Police Warn Against Use Of Defective Gun Locks

By Andrew Gorosko

Town police warn residents that the free gunlocks which police distributed recently have a defect which allows the locks to be opened without using a key.

Police distributed the gunlocks at the town health department’s health fair at Newtown Middle School in September, and at a St Rose Church safety fair in June. Police gave out about 75 gunlocks at the health department fair and about 20 locks at the St Rose event. 

Police urge that people with the locks promptly replace the devices, or take added precautions to secure their firearms from unauthorized use.

The gunlocks consist of a small black padlock and a red-jacketed loop of steel cable. The words “Project HomeSafe” are displayed in gold lettering on red plastic fittings on the padlock.

Such devices, known as cable-style gunlocks, are designed to be used with semiautomatic pistols, revolvers, autoloading and pump-action shotguns, and with bolt-action rifles.

“If a lock is subjected to sufficient force, it may open without the use of the key,” police said.

Town police distributed the free gunlocks as a participating agency in Project HomeSafe, a project of the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. (NSSF), a trade association supported by the firearms and recreational shooting sports industry. NSSF had distributed 400,000 gunlocks nationwide through more than 600 law enforcement agencies, before suspending distribution last week. Extensive testing on the gunlocks is planned.

Acting Police Chief Michael Kehoe said Monday people who have the defective gunlocks should use additional means to secure their firearms from unauthorized use.

An end piece on the steel cable, which is inserted into the padlock to lock the device, springs free from the padlock when the padlock is rapped against an object with sufficient force. The ease of opening the lock without using its key defeats the purpose of the lock, which is intended to immobilize the moving parts of a gun.

NSSF learned of the flaw in the cable-style lock when police from Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee, informed NSSF that some of the Project HomeSafe gunlocks could be opened without a key if subjected to sufficient force.

According to information posted by the NSSF on the Project HomeSafe Web site on the Internet, the NSSF recommends that law enforcement agencies stop distributing the gunlocks while the NSSF seeks additional information about the problem.

The cable-style gunlocks are intended to discourage the unauthorized use of a firearm, especially by young children. Such cable locks are not designed to withstand every possible effort to defeat or destroy the lock, according to NSSF. Such cable locks are not intended for use on loaded firearms.