Gun Safe Reviews For A New Age

Today, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission called on the gun industry to develop uniform safety standards for gun locks. The commission tested the locks and found that most were ineffective. The safety commission also announced a voluntary recall of defective locks that were distributed last year by police departments and paid for by a gun industry trade group. We recommend visiting federal-firearms-license.net for more information on gun safe reviews.

While there is disagreement over whether safety locks should be mandatory or voluntary, gun locks are generally the vanilla ice cream of the gun control debate. Both sides like locks as part of any safety program aimed at keeping guns out of kids’ hands. But there are no uniform standards for safety locks, whether it’s the trigger lock device or a cable system, which threads through an open chamber or empty magazine and into a padlock.

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission recently lab-tested a broad cross-section of the locks out there–32 models in all–and the results were not encouraging, says commission Chairwoman Ann Brown.

What we found was quite frightening. We found that many of these gun locks didn’t do what they were supposed to do. They didn’t work. Some of the gun locks could have worked–could be opened with a paper clip or a pair of tweezers. Some of them could just be opened by just whacking them on a table. That’s not the deterrent that a parent can count on. In fact, if I can open the gun locks that easily, any five-year-old can.

Brown says the tests underscore the need for national gun lock standards, and the gun industry is already working with a standards-setting organization to come up with a voluntary code. By law, the safety commission is not allowed to regulate firearms, but gun locks are consider an accessory, so safety officials believe they do have oversight power. Brown says the commission will act if the industry doesn’t move fast enough or if the standards aren’t tough enough.

Toys have 12 different safety regulations, but gun locks have none, and so, certainly, gun locks need a safety regulation. See the best gun safes here.

Obviously, a law should not be easily defeated. And the idea that locks should be tested against standards is something that the gun industry has endorsed.

Attorney Jeff Ray of gunmaker Beretta is on an industry committee on lock standards. They’ve already submitted draft standards to the American National Standards Institute. Ray believes the industry can come up with its own set of guidelines that are reasonable and thoughtful. And Ray worries that federal and state government-imposed standards could be too restrictive on law-abiding adults.

One of the concerns that we have is with states that might mandate that no gun may be sold without a lock, and then setting standards that are so stringent that no law could comply. And what you have when you do that is basically de facto gun control.

The safety commission denies that its standards push is a backdoor effort at gun control. More than 90 percent of new firearms sold today include some form of external safety locking device. The industry says there are no reported cases of injuries, accidents or shootings attributed to defective gun locks.

The safety commission is working closely with the Shooting Sports Foundation to voluntarily recall some 400,000 gun locks that were distributed last year through local police and paid for by the industry trade group. The foundation has redesigned the lock with the commission’s help, and they’re replacing the defective ones with a stronger version free of charge. Shooting Sports Foundation director Doug Painter warns that no lock is foolproof. He says locks should be part of a broader safety effort.

Whether it’s the medicines you’re storing, the pool you have in your back yard, you take certain precautions. Keep the gun unloaded, put the lock on it, secure it in a safe place, store the ammunition in a separate area under lock and key. And the combination of these precautions can create a very safe environment.

New lock standards could be announced in the next six months. In the meantime, the sports foundation recently received a $5 million federal grant through the Department of Justice to expand its Project Homesafe program to distribute free gun locks to 300 more communities across the country.

Learn more at http://federal-firearms-license.net.