USA – -(Ammoland.com)- In early April of 2018, a small import outfit released a handgun safe onto the market through Amazon. The company is called Amarey, no big name in the gun world, but the safe is currently Amazon’s bestselling handgun safe. At a price of $99.99, it’s easy to understand why shoppers are being sold on the item.
Amarey Biometric Gun Safe
Amarey’s safe, the model HFGS-089, is supposedly designed to do double-duty as a handgun safe and portable case. The blurb on the Amazon product page says:
Gun Safe – Pistol Safe Portable Gun Safe with Biometric Sensor Chip, Auto-Open Lid, Qucik Access. Gun Safe Mountable on Wall. Waterproof Fire Resistant, 100% Safety. 5 Year Warranty. [Misspellings retained.]
Buried in the above are a couple over-the-top lies I need to address. The device is not actually watertight, and therefore is not “Waterproof.” Nor is it made of fire-retardant materials, so it isn’t any more “Fire Resistant” than any other metal container—a toolbox, an Altoid tin. As for the expression “100% Safety,” I can confirm that this is a combination of numbers and letters arranged in a fashion consistent with English.
One of the bigger illusions on this product page is the overwhelming number of 5-star reviews that accumulate daily. What’s going on? A flyer inside every safe offers a package of 25 free shooting targets to those customers who write an Amazon review. This is a violation of Amazon policies.
And what have my examinations turned up?
The safe is made of thin, 18-gauge steel, the box weighing all of 4.4 lbs. (Snapsafe lock boxes, which I have spent time exposing online, are made of heavier, higher-quality steel than this.) The safe’s top-opening door fits loosely and has two gaping holes in it, one for the fingerprint reader and one for the bypass lock; there’s plenty of purchase for a screwdriver. The hinges at the back are small and completely exposed.
And finally, the mounting holes in the bottom of the device open right into the latching mechanism, allowing the thing to be opened with a paperclip.
This last detail is bizarre, considering the device is supposed to be appropriate for use as a portable case. You, the gun owner, are to believe it is secure if it is merely anchored with the supplied cable. And you will be able to believe this if you visualize the safe having no holes in the bottom of it. It’s called Security Through Visualization. There are no holes in the bottom of your portable case if you believe there are no holes.
About Dave Goetzinger
I began while writing a piece of investigative journalism titled “Safe Cracking Is Too Easy,” published in the September 2015, issue of American Shooting Journal. The piece looked at defectively designed handgun safes, and was first posted online at ASJ on July 21, 2015, under the title “It’s Too Easy To Crack Your Gun Safe.”
About Handgun Safe Research
This site exposes the design defects and security vulnerabilities of popular handgun safes. Visit : www.handgunsaferesearch.com