Next, I placed the non-sticky side of tape on the pistol slide, removed the tray from the pistol safe, and pressed the duct tape securely to the bottom of the interior.

Place the magnet on the sticky side of the tape.

Stick the magnet to the pistol slide.

I'm holding the pistol safe completely upside-down. Fortunately for my beautiful face, the modification is a success.

The 15 places…

The Bedroom

I’ll begin by showing you where I put it in the bedroom (giggity!).  Looking at it through a home defense lens, the room in your house or apartment where you’re the most vulnerable is the place where you sleep…ok, maybe the shower.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m usually wearing a gun on me, even in the house.  If an armed lunatic kicks down my front door while I’m eating dinner, I’ll likely have time to draw from my holster and defend my family effectively.  However, being unarmed, in the dark, and woken up from a dead sleep is an entirely different story.  For this reason, I’m starting with the bedroom; it’s perhaps the most important place to have a quick access pistol safe in your home.

V-line mounted under the nightstand drawer.

Whether it’s a V-Line Desk Mate or otherwise, mounting under the nightstand drawer is always a crowd favorite.   No tricks here–just the quick removal mounting bracket set up as it was originally intended.  This position allows for the sliding tray to stay in the unit, and it leaves ample room for any other crap that you want to store underneath.

Pistol + Flashlight + Slippers + Zombie Killing Wrench = Sweet Dreams

Not much going on here.  It’s very similar to the above configuration, only the bracket is mounted to the bottom of the nightstand, and the Desk Mate is fastened upside-down.  Due to the setup here, you’ll probably want to employ the magnet method discussed above to keep the gun from wearing down its finish on the steel interior.

When it’s upside down, twisting the knob to open it will also take a little bit of practice, as you’ll be turning it in the opposite direction; if you turn it the wrong way, it will reset the combination, and you’ll have to punch it in again…not fun when there are threatening footsteps approaching.

Hanging from the bed frame.

Personally, I prefer the nightstand method to hanging the safe underneath my bed, mainly because I don’t have to fish around in the dark to find it.  That said, mounting it under your bed is a perfectly reasonable option.  If it’s tough to find an even surface, consider securing a small piece of plywood to the bed slats, and installing the bracket to the proxy surface.  That’s the quick and dirty way–if you have a better suggestion, please share.

The Kitchen

The kitchen may not be the first place you think of for gun storage, but with all the cabinet, drawer and pantry space, it’s a prime location for a hidden pistol safe.  In addition to concealment, the kitchen, in most houses, is centrally located and often accessible from two, if not three entrances.  If I’m unarmed, hanging out on my first floor, and butt mud hits the fan, I’m running to my kitchen cabinet to set the heating arrangements.

V-line Desk Mate mounted in the kitchen cabinet

I’ll admit, a gun safe on the refrigerator isn’t wildly practical, but help myself I could not.  In addition to showing off the versatility of the V-Line, I wanted to showcase the power of the neodymium magnets.

This is about the only way guns and beer go together safely

The Family Room

I found quite a few ways to stay strapped in the family room.  To begin with, the entertainment center provides a nice little cutout under the TV to install the unit–right in the midst of perhaps the most awfully awesome movie collection of all time.

I gave Dolemite the combination, just in case things get out of hand when I'm not around.

The surface underneath the coffee table also provides a subtle, however, accessible mounting location.  My coffee table sits centrally between a couch and two chairs, so even from a vegging position, I can get to it in a hurry…as long as I’m able to bend over my ever-growing gut.

Fastened to the bottom tier of the table.

Again, one great advantage this safe offers in concealment is its compact dimensions.   I can dress it up just about anyway I want in order to keep it in relative plain site.  While it would be nearly as easy to drive screws under one of the bookshelf shelves, I took a different approach…

Take a look, it's in a book...

The Office

You can play like Dwight Schrute and keep your desk drawers full of nunchakus and pepper spray, but when you’re done screwing around, pack some proper protection in the office, and mount this pistol safe the way its namesake suggests.  Of course, Dwight, I’m only kidding around–I would never mess with a guy who possesses the strength of a grown man, and a little baby.

Obviously, don't take a gun into your office if it's prohibited. I hate that I have to say that.

The Living Room/Dining Room

I don’t spend nearly as much time in the dining room as I do in the kitchen, but that isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of decent places to keep a gun in the room that I’m not allowed to play in.  One place, also applicable in other rooms, is under the couch.  The couch that I used as an example has wooden slats, and I was able to drive screws into them through the fabric.  Without the slats, however, you may have to get creative.

It's completely hidden when the couch flap is down.

My wife about shut this whole project down when she caught me mounting the safe to her piano.  I’m not allowed near it anymore, which is a shame because I think the Desk Mate would fit perfectly inside the bench next to the sheet music.

Properly arming yourself is "key" to home defense. Hahahahaha! Yeh!

 The Hallway

The coat closet is probably the ideal location to store a pistol in the hallway, however, I noticed that the picture frame in our entrance matched the V-line’s dimensions perfectly…I couldn’t help myself.  This was very easy; I simply removed the back of the picture frame, placed the safe in between, and duct taped everything together.  Between bastardizing our wedding photo, and defacing the piano, I’m not sure which one my wife loved more!

The perfect fit.

Aren't we a handsome couple?

The Bathroom

In the bathroom, the unit can be mounted easily under the sink, or even behind the toilet, depending on the model.  I also came up with the awesome idea of placing the safe inside the medicine cabinet.  The result; well, it worked, however, it wasn’t nearly as rad as I thought it would be.  Nevertheless, I went through the trouble of arranging it, so here it is:

Another mounting magnet in action.

The Garage

The garage has 100 places to keep a handgun stowed away, but for the picture, I decided to install it underneath a landscaping junk shelf (all I have is junk shelves).  Here’s another example of how the Desk Mate is designed to be installed–secured to the shelf with the quick release mounting bracket.

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of a kukri machete as a landscaping tool.

The Basement

Finally, we arrive in the basement.  Like the garage, an unfinished basement offers a plethora of pistol safe mounting opportunities.  That said, the crap in my basement is at critical mass, and if I put one more thing out on the floor, I would have trapped myself in.  Having said that, I opted to hide the unit under the staircase, keeping it plenty accessible, but out-of-sight.

If you really wanted to do this right, you could supplement with a piece of plywood, or the universal mounting bracket. I, however, used duct tape and magnets.

Wrap up

This was a fun project.  I learned a lot, and fell in madly in love with my black and beautiful Desk Mate.  Seriously though, the 15 locations I covered only scratched the surface.  With a decent pistol safe, the only limitation on where you can mount it is your imagination .

Oh, and if you’ve found a reasonable way install a pistol box in the shower (eg – not having to rip out tile), please let me know.

Stay safe!

I’ve been very satisfied with this little pistol box, which is why I’m kind of surprised to find out Winchester has completely stopped manufacturing the EVault series altogether.  From what I understand, a massive amount of these things started dropping like flies due to a mechanical problem with the locking system.   I must have purchased the one decent model on the market, and being a selfish bastard, I’m alright with that.  That said, I wish I could recommend purchasing one for your own home, but as it turns out, you couldn’t even if you wanted to.

Anyways, I’ll go through a couple of the features that I like about this box, which I’ll probably look for again…once this thing inevitably takes a crap and dies.

What I like about this model are its dimensions.  It’s small enough to tuck inside my nightstand, but large enough to store two 50-count boxes of 40c ammunition in the back, two 5-count boxes of 20 gauge buckshot (a little extra for the shotgun hanging on the wall), a Blackhawk tactical light, a SmartCarry Holster, three extra magazines, and, of course, the pistol, a Smith and Wesson M&P.  The brass knuckles you see in the picture normally aren’t in there, but they looked so good with the rest of the brass…

I also like the quick-access four-button combo, and the spring loaded door.  These features, coupled with the light on the LED and the bulb inside the box, allow me to open it up in two seconds, and actually see what’s inside.  I also like the lockout security feature, which blocks further attempts to gain access upon three consecutive failures, and the backup battery supply, and optional keyed entry in the event of an electrical failure or power outage.  It’s really a freakin’ shame that Winchester had to make faulty functionality a part of an otherwise awesome little pistol box.

While I’m glad it’s still working, I’m probably going to start shopping for a new handgun safe pretty soon.  Likely, I’ll opt for a powerless solution – one with a heavy-duty mechanical lock – these typically have a much longer life, and are far less prone to failure in the event of a life-threatening emergency.  Regardless of what I get, I’ll be sure to let you know about it.  In the meantime, I’ll hang on to my little EVault…a proud remaining member of a rapidly dying race.

V-Line 2912-S Top Draw Safe

V-Line Desk Mate Keyless Security Box with Quick Release Mounting Bracket (Black)

Titan Gun Safe

Yeh, you could sleep with that shiny hot-rodded Kimber Tactical under your pillow, but you might accidentally shoot your brains out during a nightmare, or worse, your kids may find it.  The solution is simple, and depending on how simple your needs, you can find it for less than $100; a handgun safe.  As implied, the market’s loaded with pistol boxes, all of which have a special place in my heart.  You, however, need to decide which one is right for you.

There are a number of features that differential pistol safes from each other, many of which I cover in this post, but the most recognizable distinguishing trait is the lock.  In yet another post, we go into a bit of detail on a few of the different types of safe locks.  I’m personally quite partial to the ruggedness of the traditional combination lock, but it’s not the greatest option for a bedside handgun safe, as rapid access is key.  In fact, I’m not sure you can even find a pistol safe with a combination dial.  The two locks you’re most likely to encounter are that of the electronic and biometric persuasion.

Electronic Safe Lock

One of the first things you’ll notice about an electronic entry lock is that they’re significantly cheaper than they’re fingerprint reading cousins.  Though you can get into a biometric gun safe a bit faster, the technology that drives the combination buttons isn’t as conducive to high cost.  I’ve seen Homak pistol boxes for as cheap $30, and stepping it up a notch, my Winchester EVault only ran me $100.  In the case of most electronic pistol safe locks, your going to be dealing with a four button combination.  Very rarely do you see a 9 digit keypad.  As in the case of the EVault, they’re generally arranged in a straight pattern with raised, easy to feel buttons to allay the frustration and panic of having to punch in the combination in the dark.

With just a four or five button control panel, it’s easy for you to get in quickly, while still maintaining the complexity to make guessing nearly impossible.  Even if they decided to sit there and try to guess their way in, they’d have to take a break every 15 minutes – when purchasing a handgun safe, regardless of the locking mechanism, be certain it has some sort of lockout threshold or tamper detect system.  This will quickly discourage almost any unwanted casual encounter, particularly with your children.

Biometric Safe Lock

With a biometric handgun safe, you’re cranking up the speed a bit.  A fingerprint safe can easily allow access to a firearm in less than a second.  The 1.5 seconds that it takes to punch in four buttons on an electronic lock isn’t exactly moving at a snail’s pace, but the convenience that biometric technology enables adds up quickly.  Unfortunately, so does the price.  Personal fingerprint gun safes can run you anywhere from $120 for the miniature GunVault MicroVault to a cool $1400 for a state-of the art SleepSafe biometric nightstand.  Fingerprint recognition is a rapidly growing and ever-improving technology that has encouraged dozens of other safe manufacturers to turn out a slew of different products, giving you, the consumer, a lot of options.

I’m not generally a huge fan of biometric locks on a full size gun safe, at least not as the sole point of access.  I do, however, think that they offer a huge benefit in the realm of bedside pistol safes.  As already mentioned, there’s simply no faster way to get to your firearm when you need it, whether you can see in the dark or not.  But another benefit, often overlooked, is the the option of multiple fingerprint storage.

There are a lot of gun owners out there who have raised their children to respect firearms and handle them safely.  If you and your spouse should decide to school your older kids in the ways of firearms self defense, biometric technology makes responsible gun handling easy for both you and your whole family.  Some of the best biometric handgun safes can be programmed to accept up to 50 different fingerprints.  Even if you’re living alone, you can take advantage of this feature by scanning in your other fingers as well.  You can never be certain that the index finger on your strong hand will be free when you need it.  Again fingerprint safes tend to cost a bit more, but speed, convenience, and security go a long way.

I’m not going to go into the details of fingerprint reading technology and how it works, so if you want to know a little more, I have a few articles on the site…hey, here’s one – Understanding fingerprint gun safe scanners.  What I’d like to discuss in this post are some things that you may want to consider when shopping around for one of these little marvels.  Just to clarify, in this article, I’m primarily speaking to bedside style safes, built for pistols.  If you’d like to know my feelings on biometric locks on full sized rifle safes read this post – Biometric Gun Safe Basics.

Accuracy

In a couple of my other articles, I mentioned that fingerprint gun safes aren’t entirely reliable.  The technology is very close to 100%, but there’s still a slight possibility of a misread.  Typically, a misread is harmless, and can swiftly be remedied by swiping your finger over the scanner again.  In some unfortunate cases, however, the consequences can be a bit more grave.  For one, a false acceptance can allow a burglar who either forged your prints, cut off your hand, or just got lucky to gain access to your safe.  On the flip side, a false rejection may deny you entry in a situation where literally every second matters.

As I said, most safes do an excellent job of getting it right the first time.  If you can, however, try to get the equal error rate (EER) on the safe you’re considering buying.  Most brands don’t advertise this spec, but if you’re able to get it, the lower the number, the better.  More practically, you can check out gun talk forums and online store reviews to find out the experience others have been having with the product you’re eyeing.  I wasn’t trying to scare you with the whole “hand getting cut off” thing, but before you buy, just make sure you aren’t buying a piece of junk.

Capacity

When I say capacity, I’m referring to the size of the interior of the safe.  Don’t just buy a safe because it looks cool and got decent reviews on Amazon.  Learn the dimensions first, and make sure that what you’re planning on stowing away for a rainy day will fit in the fingerprint safe you’re checking out.  For instance, let’s say you have a big bore fetish, and you’re packing a full frame Smith and Wesson 500 magnum in case of an emergency.  First of all, unless you’re anticipating being the victim of a grizzly bear invasion, poor tactical choice.  If, however, you still have the need to watch things explode, make certain that the safe will hold a foot long hand cannon.

Even if you aren’t packing the John Holmes of handguns, you still want to plan to have additional room in your safe for things other than your primary weapon.  In my Cannon GunVault, for example, I keep additional magazines, ammunition, a tactical flashlight, my concealed carry holster, a knife, and a hand grenade.  I’m, of course, kidding about the hand grenade, but if I had one, I’d probably want to make sure there was room for it in my safe.  You may also want to have room for an additional pistol, just in case your wife wants in on the action.  These are just things to consider…measure twice, buy once.

Additional Features

There are a million and one different features out there offered in biometric gun safes, and though many should be taken seriously, some of them, as far as I’m concerned are nothing more than a bonus.  One of these, in my opinion anyway, is security, as in the overall toughness of the safe’s constitution.  I know it sounds odd, that is why I’d rank a handgun safe’s security performance as a second tier priority, but again, we’re talking about small, bedside, quick access gun safes.  Not steel fortresses where you’re storing your life savings and precious family heirlooms.  I don’t care if you can anchor the unit, or if it has “thick steel walls”, or “pry-resistant doors”, there’s no way to practically install a unit of this breed where a thief can’t rip it, pry it, or simply pick it up and run off with it.  As far as I’m concerned, if it will keep my kid out, it’s good enough for my needs.

There are, however, a couple of features that you’ll want to strongly consider.  For one, find a safe with a decent back up solution.  Make sure that there is an easy way to open the safe in case there’s a technical failure, preferably a key.  For Pete’s sake though, please don’t keep the key in the safe.  Secondly, I’d suggest looking for a safe that gives you the option of storing multiple fingerprints.  Some of the best fingerprint safes, like the Biometrx BioVault 2.0 are very accurate, and will keep up to 50 fingerprints in the system.  Why would you ever want a safe that could hold 50 prints?  I don’t have a BioVault, but for my GunVault, I have all of my fingers scanned in on both hands, just in case my right index finger isn’t readily available.  My wife also has her finger marked for entry so that she can gain access if I’m not around.  Finally, and this may sound kind of stupid, but you want to make sure that the safe has adequate lighting, and equally as important, that you can replace the bulb should it burn out.  I’m an advocate of practicing dry runs for emergency situations so that you can grab what you need to without thinking about it, but since many home invasions occur during the evening hours, you want to make sure you spend less time fumbling around, and more time killing bad guys.

Wall Safes

You may also want to consider a fingerprint wall safe as an alternative.  Personally, I get just about everything that I need from my GunVault, but a stand alone safe isn’t your only option.  A fingerprint wall safe is also a possibility.  This is a model, built very similarly to your typical biometric gun safe, only it sits directly in your wall.  These are very cool, I must admit, especially since they’re often built with an opening action where the door drops down into the wall (very Bond like).  That said though, they aren’t very practical for my purposes.  For one, they tend to be a little more expensive – not only for the price of the safe, but for the time and money spent on the installation…you have to cut a hole in your wall.  Also, if there are any problems with the safe, and you need to send it back, you’re going to be staring into your adjacent room until the repairs are complete.  More importantly though, the way my bedroom is set up, I’d have to get out of bed, run across the room, and find the thing in the dark…yeh, this may only take me two or three seconds, but again, time is a huge factor.  Lastly, if the crooks want the safe, they’re likely going to rip it out off the wall and run off with it, as opposed to “cracking it”, and a hole in the wall just adds insult to injury…kind of a common theme.  I biometric wall safe isn’t for me, but if none of these factors bother you, please don’t let me stop you!

FAR, FRR, and EER, which I’ll define in a moment, are legitimate pattern measurements that biometric engineers consider when designing a fingerprint recognition lock for your gun safe.  However, from a sales perspective, I consider them to be pretty moot.  First of all, I challenge you to visit your local gun dealer and ask the safe salesman to explain identification and verification thresholds to you.  I wouldn’t necessarily fault the guy if he didn’t know what you were talking about, but even if he did, he’s going to be hard pressed to find any objective FAR to FRR ratios in the accompanying sales literature.  He’ll be able to tell you how many fingerprints can be stored, but 9 times out of 10, he’s going to come up short on finding the equal error rate.  This is because, most fingerprint gun safes come with perfectly adequate acceptance/rejection rates, and only dorks like myself care to know their significance.

So what does our previous GunVault fingerprint handgun safe example mean?  A false rejection rate (FRR) refers to the likelihood that the biometric gun safe is going to deny access to the owner.  Whereas, the false acceptance rate refers to the likelihood that a burglar is going to gain access.  No fingerprint reader is perfect, but a good balance between the two patterns is what determines a biometric lock’s accuracy.  So if the MiniVault has a low FRR for the given FAR, it’s really just a fancy way of saying, “we’ve designed our gun safes so that our clients have a better chance of getting into them than burglars”.  Kind of dumb right?  This is why most manufacturers don’t bother with the listings.  Biometric gun safes are built with quick accessibility in mind – if you’re that concerned with accuracy, get a rotary lock.

When it comes down to it, simply measuring the FRR and the FAR is a bit arbitrary.  These pattern rates have no implication on how the fingerprint scores against the biometric template established when the safe owner made the initial calibrations.  The equal error rate (EER) puts this mind-blowing dilemma to rest.  It’s used to report where the FAR and FRR intersect, finding the “perfect” balance.  The lower the EER, the better, but you’re probably not going to find this listed when shopping for a biometric gun safe.

I’m not a math teacher for a reason – I suck at explaining (and understanding) this kind of stuff, so if for some stroke of bad luck, this is the first Gun Safe Haven page you landed on, I promise the rest isn’t so darn dry.

On the flip side, however, I have a little bone to pick with biometric gun safes.  Not the technology itself, but the way that it’s often marketed.  It’s common to see gun safe manufacturers upselling biometric scanners as a security upgrade.  If the technology were flawless, and proven impossible to fake, I’d agree with this one hundred percent.  Biometric technology continues to grow in both effectiveness and affordability, but it still has its flaws.  One feature typically advertised on fingerprint gun safes is low FRR and FAR.  For those unfamiliar with the aforementioned acronyms, they stand for False Reject Rate and False Accept Rate.  As impressive as some of these rates may be, they’re still essentially telling you that there’s a chance you won’t be able to get into your safe when you need to, or worse, a thief won’t share your dilemma.  Biometric scanners have FARs and FRRs as low as a mere fraction of a percent.  Nevertheless, if your exclusively concerned with the accuracy of your lock, go old school and go rotary.

This brings me to my next slice of beef.  Why put a biometric lock on a full-sized gun safe?  I just don’t see the logic in spending $1000 on a steel fortress, and running the risk (as minute as it may be) of having a security breach.  Unless a magnet hangs the combination or pass code on your safe, you’re not going to share the same potential issue of someone getting lucky or faking your fingerprints (Mythbusters) with a dial lock or electronic keypad.  “Hey, what about all that talk about quick accessibility?”.  You can still get into a Liberty FatBoy in a matter of seconds, but for the purposes of my argument, it’s really a moot point.  People spend big money on big gun safes because they want the peace of mind in knowing that no matter how long they’re away from their home, their gun collection, photo albums, and jewelry are as safe from burglary, fire, and water damage as they can possibly be.  I just don’t see the need for sub-second access on a one ton gun safe – at least not at the sacrifice of security.  Sorry for being so anal.

As mentioned before, a biometric handgun gun safe serves its primary purpose beautifully.  Short of leaving your pistol out for your kids to get into, there’s no quicker way to gain quick access to a firearm than a fingerprint gun safe.  That said, it’s strongly recommended that you consider the time-tested accuracy of a rotary lock, or the precision of an electronic lock for your most precious valuables.