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A gun safe
is specifically designed with two purposes in mind
- to protect valuable guns and to restrict access to them
to only authorized persons. While no state requires guns
to be stored in a gun safe ,
some states have made persons criminally liable if a child
is injured after obtaining unsupervised access to a gun.
This makes gun safe s a necessity
in those states, as they are the only solution that will
keep children from finding and possibly using a gun. If
you've got kids, you know that no hiding place is really
safe from them.
There are a number of factors to consider when choosing
a gun safe
. The first is the overall size and shape of the
gun safe . If you only need to
store handguns, then a safe designed just for handguns is
all you need - they are much smaller than safes designed
to store rifles and shotguns, and less expensive. On the
other hand, if you do need to secure rifles and/or shotguns,
then you obviously need a tall, narrow, cabinet style gun
safe . The number of guns that you need to store
is another factor that will determine the size of the safe
that you purchase. Also, if you have rifles with scopes
mounted, you need to consider the extra clearance necessary
for the scopes.
Another factor to consider is whether or not the gun
safe is burglary rated. While a non-burglary-rated
gun safe will keep the kids
out, it might not protect your guns from a determined burglar
who knows what they're doing. So if theft is a concern,
make sure the gun safe you choose
has a burglary rating.
You will also need to consider the fire rating of the gun
safe . The fire rating of a safe is the number of
hours that the safe can remain in a 1700 degrees F fire
before the internal temperature of the safe rises above
350 degrees F. In order to protect your guns from a typical
house fire, look for a fire rating of at least 30 minutes
to 1 hour.
You will also want to consider the type of locking mechanism
used by the gun safe . Models
are available with either a traditional mechanical combination
dial or with an electronic keypad lock. The electronic keypad
lock is much more convenient than the mechanical combination
lock.
Safeandvault.com offers two major series of gun
safe . First, the L series, which uses nine 1-inch
solid steel chrome plated bolts to secure the door, 1 layer
of fire-proofing with a 30 minute 350 fire rating, and extra
thick 10 gauge steel. For even more protection for your
valuable guns, the H series offers ten 1-1/2 inch solid
steel chrome plated bolts, a steel door that is double the
thickness, twice the layers of fire liner, and a 1 hour
350 fire rating.
As you can see, there are a number of factors to consider
when choosing a gun safe . So remember, you will need to
know the number and type of guns to be stored, how much
and what type of security you require, and what type of
locking mechanism you prefer.
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