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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • I’m not saying that is the case here, but I’d like to know if it is.

    It’s not. The reason I called out the specific Nanovault in another comment was that a friend had locked his (the gun bumped into the internal button to change the combination and it had gotten changed and was unknown, another ridiculous design flaw). Rather than mess around with cracking the new combination, I shoved the blade of my pocket knife into it, twisted it, and it popped open. Literally the same amount of effort/force and sticking a key into a keyhole and turning it, but without needing the actual key.

    After realizing how secure it wasn’t, he decided to test the other one he had before replacing them. Picked it up and dropped it from about waist height onto the garage floor (empty, no gun in it). It popped open, sending little plastic bits from the locking mechanism everywhere.

    Yet, these are generally considered to meet the California legal standard of “a locked container or in a location that a reasonable person would believe to be secure.”


  • I disagree. The safe or trigger lock does nothing in this example, making them functionally identical situations. You’re literally suggesting making it illegal to be burgled but legal to be robbed, which is an asinine distinction.

    And you’re implying that not using a safe or trigger lock means no precautions are taken. If the gun is in a locked house already, is that not “secure”? It’s as secure as a knife needs to be to not be a liability if stolen and used in a crime. Hell, a locked building is sufficient security for a pyrotechnics company to store their literal explosives.

    I also specifically disagree that the barest of minimum (as you’re describing it here) is better than nothing (as defined as no safe/trigger lock). A gun locked in one of these in an easily accessible room meets your “barest minimum” criteria, but is more easily stolen than one hidden in a non-locking box in a locked apartment.

    I think the better solutions focus on harsher penalties for the theft itself and more laws/enforcement around failure to report thefts.


  • The “safe storage” laws are usually pretty worthless just on how they define “safe” on top of the actual problem with enforcement. They’re not meaningful in any practical way, as anyone responsible enough that they should be allowed to own a gun already locks their shit down.

    People who only lock their firearms away because they’re required to are the reason shit like Nanovaults are so popular. They’re a good-sounding concept, but in reality are held together with flimsy plastic internals. You can literally pry them open with a knife or housekey, or even just slam them onto the ground to pop them open.

    tl;dr: Given the lax legal definition of a safe, using one doesn’t necessarily add any meaningful security.

    As an aside, I have safes for valuables and documents I’d like to survive a housefire…but I don’t have any record of owning them. Were they stolen, I don’t think it’d be easy to prove I didn’t have them.