So, you bought a gun. Maybe it’s your first, maybe it’s your fifteenth. But if it’s a pistol, you’re going to need a safe place to store it. Because handguns are both dangerous and versatile, your storage situation needs to be secure and tailored to your specific needs — both for your weapon and the particulars of your life.
There are plenty of resources online that will give you a run-of-the-mill buying guide — what’s sturdy, what’s cheap, and what’s easy to access — but finding a place for your new piece is worthy of a more in-depth look. To help, we called up Sgt. Alberto Maldonado, a Marine Corps veteran who served as the ammo chief for his unit while deployed to Iraq. Maldonado now owns and operates a luxury transportation and executive protection business in Miami, for which he carries a variety of weapons — both at home and on the job — to keep himself and his clients safe. Maldonado explained that part of his job is analyzing a given space for risks, and mapping out where threats may come from.
“Each individual case is different,” Maldonado says. “The main thing that affects the safe you pick is the role in which you plan to use your weapon.” In other words, consider your surroundings. Children, Maldonado says, are number one — you have to make sure whatever system you’re using is child-safe. But beyond that, choosing a handgun safe is also about your mindset: are you a casual shooter looking to lock up your gun between trips to the range? Are you concerned you might need fast access to a weapon to defend your home? Or are you somewhere in between — a new gun owner just looking to keep those around him safe.
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Fort Knox Original Pistol Box
Pros all over the Internet agree: the Fort Knox is the classic gun safe for a handgun. Simple, solid, and almost indestructible, the Fort Knox isn’t going to win any design awards, unless the award is for a big welded steel box that can hold a gun. It’s not biometric, meaning there’s no fingerprint opening or palm-reading. It’s just a hefty (it weighs in at 22 pounds) steel box with a five-button combination lock mechanism. It’ll stay where you put it and can be opened quickly with one hand. Sure, it’s about as low-tech as a gun safe gets, but it gets the job done.
VaulTex VS20i Biometric Handgun Safe
The VaulTek is another safe that tops lists all over the Internet for having simple and easy biometric access, which means it opens with a fingerprint. However, Maldonado says that’s not the only thing to look for. If you’re going biometric, it’s essential to check that there are multiple ways of accessing the case — preferably a touchpad or a physical key. Sure, that means there are more ways someone could get in, but it also means one power outage or faulty battery — or even a wonky sensor or dirty hand — won’t keep you away from your weapon. The VaulTek has you covered there, opening with either the biometric scanner, a digital keypad, or two different physical key systems.
VaulTek Slider Series
Car carry is a specific case — you want something that’s easily accessible in your vehicle but still secure. VaulTek again offers a quality product, this time oriented vertically so it can drop into a car’s center console or in another slot. It can be mounted in plenty of places in a dwelling, as well, but this is the right call for car carry in that it’s unobtrusive and secure. Make sure you check the various options, as this comes with a variety of biometric or non-biometric locking mechanisms. As Maldonado says, choose the one that feels right to you.
Hornady Rapid Safe for Bedrooms
Want a gun safe in the bedroom but don’t want to call attention to it? Look no further than the Hornady, which looks pretty much like a hotel alarm clock — just a bit sleeker. This slim black box will sit right on a nightstand incognito until you need to use it. Unlike some of the other boxes on this list, the Hornady also features an RFID-opening device, meaning with a small chip in your wallet or in a watch band, you can open the box just by waving your hand close enough. This isn’t the most secure for kids, naturally, as there’s little to stop them getting their hands on the RFID, but it can be a fast option. And, when in doubt, the safe also has manual opening, in addition to other methods. Oh, and yeah, it has a few USB ports to charge your phone.
Frequently Asked Questions About Handgun Safes
Where should I keep my handgun safe?
This is the million dollar question, according to Maldonado. He recommends that you think about your daily routine and when you might need the weapon. If you live in an apartment and spend the majority of your time in the living room, it might be that you don’t want to have to run to a bedroom to fetch your weapon. Think about the layout of your house. Where will a threat come from? Where will you likely be? Where will you need to be to respond to it? Some combination of those answers — particularly the latter two — is where you should store your weapon.
Do I have to use a handgun safe?
For most of us, yes. However, Maldonado often uses a gun lock itself, as his weapons are almost always on his person. He carries close to 24/7, so locking his primary weapon away in a box isn’t necessary, as long as there aren’t children in the house. When he leaves town, the weapons go in a safe. But otherwise, they’re secure on his person or immediately accessible from where he sleeps. That’s an extreme case — for the casual user, and one who doesn’t work as a security pro, a lockbox is likely your best bet.
How reliable are biometric locks?
In short, it’s often not the technology that fails — it’s the user. Anyone with a smartphone can attest that fingerprint technology has gotten pretty good, but it is susceptible to user error. Once again, this is a question for yourself. How are you going to be using the safe? How will you use the weapon? If you think you’re prepared enough to access the gun quickly and efficiently with your fingerprints, then use that. If you prefer a tactile lock, then use that.