Gun Safes: What the Ratings, Steel and Locks Actually Tell You

A gun safe is a steel box for long guns, rated or not

A gun safe is a tall steel container with a locking door, shaped to stand rifles and shotguns upright. That covers a lot of ground. A rifle safe, a shotgun safe and a home gun safe are mostly the same product under different search terms. A metal gun safe sold as a "gun safe vault" is still a gun safe; the extra word adds no rating.

What separates one gun safe from another is not the name. It's four things you can check on paper:

• A burglary rating — usually UL 1037 Residential Security Container (RSC), or none
• A fire rating — minutes, temperature and who tested it, or none
• The steel — body gauge and door construction
• The lock — dial, keypad or fingerprint, and the backup that comes with it

Some gun safes carry all four in writing. Some carry a gun count and a photo. The table on this page shows which is which, with "—" where nobody put a value in writing.

There are a few shapes inside the category. Full-height safes stand in a closet or garage. Slimline and vertical gun safes are narrow units for tight spaces. A floor gun safe or in floor gun safe sits in or under the floor; check its interior length before planning on rifles. A gun and document safe adds a shelf or door panel for papers. A modern gun safe may hide some of this behind a flat door and a touchscreen. The ratings question is the same for all of them.

Who a home gun safe is for, and who should skip it

A home gun safe fits anyone who keeps more than one long gun at home and wants them locked, in one place, behind steel. It's also the default answer for safe gun storage when a household includes people who shouldn't have access.

You may not need one if:

• You own one handgun and want fast access. A handgun safe is built for that job and is far smaller.
• You want controlled access, not burglary resistance. A gun cabinet or locker is lighter steel, usually with no fire rating, and may be enough to keep guns locked away from household members. Our gun safe vs gun cabinet guide covers the difference.
• You can't anchor anything. A gun safe that isn't bolted to the floor gives up much of its burglary resistance. If you rent, read the bolting guide and ask your landlord before you buy.

Gun safe vs regular safe: different shapes, different ratings

A regular home safe is usually a cube built around documents and valuables. Its main selling point is often a fire rating. A gun safe is tall, built around long guns, and its main burglary rating — when there is one — is UL 1037 RSC.

The overlap is real. Many gun safes have a fire rating, and some home safes carry a burglary rating. The point is that neither word on the box tells you which. A UL RSC label is a burglary rating only; it says nothing about fire, which UL rates separately under UL 72. Read both lines, or note that one is missing.

What to look for in a gun safe: rating first, gun count last

The gun count on the door is the least useful number on the listing. It assumes thin, unscoped long guns packed shoulder to shoulder. Twenty-four guns, the box said. Twenty-four guns, if nobody in the house owns a scope. Here is the order I read a listing in.

1. Burglary rating. UL 1037 covers Residential Security Containers at Levels I, II and III. A Level I RSC must resist a 5-minute attack by one person using common hand tools and a small electric drill, without the door opening or a 4-inch hand-hole being made. Levels II and III use two operators, 10 minutes and more aggressive tools. Our UL safe ratings guide goes through each level. Intertek, which issues ETL marks, is also an OSHA-recognized lab that can test to these standards.

2. Fire rating, as a triple. Time, temperature and who tested it. UL describes its own fire rating as a class (the maximum interior temperature during testing, such as Class 350) plus a time. Class 350 is intended to protect paper records. A gun safe listing that gives only an outside temperature and "tested in-house" is a claim, not a rating. The guide are gun safes fireproof explains what each part means.

3. Steel gauge. Lower gauge numbers mean thicker steel. Under the federal U.S. Standard Gauge, 12 gauge is 0.1094 in and 14 gauge is 0.0781 in. If thickness is a priority, our heavy-duty gun safe page lists only 12-gauge bodies and thicker.

4. The door and the pry side. Bolt count is a marketing number. Door construction, hinge protection and the gap between door and frame matter more. California's standard, for comparison, asks for at least three 1/2-inch steel locking bolts and protected hinges, not a bolt count.

5. The lock and the backup. Dial, keypad or fingerprint. Each needs a backup you can actually use: a key, an override code, or a battery you can change without opening the safe. Read the manual for where the battery lives.

6. Interior dimensions. Height, width and depth inside the door, after the door panel and shelves. Our gun safe dimensions guide shows how to turn those into a real capacity. Buy bigger than the box says.

7. Anchor holes. Pre-drilled holes in the floor of the safe and a bolt-down kit in the box. A gun safe that isn't anchored can be tipped or moved.

California is the one state with a published construction standard for gun safes. Its DOJ accepts either a safe that meets specific construction rules (12-gauge walls, a 7-gauge or double 12-gauge door, a drill-resistant lock with at least 10,000 combinations) or one listed as meeting the UL RSC standard by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory. It's useful as a yardstick even outside California.

Questions the listing doesn't answer: EMP, water, bullets, rust

Gun safe features sometimes include claims the standards don't cover. None of the gun safe standards we've verified — UL 1037 RSC, UL 72 and the California DOJ rules — tests for ballistic resistance, water submersion or electromagnetic shielding. If a listing claims any of these, look for who tested it and how. If nobody is named, treat it as a claim.

Rust and humidity are a storage question rather than a rating. A closed steel box holds whatever moisture is in the room. Our gun safe humidity guide covers dehumidifiers and target levels. Battery life for keypad locks is in the manual, and it varies by lock.

Gun storage laws and children: the plain part

Storage law is set mostly by states, and the rules differ. A December 2023 Department of Justice review describes three broad types of state law: secure storage required when a minor could gain access, when a prohibited person is present, or whenever a firearm is unattended. We don't summarize individual state laws, and nothing here is legal advice. For your state, go to its official government site. As one example, the California DOJ publishes its gun safe standards.

If children live in or visit the home, the safe should stay locked whenever the guns are not in your hands. The DOJ's Safe Storage Fact Sheet says keeping firearms locked, unloaded and stored away from ammunition can significantly reduce the risk that children and teens use them to hurt themselves or others. Keep keys and codes where a child cannot find them. A safe reduces access only when it is closed and locked.

How to read the gun safe table

Every gun safe we track is in the table, sorted by advertised gun capacity, largest first. That sort is a starting point, not a recommendation. Use the filters to narrow it down.

• Start with the fire and burglary columns. A value marked "rated" names an independent lab. "Claimed" means the manufacturer says so and no lab is named. "—" means nobody we found put it in writing.
• Then check gauge. Remember it runs backwards: a 10 in that column is thicker steel than a 14.
• Then interior size. Compare interior dimensions against your longest gun, scope included.
• Then the lock. Pick the lock type you'll use correctly every day, and confirm the backup.

Two gun safes with the same gun count can be very different products. One may have a UL RSC label, a named fire lab and 12-gauge walls. Another may have none of the three. The table puts them side by side so the difference is visible. If you need a subset, our fire-rated gun safes page shows only gun safes with a stated fire rating.

Where to buy a gun safe is partly a logistics question. Large safes ship by freight, and delivery terms vary by seller. Check whether delivery is curbside or inside the house before you order, and see our moving a gun safe guide if you'll handle the last few feet yourself.

Measure the space and your longest gun. Filter the table for a rating that names a lab. Then bolt it down, and keep the code somewhere other than the door.