Keeping the Wrong Hands Off Your Guns

For many of us, shooting can be an expensive hobby. I’ve turned more money into smoke and noise over the past decade than I care to track. Many of my hard-earned greenbacks fed the ammunition pile, and that hungry monster never really seems satiated. Further, my firearms collection has more value than my vehicles and home electronics combined. What is really sad? I don’t think I’m done buying guns. Being an industry employee, I tend to hear about all the latest gadgets, gizmos and widgets long before the manufacturers release them to the public. This just further tempts me to dump my lunch money into another build project, or the latest $1,000 optic. If there were AA meetings for gun enthusiasts, my wife would have me bring the coffee.

With all the time and energy I’ve invested in firearms, keeping the wrong hands off my guns is a high priority. I have thought about every conceivable way to thwart a break-in in the middle of the night. However, no amount of training and preparation in the world will help you if that intruder decides to clean you out while you are not home. I have nightmares about what would happened to my precious collection while I was on vacation and some nut job decided to deprive me of my mini-museum. About a year ago, I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and spend some money on a quality gun safe. We had a little one on the way and I needed a good way to store my firearms. It always surprises me that so many folks are willing to shell out huge amounts of money for their gun collections, but won’t spend $1,000 on a secure housing for their valuables.

In my case, I bought two safes. One holds the vast majority of my collection; the other is a small quick access safe for my M&P 45. I keep the smaller safe within arms reach of my bed, and it bolts to the side of my dresser. GunVault’s SV 500 won’t stop a thief who really wants to pry, pick, or hammer his way to your gun, and there is nothing stopping them from taking my whole dresser away, but it does a fine job of keeping underage hands off your bedside handgun. A four-to six-digit code that you program allows you to customize the safe to your specifications. I like that you can punch the same button multiple times for your combination. This greatly increases the number of possible matches, so there is virtually no chance of a child accidentally fiddling their way into your bedside safe. The safe employs a silent mode as well as a battery that lasts up to a year. The process of opening the safe takes only a couple seconds, and a small built-in light lets you access your handgun in the dark. When I’m away on vacation, I stick my M&P in the big safe in my closet. Crooks can steal my dresser while I’m away and all they will get is some IKEA furniture and a small empty safe.

Most thieves will have trouble with the heavy closet safe. I’m betting they will consider a softer target when they see that safe and move on. I can spend days talking about what to shop for in a large safe. Just remember to get the heaviest door you can afford, and get a safe that is larger than what you currently need. Your gun collection is bound to grow over time. American made safes are typically better than foreign. Composite doors don’t do as well as solid steel. Most importantly, always bolt it down. The first thing the crooks will try to do is take the safe with them. There is really no such thing as an unbreakable safe, but you might as well make it as hard as possible.