A gun safe manufacturer is recalling 61,000 safes after a 12-year-old child reportedly died after being able to open the safe and obtain a firearm that was stored inside.
Fortress Safe of Naperville, Ill., announced the recall of the biometric gun safes because a fingerprint programming feature can allow unauthorized access. In addition to the child who died, there have been 39 reports from consumers of safes being opened by unpaired fingerprints.
Consumers should stop using the biometric feature, remove the batteries from the safe and only use the key to open safes used to store firearms.
The recalled gun safes are portable lock boxes, personal safes, pistol vaults and gun cabinets with brand names Fortress, Cabela’s, Gettysburg and Legend Range & Field.
Nine models of gun safes are included in the recall: 11B20, 44B10, 44B10L, 44B20, 55B20, 55B30, 55B30G, 4BGGBP and 55B30BP. Model numbers can be found above the barcode on a label on the back of the safe and on the top right corner of the original packaging.
“As a gun owner with kids, this product failure is the nightmare scenario, the kind that we want to believe is not possible,” Richard L. Trumka Jr., commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in a statement. “It’s also the most concerning recall that’s ever come across my desk.”
The recalled safes were sold at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Scheel’s, Sportsman’s Guide, Optics Planet, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Gander, Rural King, Lowe’s and other stores nationwide and online by Amazon and eBay from January 2019 to October 2023 for $44 to $290.
For information on obtaining a replacement safe, consumers should call Fortress Safe at 833-588-9181, email [email protected] or visit https://bit.ly/3SdUmfw.
