Four Gun Safes Recalled in One Day Sparks Warning: 'Ticking Time Bomb'

Four models of gun safes with automatic locks were recalled on Thursday morning, prompting a commissioner with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to call the products "ticking time bombs."

A total of 120,520 gun safes were recalled on Thursday. The four different models were sold at Walmart, Amazon and Bass Pro Shops nationwide.

The safes were recalled because the biometric lock could fail or be opened by unauthorized users, "posing a serious injury hazard and risk of death." The "deadly" hazard is widespread in products across the nation, and the CPSC urged consumers to "immediately stop" using the biometric lock feature and remove the batteries.

Once the batteries are removed, consumers should only use the keys for the safe to retrieve firearms until they receive a free replacement from the company from which they purchased the safe.

Impacted companies are Bulldog Cases, Machir, BBRKIN and Awesafe. Newsweek has reached out to the companies by email for comment.

A spokesperson for Bulldog Cases told Newsweek that there was no problem with the safes, locks or the mechanical function.

"The safes were produced and shipped in demonstration mode in order to aid the retailers training the customers about the safes. This means that until you program the safe any fingerprint will open the safe. The problems have stemmed from people not programming the safes at all or not programming them properly," the spokesperson said. "The only change will be to the programming of the vaults. The safes will now ship in safe mode and will not operate until a fingerprint is registered. The original 'demo mode' safe and the new 'safe mode' safes will function the same once programmed correctly. We take this matter very seriously and are working to help all customers who reach out to us. This is also a voluntary recall."

This isn't the first time that gun safes have been recalled out of safety concerns. In October, 2023, Fortress Safe recalled 60,000 biometric gun safes after a programming feature allowed unauthorized access to the safes.

The recall came after a 12-year-old boy died after he obtained a firearm from one of the safes. The boy suffered a lethal gunshot wound to the head, according to a lawsuit obtained by The New York Times. Another 39 incidents of safes being accessed by unpaired fingerprints were reported at the time of the October recall.

At the time, CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka called the malfunction "the most concerning recall that's ever come across my desk." On Thursday, he called the malfunction "widespread" and a "public health emergency."

"These safes are ticking time bombs," Trumka said following the current recall.

Biometric locks use a variety of physical characteristics to identify a person, including facial recognition, voice recognition and fingerprints. The majority of biometric devices rely on fingerprint recognition.

Instead of setting a numerical password, the user scans their fingerprint, saves the digital image and then uses their finger to unlock the safe in the future. The goal is to keep anyone aside from the authorized user from being able to open the safe, however, it hasn't always worked properly.

Thursday's recalls came after more than 90 reported incidents of people accessing safes who shouldn't have been able to. In one incident, a 6-year-old boy was able to open a MouTec firearm safe.

No injuries were reported when the recalls were issued.

Update 02/23/2024, 10:56 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Bulldog Cases.