Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night because you heard something and it seems like someone is trying to break into your house? This is absolutely frightening. If you have a trusty handgun by your side or by your bed, you can have quick access to your firearm in a middle of the night during a home invasion or other related threat. The looming fear can be replaced by courage, knowing that you can protect your loved ones because you have a gun with you. Having a gun safe by your night stand is handy.
Why Buy a Gun Safe for your Nightstand?
A gun safe is an important tool for securing your firearm, while keeping it safe. But what good does a gun do if it’s locked up in a safe in a garage or other room, while an invasion is happening in the middle of the night? It would be hard to keep your movement discreet. A nightstand gun safe is also smaller, so it offers quicker access as opposed to a large safe that can be difficult to open in times of panic.
Nightstand gun safes are designed to allow quick and easy storage, and fast access to your guns. They also come equipped with a backlit LED light, making access during the dark easier.
To choose the best gun safe for your nightstand, here are some of the basic criteria to look for:
- Quick access – Your safe must be opened for one to two seconds at the most
- Reliable – This gun safe must be 100% reliable even for times when you are not fully awake
- Adequate space – It must have enough space for holding a full-sized handgun, as well as other valuables you want to keep secure
- Mountable – The safe must be small enough to be mounted in a bedside drawer or closet to make it harder to access for thieves and children
Best Gun Safes for your Nightstand
For your convenience, here’s a list of some great nightstand gun safes:
Vaultek VT20i Gun Safe
Fort Knox Personal Pistol Safe
SentrySafe Quick Access Biometric Gun Safe
First Alert Portable Handgun Safe
Gunvault MVB500 Biometric Pistol Gun Safe
Vaultek VT20i Gun Safe
Vaultek VT20i Gun Safe is top of the line nightstand gun safe, because it has very impressive design features. This safe is small yet spacious enough to store your handgun and extra ammo. This offers both fingerprint and Bluetooth access to make it accessible to the owner, plus a keypad and back-up key. You can use it with a Bluetooth app, offering a highly interactive experience with your smartphone. You can toggle the safe on and off using your smartphone. It offers more resistance to forced entry than most handgun safes.
It has upgraded anti-theft protection, thanks to its anti-pry bars, anti-impact latches and new interior security brackets. This safe is made of a tough and rugged heavy-duty 16-gauge carbon steel construction with a durable powder coat finish to prevent corrosion. It is slim enough to fit underneath a car seat, and it also meets TSA airline guidelines for travel. It can be easily anchored using the mounting hardware (included) and its 4-foot long, heavy-duty steel security cable.
This safe is powered with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that works up to 4 months and charges in 1.5 hours with the included micro-USB charging kit. It’s also equipped with responsive LED lighting in low light situations with the backlit keypad.
Pros:
- 4 ways to access: fingerprint, Bluetooth app, number code and key
- Pry-resistant
- Tough and rugged
- Made of heavy-duty 16-ga. carbon steel
- Interior foam lining
- Backlit keypad
- Fast biometric access
- TSA-approved
- 4 months rechargeable battery life
- Comes with steel cable for mounting
Cons:
- May be too small for some
- Not fireproof or waterproof
Fort Knox Personal Pistol Safe
Fort Knox has been a well-known brand in the gun safe industry. This ensures that the Fort Knox Personal Pistol Safe is a quality product, as it comes with an outstanding lifetime warranty. The company will also fix or replace safes with fire, burglary and flood damage, and even paint and lock damage. So if you are looking for a tough safe that’s hard to break into, here’s the safe to pick.
Made of thick 10-gauge steel body, this safe is incredibly sturdy for its price. But when you open it, you can see a foam layer inside that provides support and doesn’t allow the gun to move around in the gun safe. In the bottom, you can find four pre-drilled holes for mounting the safe. It’s big enough to keep two handguns plus some magazines.
A great feature of this handgun safe that will appeal to non-tech-savvy people is it comes with Simplex push button combination access. With the Simplex button combination system, you can have quick access without any battery power or biometric glitches. It’s simple and easy to set-up – no bells and whistles, just basic and rugged.
Pros:
- Heavy duty safe with thick steel walls
- Made of thick 10-ga. steel
- Can store 2 hand guns
- Easy to set up
- Interior foam lining
- Pry-resistant
- No need for batteries
- Lifetime warranty
Cons:
- Some users had various complaints about the lock
SentrySafe Quick Access Biometric Gun Safe
Looking for a reliable and inexpensive nightstand gun safe? The SentrySafe Quick Access Biometric Gun Safe allows very fast access to your gun through its advanced biometric technology. You only need a simple press of the fingertip and it springs open easily. This comes handy in emergency situations, as seconds do count in a home invasion and other situations where you may need to defend yourself. It also includes a manual keypad and an override key just in case you need it.
This handgun safe is constructed with a 12-gauge solid steel. It has a pry-resistant design that makes it almost impossible to pry open without using hydraulic force. It is because the safe features a gas strut to instantly and quietly open the safe for a single-handed access to your handgun. Inside, you can find a very soft interior foam lining that will help keep expensive handguns scratch-free.
This is approved by the California Department of Justice. For optimum performance, use high-quality and branded alkaline AA batteries for long-term use before needing a replacement battery.
Pros:
- 3 ways to access: biometric fingerprint, manual keypad, key
- Made of 12-ga. steel
- Pry-resistant
- Soft interior foam lining
- Great to use as bedside safe
- CA DOJ approved
Cons:
- No interior light
- Not for mounting
First Alert Portable Handgun Safe
First Alert is one of the leading brands in the home safety industry. Few companies have a great reputation like First Alert, and this Portable Handgun Safe certainly doesn’t hurt that reputation. This is a solidly built handgun safe that offers fast access to any handgun stored inside it. It’s approved by the California Justice Department.
Featuring an electronic keypad, this safe allows you to program a no-see passcode of three to eight digits for optimal security. The keys are made in such a way that you can use them in the dark. Once the locking mechanism has been activated, this gun safe will quickly spring open.
This safe offers a heavy-duty construction as this safe is made of powder-coated 18-gauge steel. It is designed in a way that makes it impossible to pry open or break. It has pre-drilled holes and it also includes a thick cable for mounting to a floor or shelf. The interior of the safe is foam-lined for extra protection.
Pros:
- 3-8 digit no-see key code access
- Made of 18-ga. carbon steel
- Spring loaded door hinge
- Interior foam lining
- Comes with steel cable for mounting
- CA DOJ approved
Cons:
- No low battery warning
Gunvault MVB500 Biometric Pistol Gun Safe
GunVault provides only the best and the latest security, such as patented finger pad sequence and biometric security options. The Gunvault MVB500 Biometric Pistol Gun Safe is one reliable safe, and it’s small and easily portable. It features adequate room to store a pistol or handgun, plus a magazine and additional ammo.
It has a pry-resistant design and an extremely reliable lock. It comes equipped with no-eyes keypad that can be programmed by the user to store a security code. This keypad comes with a tamper detect mechanism that locks the keypad if more than 24 incorrect entries are made. In addition, it also has a key override mechanism.
The rugged body of the safe is constructed with heavy-duty 20-gauge steel that is powder coated with a black-colored finish. It also includes a steel cable that can be used to attach the safe to a fixed object or in a car seat, so it can’t be stolen. The inside of the safe is lined with a protective foam cushion to prevent damage.
Pros:
- Made of 20-ga. steel
- Interior foam lining
- Easily operable no-eyes keypad
- Tamper detect feature
- CA DOJ approved
- Audible low battery warning
- Comes with cable for mounting
Cons:
- Does not include 9V battery
- Lid doesn’t have a spring or strut to keep it open