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There are bedside gun safes. There are bedside gun safes with biometric locks. But there are none that will charge your iPhone while you sleep. Or look like an oversized piece of metal ravioli. And while I’m not sure what an RF signature is—I know mine is completely indecipherable—if you and you alone can open the bedside gun safe just by pressing your hand on the top of the case, that’s a win. ‘Cause that fingertip deal would be useless if your hand was covered in blood. Just sayin’. Oh wait, you gotta wear a ring or a wristband. I ain’t wearin’ no ring again ever and wristbands are so fey. My preferred choice is home carry during the day and easy access at night. ‘Nuff said. [h/t DrVino]

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48 COMMENTS

  1. I’m not sure I’d go for that.

    I hate to sound like a crotchety old fogey, but I’m leery of staking my life on anything electronic. I know that massive improvements have been made in recent years, but it’s still a relatively new technology that is far from 100% reliable. Then there’s the battery life to worry about… Unless it plugs in, in which case you’d have to worry about the plug getting knocked out or the power going out.

    • +1. I went with the Gunvault Nano after hearing stories about the normal Gunvaults with electronic locks failing.

      I just wish some of those mechanical-lock handgun safes weren’t over $100.

    • With redundancy built into it — biometric finger swipe, RFI — and backstopped by a key, I’m okay with this design.

      But I am NOT okay with the static fingerprint reader. Highly defeatable. Fix that, and it’s a go.

      I wrote to them about using “swipe” style fingerprint reader, as well as some biochemical recognition technology that exists, but is not generally deployed.

      My current solution, a GunVault lockbox with fingerprint reader, is pretty good.

  3. “RF” stands for “radio frequency”, which was the most common interpretation until R. Farago appeared on the scene. The ring or bracelet contains a transponder that sends out a unique signal when it’s near a transceiver on the safe. This product sounds like a solution in search of a problem.

    • Personally, I encourage the use of radio frequency devices by the general public. It’s so much easier to distinguish the ‘good guys’ from the ‘bad guys’ when we can track every movement, interaction, and transaction made by potential domestic ter…

      … I mean gun owners!

  5. Not something I need at this stage in my life. No little munchkins rambling around my house. If ever my twenty-something kids figure out dating and/or reproduction, maybe I’ll have to do something as a grandparent. But not yet (thank god!). I don’t want to sound like an irresponsible gun owner, but I’ve got 3-4 (maybe a few more) firearms around the place unsecured (and ready). There are never kids in my house, so it’s just not something I spend much time/money on. Finally, I tend to lean to what some people might consider an extreme around SHTF topics, so battery/electrical device and lifesaving/protection don’t go together much in my mind.

    If one of my kids is home and has an adult friend with them, they give them the standard drill: my dad owns guns; if you see a gun in our house, it is loaded; you will not touch it; if you want to touch it, ask and we’ll be happy to show it to you; if you think that is cool, my dad will take you to the range to shoot it.

    • Thanks for keeping the firearms black market in business. We’ll drop by to pick them up when you’re out!

  6. Are these smart safes the nose under the tent for smart guns? Will the grabbers use smart safe tech as an excuse to start requiring smart tech on our guns?

      • OK, instead of excuse how about justification? “See, smart techs works at least 90% of the time on gun safes. That’s an acceptable error level for non cop and non military weapons. Civilians will need smart tech in their guns beginning Jan. 1 of thi year.” Or some such nonsense.

        I’m afraid that by readily buying into gun safes in general we’ve increased the grade of the slippery slope. Mandatory anything, helmet laws, seatbelts, trigger locks are just another way for big brother to tighten his control.

    • Yes.

      But no.

      It is still a free market system. And this looks like a plea for funding to become a reality so if not enough people pledge to buy the system/company/product will never go live to be considered the standard to follow.

      At the same time, Ralph is right…. ‘they’ don’t need an excuse.

  7. A company named “Pyxis” makes the equivalent of an ATM for drugs for use in hospitals. The preferred identification is a fingerprint scanner. These have never worked for me and each hospital has had to give me a password access instead. The scanners worked quite well and quickly for most nurses, the only difference is I have very large hands. If these high end print scanners are that fussy I’d steer away from them. IMHO for what it’s worth.

    • If you’ve played guitar or bass most of your life those things won’t recognize your calloused fingertips, either, since they change radically depending on how much or how recently you’ve been playing.

  8. Actually, I think this is a great idea. My phone and pistol are right there ready for a bump in the night, it’s shape doesn’t scream “gun safe, steal me!”, I wear a parachord bracelet anyway, what’s another one… And I am not afraid of new technology. Anything can fail, even mechanical things (see: Kel-Tec).

  9. RFID signals can be spoofed, and transponders/receivers can be stolen, lost, break or malfunction. Fingerprint scanners are not yet accurate enough for my tastes. There is no worst case scenario opening method like a key, and no explanation of what to do if the battery dies. Additionally the RFID scanner looks like it always has a light on based on the pictures and that’s a deal breaker for anything going into my bedroom. Points for creativity, aesthetics, and integration of technology, but it just doesn’t seem secure or dependable enough for my liking.

  10. Yup, I like the idea much more than the standard biometric read-only electronic safe. If only they mentioned that it had a backup key open, then I’d probably be sold.

    I don’t like the idea of having to wear jewelery other than my wedding ring, though–don’t know how you’d get that RF ring resized, and I’m sure as heck not wearing a bracelet. I guess the phone sticker or something might work, but then it feels a little like I’ve got too many dang keys floating around the house.

  11. Wow more technology for our guns personally I think it’s getting ridiculous, scopes that all but aim for you, gun safes reading finger prints and/or rfid tags, night vision, infra red, and lasers what happened to iron sights, key locked mechanical safes, and telescopic scopes? Then again maybe I’m just old school or a purist or whatever you’d call a guy like me.

    • High tech “wrappers,” for me, are one thing. If they fail your core piece of hardware still functions just like it always did – you lose assistance in getting it to do what you want it to, but it’ll still work the old fashioned way. Examples are laser sights, small aircraft “glass cockpit” instrumentation, etc.

      When the more callable tech starts becoming part of the critical functionality – on-weapon ID scanners, fly-by-wire systems, even car electronic ignition, you need a whole higher level of reliability.

      Problem is, many (most?) consumer-goods manufacturers don’t think about it that way.

  12. The biggest failing of handgun safes today is the locking mechanism. It’s either unreliable to open (most fingerprint scanners) or unreliable to keep closed (most of the mechanical locks on these things are utterly useless, using easily picked tubular locks or similar).

    And yet, this device doesn’t say anything about either, in a design that screams “GUN INSIDE, PLEASE STEAL”.

    Not going to drop $300 on something new, when Lock-SAF already makes a $300 biometric handgun safe that has been proven to be quite reliable with a key backup should SHTF in a less revealing form factor.

    “Oh, but this one can charge my cellphone” so I can pretend it’s a charging hub”. Really? That’s your single point of inspiration that caused you to want to build this thing?

  13. I bought a hotel safe w a digital readout and mounted in bedroom closet. It works just fine and has an internal light that kicks on for 10 seconds so I can pick which gun I want/need. It has a key backup. I don’t do biometric. Too much to risk and with little ones, I cannot leave loaded weapons sitting out.

  14. I like it. It’s made in the USA unlike the Gunvault Chinese crap. I can live with biometrics given I also have a regular safe.

    The Wife Approval Factor is also going to be much higher than something that screams “Chinese gun safe”

  15. No need for fey little wristbands. Step up your game and wear Viking-style armbands instead. Two for each man you’ve killed in battle, one for each town you’ve pillaged.

  16. The problem with key back ups are twofold–fumbling with the key in the dark, and the ease with which, with the proper tools, these locks can be picked. Then there is the fact that unless you bolt them down, they are easily stolen–those cable locks aren’t going to slow down a thief for more than a few seconds. My issue is I want a small safe for securing a handgun in a vehicle–and none of these will provide any reasonable level of security. My car is a convertible with an inside the cockpit trunk release, and my wife’s is a SUV with no hidden compartments or underseat storage large enough to fit a safe.

    • Solution: buy new cars, weld substantial safe under seat/in trunk, glove compartment etc.
      Come to think of it, a glove compartment safe might have a market if you could make it reasonably secure and fit inside most glove boxes…

      • Some states (California) do not consider a locked glove compartment or arm rest utility compartment as a legal “locked container” that complies with the vehicle transport safe harbor.

        • I think Nanashi was suggesting placing the safe (“locked container”) inside the glove box.

          You’re correct that in California the glove compartment cannot be the locked container. However, once the firearm is inside some other locked container (e.g. small gun safe), that container can be anywhere in the vehicle – including the glove compartment.

          That is, the California PC a) says the firearm must be unloaded and in a locked container, b) explicitly excludes the glove compartment in the definition of “locked container”, and c) is silent on where the locked container may be placed within the vehicle.

      • What late model car lets you weld a ‘substantial’ safe under a seat? Maybe if you drive a dual cab truck, but most modern sedans and SUVs there is no room under the seats due to six way power seats etc.

  17. I kinda like the low profile box idea. I have a steel box with a Simplex pushbutton lock bolted to my nightstand. (Yeah, I know, a burglar could smash the stand and take the box. A risk with any secure container that isn’s sunk in 6 feet of rebar concrete.) I have seen a couple of videos from a security conference that showed how [relatively] easily these small electronic lock boxes can be defeated, including those with fingerprint readers. So I lean toward the Simplex lock-type box. I had used one of the flat single pistol boxes for flying until there was a nearly successful attempt to pry it open after it was checked in. Now I use a box with padlocks.

    (Oh, did anyone notice the kippah (yarmulke) on the man who took the safe into his car? Just curious.)

  18. I’ve got one of the older (about 20 years old) pushbutton combo Gunvaults. It’s still going! It’s bolted to the concrete floor (through the carpet) with hurricane shutter anchors.

    I would like to see a box with both a biometric (swipe-style) scanner AND the pushbuttons AND a key backup.

  20. I am from a big family of gun owners and hunters. We have a bunch of kids under 8 running around. This would be the no worry solution to protection and safety. Our family would buy a minimum of 5! I can’t believe this hasn’t been thought of yet. Kudos!

  21. WORST. COMPANY. EVER.

    I was intrigued by this fancy gun box and of course decided to buy one. Two months later, still don’t have it. No idea when I will ever get it. Their customer service is the absolute worst I have EVER dealt with in my entire existence on this planet. The manager of customer service was so flat out rude I don’t even know how that company allows her to be employed. I have dealt with awful people before, but my God this lady really took the cake.

    • Izy – Completely agree! I was shocked when I found out she was the manager after I finally had enough and asked to speak with a supervisor/manager. Absolutely no understanding or trying to help the client or do what is right. I am curious to see if they manage to stay in business under the current business model as they have to be alienating many clients.

  22. I bought two of these on 2/22/2014 and they charged my Credit card on that date. Didn’t receive them until 4/3. They used my money free all of that time. I returned them both for three reasons (a) If you don’t keep them plugged into AC the battery goes dead in 2 days. Wish they would have told me that. (b) I could not get the GPS to work (c) Finger print bio didn’t work. Sent them back and received by factory on 4/21. THEY STILL HAVE MY MONEY !!!!!

    • Agree Dan, we had same issue except didnt get our biometric the first time, and then the biometric unit would not open without having to ‘force’ it as the company instructed. It’s now June and while we recently shipped back to them, we’re waiting for refund. Very disappointed with overall service, they are not familiar with the policy ‘under promise and over deliver.’

  23. I finally received my long awaited Gun Box this week. Delivery was delayed because they are a newly established company who saw a massive increase in orders thanks to some good publicity. First impressions? Very nicely packaged: my only recommendation for improvement is to print a small logo on the white inner box. The product came with the box itself, power adapter, adapter cable, RFID bracelet, a small plastic bag with a black clip and small Allen wrench, and a quick start guide. The quick start guide covered the basic for setup. The bracelet was preprogrammed to work. Nice! The mechanical actuation of the locking system and the shocks supporting the lid are solid and smooth. The fit, finish, and operation of this device oozes a satisfying aura of excellent build quality, like the feeling one may experience when settling into the cockpit of a fine European touring car. Well done, Sir! So what could be improved? There is a distinct lack of thorough directions. While programming fingerprints is straight forward, though some times temperamental (important to place your finger on the sensor the same way multiple times), there is no documentation that states the system stores multiple fingerprints. While I knew this to be true, I had to search the product page on the gun box website to find it documented. There are no included directions which discuss the process for opening the device in case of electrical failure (which may explain why the device comes with an Allen wrench). And similarly, there are no included directions for mounting the device (which, by the way, would explain what the heck the black clip was for). Finally, most of the issues (but not all) are resolved by searching the website tutorials. Bottom line: product rating is a 9.5 out of 10. Improving instructions would be a quick fix; doing so would score this product an amazing 9.9, leaps and bounds above lesser gun storage competitors!

  24. I do not recommend this product. We have had nothing but run around and bad service from this company. We paid for our biometric Gun Box in Feb of this year and as of today (June) we are still dealing with the fallout of manufacturing issues, being issued the incorrect unit and then a defective unit. We finally agreed to pay to ship back the nonworking unit and are waiting for our refund. Hopefully it is a full refund but we have been told there may be a 20% restocking fee even though it doesn’t work.

    I cannot say how the biometric reader works, but the wrist band must be very close (almost touching) in the correct location on the safe for it to open. If I am in a situation of needing to access our hand gun quickly, this would be a huge impediment.

  25. I WOULD NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT! Safe your time, money and LIFE! The fingerprint reader is VERY unreliable and the Customer Service of this company is TERRIBLE.

    After reporting to the company they just wanted to continue to tell me, right up their Vice President of Operations, that there was nothing wrong with the finger print reader. This after trying multiple entries for both my wife and myself we got about a 80+ FAIL RATE! YOU WOULD BE DEAD relying on this safe!

    I had to resort to cancelling the Credit card charge. Additionally to their utter DENIAL ANYTHING could be wrong with the safe, they wanted me to pay return shipping on the defective product! Who wants a Ferrari that won’t run?

    POOR COMPANY. POOR PRODUCT!

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