More than 120,000 biometric gun safes have been recalled in the United States after it was found they could be opened by children as young as six “posing a risk of serious injury or death”.

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) highlighted 91 reports of unauthorised users accessing the Chinese-made weapon vaults, which include Bulldog Cases, Awesafe, Machir and MouTec brands, some of which have been sold since 2019.

There were no reports of injuries or deaths associated with the recalls, which were voluntarily conducted with the companies, the agency said.

The commission’s focus on the products follows another recall last year reportedly linked to a fatal shooting involving a 12-year-old boy who accessed a gun in a firearm safe without authorisation, said CPSC chair Alex Hoehn-Saric.

That October recall involved another manufacturer, Fortress Safe, and prompted the CPSC to step up its scrutiny of the products to see if there was a broader safety problem, Mr Hoehn-Saric said.

He added the agency identified problems, including that “when people believe that it should be locked, it is not – and people are getting unauthorised access to it”.

Customers who bought the recalled products – which were sold by Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers – should immediately stop using the biometric feature and only use the key option to store firearms until they replace the safes, the CPSC said in its recall announcements.

They can contact the companies to receive a free repair kit or replacement.

The CPSC is still trying to determine why unauthorised users had been able to access the safes, said Mr Hoehn-Sari.

The CPSC’s recall included 33,500 safes sold by Bulldog Cases.

In a statement, the company said there were no mechanical problems with the biometric locks or the recalled safes.

The vaults were sent out to retailers in “demonstration mode”, allowing any fingerprint to open them until they are programmed, the company’s vice president, Brandon Rutledge, said in the statement.

He added: “The problems have stemmed from people not programming the safes at all, or not programming them properly.

“We take this matter very seriously and are working to help all customers who reach out to us.”

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CPSC commissioner Richard Trumka Jr said that all manufacturers should ensure biometric gun safes are not shipped with a default factory setting allowing them to be opened with any set of fingerprints.

He added: “It’s easy for people to think they’ve set this thing up properly, and to have it still default to open for anyone.
“That’s 120,000 homes that have potentially unsecured firearms.

“It’s terrifying when you think you’ve done the right thing.”

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While gun safes come under CPSC oversight, guns themselves are exempt from federal consumer product regulation, based on the law that created the agency in 1972.

It means gun manufacturers are not bound by mandatory federal recalls and federal product safety standards – an exclusion that gun safety campaigners and some members of Congress have pushed to change.

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