A lot of the gun safes discussed on this site are those massive, heavy, unmistakable steel leviathans crafted to keep your most precious valuables safe from crooks, fires, floods, lava, martians, and Rosie O’Donnell and her demons from Hell.  Massive impenetrable fortresses from Liberty, Fort Knox, Cannon, Browning…these are the safes that I dream about.  However, unless your wife is cooler than mine, which isn’t possible (she reads this), you’re never going to be able to sleep with a 2000 lbs armory next to your bed.  So what good is a Liberty Presidential going to be during a home invasion if it’s downstairs in your basement?  Not a lick of good, son.  You need be able to reach for a reliable firearm in a hurry to defend yourself and your family.

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.

BARSKA Biometric Safe

Gunvault GVB2000 Multi Vault Biometric Gun Safe

LockSAF biometric fingerprint safe

Fingerprint safe, biometric safe, fingerprint reader…whatever you want to call it, what I’m referring to when I use anyone of these monikers is a gun safe that can be opened when the rightful owner of the unit swipes their finger across the safe’s scanner.  High tech, I know, but with every year that goes by, biometrics technology gets better and better, and of course, cheaper and cheaper.  You still pay a pretty penny for a gun safe that you can open with your pinky, but it’s a lot better than it was a couple years ago.

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!

When purchasing a fingerprint gun safe (biometric fingerprint gun safe), there are several elements to consider.  Thickness, capacity, dimensions…these are all characteristics that are pretty easy to grasp.  But when dealing with biometric gun safe locks, terms like ‘minutiae’ and ‘algorithm adjustments’ start to cloud up the water a bit.  Take GunVault for example – they say that their MiniVault safe “has a very low False Reject Rate (FRR) for a given False Accept Rate (FAR)”.  Ok, so what does that mean, fella?  Is this something I should be concerned with, or is it just marketing gibberish?  Well, it’s a little bit of both.

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.

Owning a biometric gun safe (aka – fingerprint gun safe), definitely has its advantages – that is if your needs fit the bill.  A lock equipped with a biometric scanner boasts one characteristic that its dial and electronic keypad counterparts can’t match – that, my friends is speed.  Most gun safes protected by fingerprint readers will allow you access to your firearm in a second or less.  I don’t care how many times you’ve practiced spinning that dial, you’re never gonna come near those results with a rotary lock.  Biometric scanners are ideal for small, bedside and wall-style gun safes.  You can have your B&T TP9 (what, you don’t sleep with a TP9 next to your bed?) racked and ready to rip before your wife can say, “did you hear that?”.  I personally keep a GunVault biometric safe by my bed for that exact purpose – quick accessibility.  These safes are perfect for storing a pistol that you need to reach in a hurry, while still providing plenty of security to keep out your children or a lazy burglar.

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.