Gun Safes Vs Gun Cabinets Making The Tough Choice

In this crime ridden society, protection of family, friends and individual property becomes necessary and sometimes may also involve the use of firearms. With intricate knowledge and proper documents regarding the weapon, one can buy a firearm for future uses. But with buying firearms, also comes the great responsibility of keeping them safe. When it comes to storing a firearm, one should always store the weapon in a gun safe or a gun cabinet. The terms, gun safes and gun Cabinets are often confused within themselves, however they’re quite different in terms of their features and functionalities. The choice may look simple at first but its quite complicated with many factors that may weigh in while one is making the choice. The main factors being budget, size of firearms and future plans to buy firearms.

What is a gun safe?

A gun safe is a protective storage container that is used to keep firearms, ammunition and other valuables safe from unauthorized personnel and curious kids alike. Gun safes are also used to keep the insides safe from fire, water and other natural disasters.

Features of a gun safe:

1. Locking mechanism: Gun safes have various locking mechanisms incorporated with them such as dial and lock mechanism, electronic locks, biometric access and many others.

2. Fire resistance: One should always look for gun safe with fire ratings certified by ETL or Underwriter’s Laboratories. The fire rating is calculated based on the following criteria; a safe offers Y minutes of fire resistance at X degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Building material: Most gun safes are made of thick steel with 10-12 gauge thickness. This feature prevents the burglars from drilling in the safe and getting access to the firearms and ammunition.

Advantages of Gun safes:

1. Thick steel walls capable of standing up to a sustained assault.

2. Protects contents from fire, theft, and most water damage.

3. Too heavy for a thief to move

Disadvantages of Gun safes:

1. Very hard to hide and easy to be noticed by the burglars

2. Quite expensive

3. A good quality gun safe is too heavy to be moved by one person.

What is a Gun cabinet?

A gun cabinet doesn’t differ from gun safe too much, save for a few features. They look like a kitchen or a cutlery cabinet that is used to keep guns safe and usually comes with a transparent glass to showcase the guns.

Features of a Gun cabinet:

1. Cabinet Base: The gun cabinets are usually equipped with base attachments that act as a support for the whole enclosure. The base can also act as a storage space for other items.

2. Variable height: Most gun cabinets come equipped with leg attachments with which one can adjust the height of the cabinets.

3. Building material: Usually gun cabinets are made out of wood with a glass showpiece in many cases.

Advantages of a gun cabinet:

1. Most gun cabinets are visually pleasing and display your weapons collection nicely.

2. Gun cabinets are quite lightweight and can usually be moved by one person.

3. They’re quite affordable and can be chosen to fit one’s budget. Can be built from scratch or even assembled from a kit.

Disadvantages of a gun cabinet:

1. Lack of security — easy to break into

2. Zero protection in the event of fire or flood.