January’s Gun Safe Fail – P20 Security Safe ~ VIDEO

By Dave Goetzinger of Handgun Safe Research
In this ongoing series we highlight the dangers of so call Lock Boxes that may be sold for use a gun storage devices.

United States -(AmmoLand.com)- Meet the Bighorn Safe Company’s P20 Security Safe. Bighorn Safe Co., for those who don’t know, is a subsidiary of Rhino Metals, Inc., headquartered in Caldwell, Idaho.

The P20 Security Safe is a new product imported from China. The safe is not currently approved by California’s DOJ for use as a firearms safety device. Bighorn is cautious about marketing this product, and avoids making grand claims about the security of the device.

On the Rhino Metals website, this device is referred to as a lockbox, though it is not pictured with a handgun inside it. The box it comes packaged in has close-up photos of the product, also without a handgun pictured inside it. The box says only that it has a “reinforced door,” an “electronic lock,” a “backlit keypad,” and that it offers “quick & quiet entry” while featuring a “low profile design.”

Bighorn may not be calling it a handgun safe, but backlit keypads and rapid, quiet entry are precisely the characteristics people look for in handgun safes.

The interior storage capacity of the P20 Security Safe comes to roughly 6 ½ X 9 ½ inches with about 2 ½ inches of depth to the box. That’s enough room for a compact semi-auto and a couple of magazines, or maybe a beefy snub-nose with a couple of speed loaders, but not much else. Whatever else the safe is designed to hold, it isn’t made for storing valuables like expensive cameras. It doesn’t have the room.

Unfortunately, it also doesn’t offer much security. As with most Chinese-made knockoffs, this safe was thrown together from copied design components without any attention to security. The cover for the bypass lock snaps into two holes in the housing that contains the locking mechanism. One hole allows direct access to the mechanism’s release, and a paperclip will open the door.

I can understand Rhino Metals, Inc. and Bighorn Safe Co. wanting to add to their product line. But they would have benefitted from having a security expert evaluate this product before importing it.

I sincerely hope they bring a security expert into the process before adding more imports to their product line.

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