Handgun Safes: What to Check Before the Pistol Goes In

A handgun safe is a pistol safe by another name

A handgun safe and a pistol safe are the same product. The names are interchangeable on listings, and so are "pistol vault," "hand gun safe" and "handgun lock box." What they share is size and purpose: a steel box sized for handguns, magazines and a few small items, with a lock that opens for one household and stays shut for everyone else.

The category covers more shapes than the name suggests:

• Top-opening boxes with a lid that lifts, often on a gas strut
• Front-opening safes with a drop-down or side-hinged door
• Drawer-style units that slide out from under a shelf or desk
• Vertical handgun safes that stand on a closet shelf and hold pistols on hangers or in slots
• Multi pistol gun safes with racks for four, five or more handguns
• Single pistol safes and mini handgun safes sized for one compact pistol

Our table on this page follows a simple rule: every product we track that is sold as a handgun or pistol safe is included. Nothing is dropped for being small, large or unusual. When a spec is missing from the manufacturer's data, the cell shows "—" instead of a guess.

Who a pistol safe is for, and who should skip it

A home handgun safe makes sense when you keep one or a few handguns and want them locked, close at hand, and out of reach of anyone else in the house. It's also a common second container: a gun owner with a full-size safe in the garage may still want a handgun storage safe in the bedroom.

Skip a handgun safe, or look at a different page, if one of these fits better:

• You need one safe for rifles and pistols. A handgun safe won't take a long gun. Full-size gun safes usually have door panels or shelves for pistols, and the larger ones hold both.
• The safe will live next to the bed. Our bedside gun safes page covers quick-access handgun safes made to sit on or beside a nightstand.
• Speed of access is the whole point. The quick-access gun safes page narrows the list to models marketed for fast opening.
• You want a fingerprint lock. The biometric handgun safes page covers only handgun safes with a fingerprint reader, plus the recall history that comes with that lock type.
• You need fire protection first. A fire rating is not standard in this category. If documents or cash share the box, read the fire columns closely.

Children and access to a handgun

If children live in or visit the home, the handgun safe should stay locked whenever the gun is not in your hands. A Department of Justice storage handout from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont recommends storing firearms unloaded in a locked safe, lock box or similar container. It says to keep ammunition locked separately and to store keys and combinations apart from the container, out of children's reach. The same handout says special precautions are needed if you keep a loaded firearm for quick access at home.

Storage laws differ by state, and some states set their own requirements. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Check your state's official government site for the rules that apply to you. California, for example, publishes its gun safe standard and a roster of firearm safety devices certified for sale in the state. Whether a specific California handgun safe qualifies is a model-by-model question, answered on the DOJ pages, not on a product listing.

What to look for in a handgun safe: lock, backup, steel and bolts

A handgun safe has one job: open fast for you and not at all for anyone else. That makes the lock the whole product, and the backup the half of the lock nobody reads about. (The manual usually explains the backup on a page near the back. I've stopped being surprised by which page.)

The lock and its backup

Handgun safes use four main lock types, often in combination:

• Electronic keypad — a numeric code; fast to change
• Biometric — a fingerprint reader; fast, with its own track record (see the biometric page)
• Mechanical push-button — no battery; a fixed sequence of buttons
• Key — simple; only as private as the place the key lives

Liberty Safe, writing about full-size safes, lists the trade-off in plain terms: electronic locks are faster to open and let owners change codes, but depend on batteries and are more exposed to humidity. Mechanical locks need no power. The same logic applies at handgun-safe scale.

Then check the backup. Most electronic handgun safes include an override key. Ask three questions of any listing:

• Is there a backup key or override, and where is the keyhole?
• Can you replace the battery from outside, or only with the safe open?
• Is there an external power port for a dead battery?

If the battery lives inside and there is no external power option, a dead battery leaves the backup key as your only way in. The DOJ handout's advice applies here too: keep that key apart from the safe.

Steel thickness: gauge numbers run backwards

Steel thickness is listed as a gauge, and lower numbers mean thicker steel. Under the federal U.S. Standard Gauge, 12-gauge sheet is about 0.109 in, 14-gauge about 0.078 in and 16-gauge about 0.063 in. Many safe makers quote the Manufacturers' Standard Gauge instead, which runs slightly thinner for the same number. When a listing gives thickness in inches or millimeters, compare that number; it removes the guesswork.

A heavy duty pistol safe will usually say so in its gauge. A listing that gives no gauge and no thickness shows "—" in our table. That's a question worth asking before buying.

Mounting: the bolt holes are a security feature

The same DOJ handout notes that, depending on size, a lock box can be stolen. A handgun safe that isn't anchored can be carried out under one arm, with whatever is inside it. Look for:

• Pre-drilled mounting holes in the floor or back
• An included mounting kit, or a stated bolt size
• A security cable, if the safe is meant to travel

A mounted handgun safe on a shelf, floor or bed frame is a different proposition from a loose one. Our guide on how to bolt a safe to the floor covers anchors and placement.

Ratings, recalls and the interior

Few handgun safes carry independent burglary ratings. UL 1037, the standard for residential security containers, does include a drop test for lighter or portable containers: the door must not come ajar and security must not be compromised. Our guide to UL safe ratings explains what an RSC label means and what it doesn't.

Impact matters at this size. In 2018, the CPSC announced a recall of about 25,000 electronic handgun safes sold by Harbor Freight Tools because they could open on impact without a key or combination. That recall is one reason to check a model's history before buying. The CPSC recall database is searchable by product name.

Finally, the inside. A large pistol safe or large handgun safe still has to fit your handgun with its sights, light or optic. Check the interior dimensions against the gun, not the number of pistols on the box. If you need a gun safe for a Glock 19 or a similar compact, the interior length and height are the numbers that decide it.

How to read the handgun safe table

The table lists every handgun safe we track, with the columns drawn from manufacturer data and Amazon listings. A few notes on reading it:

• "—" means not confirmed. The manufacturer didn't state it, or we couldn't verify it. It doesn't mean "no."
• Lock type shows every way in. A safe with a keypad and a key has two; the key is the backup.
• Steel gauge reads backwards. Sort ascending to put the thickest steel first.
• Fire rating, when present, shows minutes, temperature and who tested it. A claim tested by the manufacturer is labeled as claimed, not rated.
• Mounting tells you whether the safe can be anchored.

To narrow the list, decide on three things first: the lock you'll trust daily, where the safe will sit, and whether it must be anchored. Then filter by lock type and sort by gauge. For a compact pistol safe in a drawer, the exterior height matters as much as the interior. For a 5 handgun safe or other multi pistol safe, check whether the capacity counts pistols in holsters, in slots, or lying flat.

If two models look similar, the deciding specs are usually the backup arrangement and the battery access. Those don't show in a product photo. They show in the manual, which is usually linked from the manufacturer's product page.

Choosing your handgun storage safe

Pick the lock first, then the backup, then the size. Check the gauge in inches if the listing gives it, and confirm the mounting holes before you order. If children are ever in the home, plan where the backup key and code will live before the safe arrives. Then filter the table above by lock type, sort by steel gauge, and check the price on the two or three that pass.