Complete Gun Storage Guide: Store Safely

Today’s firearms are very powerful and dangerous tools. Firearms are tools that the most proficient users know must be treated with respect. When using a gun, a few rules must be followed to keep you and everyone safe.

How can I practice using firearms correctly when there when hunting and shooting sessions end? Most of the guns users have will be spent at rest, placed safely in a stored area and used during certain shooting events.

A lot of gun storage containers and accessories are available. But no holster can fit every budget or be utilized in each situation. Some safe storage options will perform one of these tasks that they will do depending on how much you can afford:

• Protect your gun from physical harm
• Prevents theft
• Stopping a gun from firing

Since they are essential tools that can cause a lot of harm, it’s important that you know how to store them correctly. My primary purpose is to teach you how gun storages are beneficial to you if you plan on using concealed carry.

By the end of this post, I’ll invite you to look at my buying guide. I want to help you learn about gun safes and point you in the right direction.

Why It Is Important

Guns are used for safety methods and can save a life. However, it can also take a life due to an accident.

If you have firearms in your possession, you are responsible for keeping them locked when they aren’t in use. Your guns require a lot of safety and care whether you use them or not.

Unintentional accidents, injuries, and deaths occur often and can be prevented. You need to invest in a ​highly rated handgun storage safe on the market to keep your weapons in good condition.

Protection

The most obvious thing firearms safes protect are children. Children are more likely to stumble onto a gun and accidentally pulling the trigger, which is why it is important to teach them the ​basics of gun owning and its dangers​.

This negligence might result in them causing harm to themselves or others. Teenagers might want to use your guns to show their friends might accidentally pull the trigger.

With a secure safe that’s only accessible to you, you can prevent accidents and a multitude of life threatening injuries.

Another thing that a gun safe can do is protect you from intruders or home invasions. If there is a break in, and your weapons aren’t locked in a secure place. You’ll find them lost or stolen once you get back home. Burglars can use those guns for other crimes or resell them, so keeping a gun safe will stop intruders from causing long term damage.

Antique and Limited Collection guns have a lot of sentimental value and are worth a lot of money. Keeping them stored in a safe prevents them from getting burned in a fire or by other natural disasters. Most of the safes are waterproof and fireproof making them perfect against physical damages.

What To Do If My Gun Storage Becomes Damaged?

The possibility of your gun safe becomes damaged is small, but it does happen. A burglar could have broken or destroyed it during a robbery. Or, your weapon is stuck inside the safe, and you can’t open it. Don’t panic; a skilled locksmith can take care of your damaged safe and repair it quickly.

Call a lock smith, if your gun safe needs repairs. Since most safes are very sturdy and heavy, your locksmith might have to provide an on-location service to fix your issue.

There is a meager chance that your guns can get stuck inside the safe. But, your safe provides enough safety and protection when your guns aren’t in use.

Be a responsible gun owner and make sure that your guns are locked in a safe place.

Types of Safe Gun Storage

Here is a list of the different types of safes that are available:

• Trigger Locks: Trigger locks are placed around the trigger and prevent your gun from firing.
• Cable Locks: Cable locks are pieces of cable that run through the action or barrel that stops firing.
• ​Gun Cases: Cases are made to protect your guns from physical damage and can be stored in one location.
• Strong Boxes and Security Cases: These storage systems come with a combination and a lock that provide increased protection.
• Gun Cabinets: Require a simple installation process and is safe for small children.
• Gun Safe: Gun safes offer the most protection and can store a large variety of guns (they can be expensive).
• Range Backpacks​: While you shouldn’t be relying on these bags for home storage, keeping ​the best backpack for hunting ​is a good idea.​​​

Gun Safe Types

Gun Safe Type	Features
Biometric Gun Safe	Uses fingerprints for unlocking
Fire Resistant Gun Safes	Added protection against fire
In-Wall Gun Safes	Lessens the space it takes in a room
Hidden Safes	Made to look like an ordinary household item
Heavy-Duty Vaults	Provides excellent protection against exterior damage
Vehicle Safes	Great for traveling and can be mounted easily on a vehicle

Trigger Locks

Trigger locks provide a basic level of gun security. It takes the form of a metal or plastic lock that’s placed around the trigger. Trigger locks are used to prevent the gun from being pulled. Alternatively, it can be a large padlock that locks the action. Most of your guns in today’s market come with a trigger lock.

A trigger shoe is clamped onto the trigger of the gun. This clamp stops the trigger from being misused by an inexperienced user. Since they come into full contact with the trigger, the gun shouldn’t be installed on loaded guns.

Gun Cable Locks

Gun cable locks are useful, but only if you know how to use them correctly. Surveys say that up to 10% of Americans gun-owners with children have a gun that’s unlocked and loaded.

Cable locks are inexpensive, costing around $10 or more. But there’s one problem: one cable lock can’t fit every gun. You’ll have to find a wire lock that fits with your guns dimensions for it to work properly.

People like cable locks because it’s simple to use. All you have to do is turn the safety on, place the cable right through the barrel, chamber, magazine, and through the padlock.

People fear that their gun will become damaged. But, cable locks prevent your weapon from becoming damaged. Make sure to close on the side of the cable. Some of them are covered by rubber, plastic, or nylon, so there’s no need to worry about damage.

Gun Cases

Guns are an important investment and need to be taken care of. The best handgun storage cases ever are used to keep your guns in top condition.

Unlike cable locks and trigger locks, your gun cases protect your firearms from environmental damage. For instance, moisture, dirt, and other ailments tamper with your gun’s basic functions and can destroy the quality of it. That’s why you should invest in a gun case.

Strong Boxes and Security Cases

Strong boxes are designed for handguns. The boxes have mounting systems that allow the guns to be attached to a fixed surface. Some of the boxes come with modern locking mechanisms such as fingerprint scanners and electronic push-buttons.

Security cases are used for their portability. Like strong boxes, they are compact enough to be carried around for travel. You should purchase a strong case if you want a device that’s mobile and durable.

Gun Cabinets

Gun cabinets are different than safes for numerous reasons. It has a simple locking mechanism, a thin level of fireproof insulation, and a smaller gauge of steel. These three factors make ​even the ​gun cabinets in my best rated cabinets for guns reviews more affordable and accessible than gun safes.

Gun Safes

Gun Safes are a sturdy storage container for one or multiple firearms. The safe is used to prevent unauthorized people from accessing your guns. Some gun safes come with water proof protection and can protect the contents from fire, flood, or other natural disasters.

Types of Gun Safe Locks

Combination Lock

There’s no better safe lock than a combination lock. Combination locks are reliable, and the code is harder for burglars to remember. They aren’t sensitive to conditions such as heat, water, and moisture. Combination locks stand up to a lot of pressure and should be considered if you want a high-quality safe.

Combination locks have been around since the early 1900s. In fact, combination locks are the easiest lock to maintain. All you have to do is add lubrication to the tumblers of the locks, and that’s it. With combination locks, a bit of maintenance goes a long way.

When you take care of your combination lock, you increase its lifespan by up to 4x. Combination locks come with longer warranties than electric locks and are easy to repair. A high-quality combination lock can last for up to 25 years without needing to be fixed.

Biometric Lock

Biometric locks use behavioral or physical characteristics to identify the user. These features include iris detection, finger prints, eye retina, facial recognition, and your blood vessels. The best form of technology is the retinal eye scanner.

About 50% of the people in America today use smartphones with biometric devices to access it. Most of them take the form of a finger print reader. There is something about getting a unique safe that appeals to everyone.

Biometric locks are perfect at stopping unexpected entry and eliminates the need for a key. But like most methods of gun storage, there is a catch. You can buy military biometric locks for about $4,000. Commercial grade locks will cost around $100. While the prices are lowering, they are quite expensive.

There are two flaws associated with biometric locks. One issue is that the fingerprint readers are attached to low-quality safes. Sometimes, these lower quality safes can be opened using a simple paperclip. So if you do buy a biometric lock, make sure it’s a high-quality product.

The second flaw lies in its recognition software. The device sometimes has problems reading user’s finger prints. Biometric locks work as a scanner that views your finger print as an image. But, what is its margin of error? What if you damage your finger while fighting a burglar? Chances are you won’t receive a gun and place yourself at risk.

Buy a mechanical gun safe as a supplement to a biometric lock. This ensures that you’ll have a set of firearms to access if a burglar arrives. Having both locks ensure that your guns are safe until the event that they need to be used.

Dual Lock

Dual lock safes are sturdy, durable safes that come with an EMP feature. Unlike other safes that fail under certain conditions, you’ll feel rest assured when buying a dual lock safe.

EMPs (electronic mechanical protection) offer the highest level of gun protection. The largest threat to a safe is an electromagnetic pulse. They can be caused by a myriad of things, such as a flood or nuclear detonation.

Invest in a dual lock safe with EMP to prevent this threat from occurring. EMP infused safes prevent you from being stuck in this situation.

Gun owners know that in emergency situations, you need quick access to your safe. This means that you’ll need to invest in a safe that can retrieve your weapons fast. Before the development of EMP technology, gun owners were at risk using an electric lock. Sometimes electromagnetic pulses make it impossible for users to enter the safe.

With EMP technology, you can use a mechanical lock during tough situations. You’ll don’t have to worry about your safe not working due to an electromagnetic pulse. Instead, if one option fails, you’ll have another one available for you.

Having a dual lock safe gives you the best of both worlds. Not only will you retrieve your firearms as quick as possible, but you’ll have a second entry to your safe if natural causes destroy the electronic lock.

Electric Lock

Electric locks are gun safes that are powered by a battery. After mechanical locks had been developed, electronic locks were designed to provide faster gun access. These locks are useful if you want to keep your children away from tampering with your firearms.

The electric lock has a lot of attractive features. But, they are known for being the least reliable method of gun storage. They are still useful safes but don’t expect them to work during a lockout. Lockouts occur when the electronic portion of your gun safe fails to function properly.

Here is a list of failures that occur when using an electric lock:

• The wires and keypad are destroyed in a fire
• Circuit shortage can cause for the lock to fail
• ​Striking impacts can damage the button membrane
• The batteries become expired making it impossible to open the safe
• The lock bolt becomes jammed under pressure

Because of this, I advise that you look for a dual lock EMP safe. Double lock safes are a perfect blend of mechanical and electronic locks. If you must use an electronic lock, use it for the short term. Upgrade to a higher quality gun safe once you have the means.

Key Access

Key access locks are the simplest to use and the easiest to obtain. One key advantage is the safe’s increased lifespan. On average, your key lock gun safe will last at least six years. Thus, making them very useful if you need a safe that won’t wear down over time.

Key access locks are made 100% out of mechanical parts free of electronics and batteries. This mechanical construction makes it easier for you to access your guns without the need of relying on technology. Buy a key access lock if you want a minimal, yet effective way to store your guns.

Related Questions

Closing Thoughts

Overall, you need a gun safe to protect you and your family. Keeping your guns in an organized location ensures that you’ll be ready during a dangerous situation. By investing in a quality gun safe, you reduce the risk of robbery, home invasions, and death.

There are a few things that I’ve forgotten in my educational guide. My buying guide is made to help you find the best gun safes available. Each of the safes on the list is of high quality and are proven to protect your firearms. Give the guide a look if you are serious about protecting your livelihood!

If you have any questions about gun safes, please let me know in the comments.