Understanding A Biometric Gun Safe
Guest post from “Gun Safe Haven.com”
Many people, men and women, collect guns for hobby, sport, or self-protection. However, the very nature of guns makes them a danger to have around a home, especially with children. Additionally, because many guns are fairly expensive, they can become the prime target during a home burglary. Fortunately, there are some ways to protect both children and the guns. Of course, all firearms should be fitted with a trigger lock, which prevents the gun from being discharged. Additionally, a gun safe is an ideal way to keep guns out of the hands of children and protect the guns from being stolen. Gun safes have evolved over the past few decades and one of the latest innovations is the biometric gun safe.
A biometric gun safe, also known as a fingerprint safe, uses an electronic fingerprint reader to open the safe. There are two main advantages to this: speed and security. Because all that is needed to open the safe is a quick scan of your fingerprint. This is particularly advantageous for those who keep a gun for self-protection. If you hear a bump in the night, opening a traditional safe can seem to take far too long. A small biometric handgun safe kept near the bed can give you the quickest access to a gun, while still maintaining safety.
The second advantage is the security, as it is near impossible to steal or replicate someone’s fingerprints. A combination can be accidentally shared with someone or figured out if you use something like your birthday, address, or wedding anniversary. However, it is important to remember that biometric safes can fail. This is referred to as False Reject Rate (FRR) or False Accept Rate (FAR).
When looking at these safes, only consider safes with very low FRR’s and FAR’s. A low FRR will protect against your own fingerprint being falsely rejected. This is important when you are trying to open the safe quickly. A low FAR will help to reduce the chance that someone without your fingerprints will be allowed to open the safe. The Equal Error Rate (ERR) is a handy rate that is used by many safe dealers to help buyers interpret the FRR and FAR. Technically speaking the ERR is where the FAR and FRR equal. The ERR will show the best balance between FAR and FRR, therefore when shopping, you can focus on safes with low ERR’s.
