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Biometric gun safes are recalled because they don’t keep out unauthorized users, including kids
More than 120,000 biometric gun safes sold by retailers nationwide are being recalled amid reports of unauthorized users opening them — including a six-year-old boy — posing a serious safety hazard and risk of death.
The U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission on Thursday announced four separate recalls of biometric safes, with the companies that imported the Chinese-manufactured safe collectively receiving 91 reports of the products being accessed by unpaired fingerprints.
No injuries were reported in the latest recalls, which follow the October recall of 61,000 Fortress safes for the same reason, that the safes can allow unauthorized users, including children, to access them and their potentially deadly contents.
The Fortress recall came after the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy able to access a gun safe in his home in January 2022.
The four recalls announced on Wednesday include roughly 60,000 Awesafe biometric Gun Safes sold at Walmart stores nationwide and online at Amazon.com and Walmart.com from August 2019 until Dec. 7, 2022, for about $130, according to Shenghaina Technology, or Awesafe, of China.
The company has received reports of 71 incidents of the safes being opened by unauthoized users, the recall notice said.
Consumers should stop using the biometric feature, remove the batteries and only use the key for the recalled safes to store firearms until they get a free replacement safe. Instructions on how to safely disable the biometric reader can be found here.
Another recall involves about 33,500 Bulldog Biometric Firearm Safes that can also be opened by unauthorized users, posing a serious injury hazard and risk of death, according to the product’s importer, Danville, Va.-based Bulldog Cases.
Sold at Bass Pro Shops, Walmart, firearm stores nationwide and online at Amazon.com from July 2016 to January 2024, the black steel safes used to store firearms and other valuables sold for between $194 and $216, its recall notice stated.
The recall includes the following:
Bulldog has received four reports of the safe being opened by an unauthorized user, the company said.
As with the other recalls, owners should stop using the biometric feature, remove the batteries and only use the key to store firearms until the get a repair kit or replacement safe. More information can be found here.
Additionally, Springfield, Mo.-based Machir LLC is recalling about 24,820 personal safes after getting 15 reports of the biometric lock failing. The recalled safes sold at Walmart stores nationwide and online at Walmart.com and Machir.com for about $98 from July 2019 through at least September 2021, according to the recall.
Consumers can find the serial numbers of the impacted units here.
A fourth recall by Monterey Park, Calif.-based Jomani International involves about 2,200 MouTec brand Biometric Firearm Safes sold by Amazon.com from September 2021 through February 2023 for between $170 and $400.
The company said it had received one report of a safe opened by an unauthorized user, a six-year-old boy.
Information on model and serial numbers involved in the recall can be found here and a form to receive a replacement safe can be found here.
CBS News
10/6: Face the Nation – CBS News
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Sen. Thom Tillis says “the scope” of Helene damage in North Carolina “is more like Katrina”
As recovery missions and repairs continue in North Carolina more than a week after Hurricane Helene carved a path of devastation through the western part of the state, the state’s Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“This is unlike anything that we’ve seen in this state,” Tillis told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday morning. “We need increased attention. We need to continue to increase the surge of federal resources.”
Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast U.S. after making landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm. Helene brought heavy rain and catastrophic flooding to communities across multiple states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with North Carolina bearing the brunt of the destruction. Officials previously said hundreds of roads in western North Carolina were washed out and inaccessible after the storm, hampering rescue operations, and several highways were blocked by mudslides.
Tillis said Sunday that most roads in the region likely remained closed due to flooding and debris. Water, electricity and other essential services still have not been fully restored.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he said. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Hurricane Katrina left more than 1,000 people dead after it slammed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in August 2005, flooding neighborhoods and destroying infrastructure in and around New Orleans as well as in parts of the surrounding region. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. in the last 50 years, and the costliest storm on record.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene is at least 229, CBS News has confirmed, with at least 116 of those deaths reported in North Carolina alone. Officials have said they expect the death toll to continue to rise as recovery efforts were ongoing, and a spokesperson for the police department in Asheville told CBS News Friday their officers were “actively working 75 cases of missing persons.”
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $100 million in emergency funds for North Carolina to rebuild the roads and bridges damaged by the hurricane.
“We are providing this initial round of funding so there’s no delay getting roads repaired and reopened, and re-establishing critical routes,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration will be with North Carolina every step of the way, and today’s emergency funding to help get transportation networks back up and running safely will be followed by additional federal resources.”
President Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months.
With North Carolina leaders working with a number of relief agencies to deal with the aftermath of the storm, Tillis urged federal officials to ramp up the resources being funneled into the state’s hardest-hit areas. The senator also addressed a surge in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the Biden Administration’s disaster response, which have been fueled by Republican political figures like former President Donald Trump.
Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the November presidential election, were diverting funds from Federal Emergency Management Agency that would support the relief effort in North Carolina toward initiatives for immigrants. He also said baselessly that the administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, were withholding funds because many communities that were hit hardest are predominantly Republican. Elon Musk has shared false claims about FEMA, too.
“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said of those claims. “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
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Face the Nation: Tillis, Tyab, Russel
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