As the love for guns among the U.S citizens continue to go up day after day, the number of accidental deaths associated with them is also shooting up. Security experts who initiated to find out the reason behind the increasing accidental shooting deaths of young children, found the inexpensive gun safe as the main culprit.
Children as young as three can easily open safes with paper clips and straws, exposing the dangers involved with some portable safes, security experts say. They demonstrated the findings at the 20th annual Def Con hacking convention in Las Vegas, Friday.
"This is really scary. The manufacturer never contemplated this," Reuters quoted Marc Tobias, one of three lock security expert who participated in the convention, as saying. "It is not just one type of safe. It's a lot of them."
The findings come as part of an investigation conducted by the security experts to find out the reason behind the death of Ryan Owens, an undercover police officer's three -year-old boy in Vancouver who died after shooting self with his father's service gun. The weapon was reportedly kept in an inexpensive gun safe provided by the country sheriff's office.
The lock experts examined the inexpensive gun safes, costing $75 to $200, available in the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Dick's Sporting Goods Inc., majority of them having a Chinese origin.
The investigation exposed how risky the gun safes could be. Experts included video clippings of children easily opening the inexpensive safes to emphasize the dangers involved.
The investigators were able to open 10 types of safes, seven made by Stack-On of Wauconda, Illinois.
Experts recommend consumers to go for larger gun safes and avoid portable gun safes to ensure safety.
The accidents of young children, particularly toddlers, related to gun shooting are reported more often in the country. In May, a three-year-old Ohio boy had allegedly shot himself in the head after spotting a loaded gun on top of the television at his residence.
