I’m a crusader for gun safes. If you own guns and you don’t have a safe, you’re irresponsible, imprudent, and I don’t like you. It’s wrong. You must have a gun safe. If you do not have guns in locked down safes, children will look for them and want to “play” with them. They are kids. They will kill themselves or one another. Do not risk this. Get a safe!

People own guns for three reasons:

  1. as a collector
  2. as a hunter or sportsman (trap and skeet or marksmanship)
  3. for self-defense

For collectors, hunters, and sportsmen, I suggest having a safe in your garage and drill it into the slab of your house. It only takes about 30 minutes to do so with a jackhammer drill (get one on amazon for 50 bucks: hammer drill).

If you don’t secure a gun safe to your slab, thieves can lift the gun safe into the back of a truck and take it to a welding shop and open it up. Don’t be that guy. Every safe has 4 holes in the bottom. Use the hammer drill above, drill 4 holes into your slab and then use mounts to screw your safe (from the inside) securely to the slab.

Self-Defense Weapons in the Bedroom

But for self-defense, guns in the garage safe doesn’t work. You can run past a home intruder and stumble around in the garage looking for a weapon. No, you need that weapon with you. So you need a safe in your master bedroom and/or master closet.

For a man, I recommend having a large caliber handgun (.40 cal or higher) with a light on it. I also recommend having a tactical shotgun with small bird shot in it. I have children in my home and I don’t want shot going through the sheetrock and hitting my family members in adjacent rooms. Smaller shot will less penetrate the structure of your  home. Don’t shoot buck shot. It may end up in your neighbor’s house.

Why Biometric Safes for Self-Defense?

You need a fool proof safe that children cannot open even if they know the combination AND you need to be able to get into quickly at 2:38am when you hear two or three large men rummaging through your house. You need a biometric safe.

A biometric safe opens with your biological identity: retina scan is best. Most of us can only afford and fingerprint scan because it has become extremely affordable. I happily own and have recommend to hundreds of men the Barska Quick Access Biometric Rifle Safe:

If I had a million bucks, I would buy this Barska biometric safe for every man I know. This Barska biometric safe easily holds a tactical shotgun and 1 or 2 handguns – plus your passports, your wife’s jewelry, and your watch. You easily program all 10 of your fingerprints and your wives fingerprints (and maybe a trusted relative) and that’s it. Nobody else can get into it. You just put your finger on the reader and it unlocks quickly.

Barska safeThere is no code or combination. It’s fingerprint activated. I use it weekly to stash stuff away from kids. The best thing is that it’s only $259 bucks. Granted, it’s not fire proof. If you had 5 hours and a hacksaw, you could probably get into it. But it does the job for me: it keeps dangerous weapons away from my children and it allows my wife and I to access these weapons 24/7 without having to remember codes. Put your finger on the pad. Boom. It’s open.

There is one deceptive feature about the Barska biometric safe. They say it holds up to three rifles or shotguns (as in the image). As a proud owner of one of these safes, I’m going to throw a flag on this claim. It’s not true. I have one shotgun in there and I don’t see how I could fit even one more gun in there comfortably. It’s very narrow. So don’t buy this as a primary safe to hold a collection of rifles. There is a shelf up top that will barely fit 2 handguns and then there is room for one shotgun and maybe another rifle or shotgun. It would be very tight.

If you have self-defense guns and you need a solution, the Barska biometric safe is what you need ASAP. Buy one put it in your closet close to your bed. Problem solved. Everybody is safe…and you’ll never lose your passport again.

PS: You don’t have to this, but I highly highly recommend that you bolt your Barska biometric safe to the slab in your closet so it doesn’t fall over or get stolen. Just use the hammer drill above and drill through the carpet or wood into the slab of your closet or room. WARNING: I’ve heard that the hammer drill will vibrate tile and totally destroy tile surfaces, so I don’t know what to say if you have tile floors. I wouldn’t do it. But it’s no problem going through wood or carpet.

Here are the screws that you mount in your slab after you drill the holes. These are the ones that I use:

Be the Maccabee,
Taylor Marshall

Here’s the full kit: