New Gun Lock System May Offer Intriguing Benefit

Normally, when Lee Williams over at The Gun Writer publishes something, he’s ripping apart some anti-gun report or argument, shining a light on some anti-gun public official, or something else.

So when my email box popped up with him talking about a gun lock system, I was a tad confused, to put it mildly.

Now, it’s a new lock system, so that makes it pretty interesting, but let’s see what Williams had to say about it.

If you need to expertly secure one firearm or a group of firearms, GunLox can really help.

For around $150, the new firm offers a secure mobile lock and a multitude of steel cables and shackles, which are capable of securely locking one firearm or a bunch of firearms.

The lock is the key to the new GunLox system. It uses your cell phone’s facial recognition system to allow access. It is perfect for gun owners who are traveling, or those who have not yet bought a gun safe. The lock can stay active for more than six months without recharging.

“I think it’s the highest quality gun lock that you can use on any gun, anywhere. Safes were made for the home or retail. There’s not one locking mechanism that works for any firearm, anywhere and is completely universal, until now,” said GunLox founder Jeremy Van Winkle, a 35-year-old gun owner living in Dallas, Texas.

As of Thursday, Van Winkle said he hasn’t yet sold a single lock. They’re that new.

“We’re just getting them out into the market,” he said. “I just got the inventory in last week.”

Now, I haven’t handled the lock, so I have no opinion about its quality at all. I’m not overly thrilled with needing facial recognition to access my guns, but for someone who is traveling, that might be less of an issue. Sure, a hotel room isn’t the most secure place in the world, but this isn’t what you’re using to secure your go-to guns for self-defense, necessarily.

Yet there’s a feature Van Winkle says he’s working on that I actually think would be even more beneficial.

There are more ideas coming soon, Van Winkle said. If you have the app open on your phone and you’re driving from one state to another, it will soon alert you to state laws regarding firearm carry, travel and storage.

Assuming the information included on the app is correct, and that shouldn’t be overly difficult, then that could be huge.

Ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse for breaking it. While it makes sense on the surface, the truth is that if that were true, literally everyone’s defense would be that they didn’t know what they were doing was illegal. It would be an absolute hassle trying to determine if anyone really is stupid enough to think that they could legally break into someone’s home or business and take their stuff.

But with gun laws, that gets challenging. Sure, you can check online and get an idea of the laws in question, but what if you decide to make a side trip for whatever reason? My one trip to Colorado wasn’t exactly planned, after all, but was the result of Dad making a wrong turn in Arizona one time.

The app’s ability to update this information based on your phone’s GPS data is big.

Assuming, of course, there’s sufficient privacy for that data. 

We’ve got a fairly interesting product with plans for something that could be a big benefit to anyone who travels with guns. That’s a win across the board.