Sheriff’s department warns of gun safe recall

Orange County Sheriff Paul Arteta issued an announcement this week asking firearm owners to check the integrity and safety of their gun safes, as certain “biometric” gun safes have recently been recalled for posing a safety risk.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the recall after biometric locks failed, allowing unauthorized users to access the safes. At least four different brands of biometric gun safes have been recalled since the beginning of the year: Bulldog biometric firearm safes, Machir biometric personal safes, MouTec-brand biometric firearm safes (sold on Amazon under the name BBRKIN), and Awesafe biometric gun safes.

A full list of the serial numbers for each affected safe can be found on the Safety Commission website; consumers of such safes are being told to stop using the biometric feature of the safe, remove the batteries, and instead use only the key lock when storing firearms.

Sheriff Arteta commented, “It goes without saying that unauthorized access to firearms does pose an extreme risk to the safety of those who have access to the secured firearms in these types of safes. We have many Orange County residents actively following the NYS laws surrounding the proper handling and storage of firearms, and we want to ensure their attentiveness to safety is not failing them. We encourage residents to check the recall list and the make and model of their products and ensure you have not been affected by the recall.”

Additional instructions for the owners of the affected gun safes are also on the Consumer Product Safety Commission website and individual companies’ websites. For more information on gun safety and storage, visit gunsafety.ny.gov/safe-storage-and-gun-safety.