The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall for more than 120,000 biometric gun safes after it was found they could be opened without authorization.
The CPSC shared in a release that there have been 91 reports of unauthorized users accessing the safes made by Bulldog Cases, Awesafe, Machir, and MouTec brands. The recall is also impacting a wide range of safes, some of which have been sold since 2019.
There have not been any reports of injuries or deaths related to the recalls, but in one instance, a child as young as 6 years old was able to open the safe. The products are now being voluntarily recalled by the companies, the agency shared.
CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric shared that his agency has been holding gun safes to a higher level ever since a recalled safe was linked to a fatal shooting that saw a 12-year-old boy access a gun locked in a safe without authorization.
Now, Hoehn-Saric is looking to identify problems that include “when people believe that it should be locked, it is not — and people are getting unauthorized access to it.”
Those who purchased any of the recalled safes are advised to stop using the biometric feature and instead, only use the key option to store firearms until they can replace the safes.
Consumers can contact the companies to receive a free repair kit or replacement for the safes, which were sold at Walmart, Amazon, and other major retailers.
Hoehn-Saric says that the CPSC is still working to determine why unauthorized users have been able to access the safes. This was doubled down on by the vice president of Bulldog Cases and Vaults, Brandon Rutledge, who said the safes showed no mechanical problems.
“The problems have stemmed from people not programming the safes at all or not programming them properly,” Rutledge said in a statement. “We take this matter very seriously and are working to help all customers who reach out to us.”