For most people a gun safe is not an impulse purchase. It is the logical end to a real need, that being to protect one's valuables from fire and theft. It would seem to be a relatively straight forward process to find a safe to meet this need, but for some it is easy to get sidetracked.

Some shoppers go to a discount or variety type store and whatever the store is offering at the time is good enough for them because the price is right (cheap) and the sales person at the store tell them it is a gun safe and it will protect them. Of course, this is the same sales person who just got through explaining the fine points of a DVD player or a set of tires to another customer. To paraphrase John Ruskin, in the end these shoppers often find the satisfaction of an apparent good deal outweighed by the disappointment of a product that fails to perform as expected.

Another common pitfall when safe shopping is to become so obsessed with all the "bells and whistles" such as shiny paint, gold trim and "all those bolts" that one forgets why he needed a safe in the first place. A safe is good for only one thing and that is to protect one's valuables from fire and theft!!!

Fact #1: Shiny paint and gold trim have absolutely NO FIRE OR BURGLARY RESISTANCE.

Fact #2: "all those bolts" have more to do with impressing the masses than with actual good safe design. No matter how many bolts a safe might have, they are controlled by only one lock, not "all those bolts".

In reality, this is not likely to happen as there are very few real safecrackers still around today. What is more likely is that a run of the mill burglar is going to try to break into the safe and if he has any kind of prying or striking tool he will damage the locking mechanism so that nobody is going to open the safe without calling a locksmith ($200-$400).

The safe company's warranty covers this? You had better read the fine print or ask lots of specific questions before making a safe buying decision based on this assumption.