Why the Traditional Safe Industry Got Fire, Security, and Capacity Wrong
Why the Traditional Safe Industry Got Fire, Security, and Capacity Wrong
Most gun safes are marketed using numbers that sound impressive but reveal very little about real-world performance. Fire ratings are based on manufacturer-controlled tests, security claims emphasize door strength while ignoring vulnerable sidewalls (How most safes are breached) , and capacity ratings are grossly overstated. The articles below break down the most common misconceptions in the gun-safe industry and explain the engineering principles that actually determine whether a safe protects firearms—or simply looks like it should.
Inside This Article Series
This series breaks down modern gun storage into clear, practical concepts:
• The Fire Rating Myth
• The Security Myth
• The Capacity Myth
• The Drywall Problem
• Decentralized Storage for Real Security
• What Actually Makes a Safe Secure
Each article builds on the last, forming a complete framework for understanding why traditional safes fall short — and what modern storage must do instead.
I’m writing this because the gun-safe industry shows a fundamental lack of respect for firearms and for the people who own them.
For more than three decades, the industry has promoted fire ratings that are not based on real world fire data, capacity numbers based on rifles no one actually owns, and interiors that quietly damage firearms while slowing access. These ideas became accepted truth not because they were proven, but because few people inside the industry ever questioned them.
Over the past fifteen years, most major safe brands have been acquired by venture-capital and private-equity groups with little connection to firearms. Their business model is simple: sell heavier steel boxes lined with drywall. The goal is not to improve firearm storage or access. It is to sell more safes built on the same assumptions that have existed for decades.
My background comes from a different world. After decades modernizing U.S. military armories, my work has been grounded in respect—respect for the firearm, respect for the user, and respect for the engineering principles that make storage safe, organized, and reliable under stress.
When those principles are applied to the civilian gun-safe industry, the failures become impossible to ignore.
This hub exists to replace marketing folklore with engineering reality.
Firearm owners deserve clarity—not stories designed to sell steel.
The Core Problem With the Traditional Safe Industry
The Core Problem With the Traditional Safe Industry
For decades, the gun-safe industry taught consumers to evaluate safes using the wrong criteria. Fire ratings, steel thickness, door bolts, and inflated capacity claims became the primary marketing language of the industry. Yet none of these measurements reliably correlate with real-world firearm protection, access, or preservation.
SecureIt does not compete inside that framework. We replace it.
This section examines the three foundational myths that the traditional safe industry depends on and replaces them with the principles that actually define modern firearm storage.
These principles include:
• adaptability as firearms and gear evolve
• straight-line access for safe and predictable retrieval
• decentralized storage that reduces single-point failure
• storage systems that respect firearms as complete equipment systems
These are the same principles used in modern military armories, and they represent the future of firearm storage.
What Actually Matters in Modern Gun Storage
What Actually Matters in Modern Gun Storage
Modern firearm storage follows the same principles used in professional armories.
Weapons must be supported rather than stacked. Access must be predictable and efficient. Storage must adapt as firearms, gear, homes, and defensive plans evolve.
Security should reduce predictability rather than advertise itself through a single oversized safe.
These principles are not theoretical. They are the standards used across modern military armories, where access speed, equipment protection, and reliability under stress are non-negotiable.
Applying these principles to civilian storage changes the entire framework of what a safe should be.
The number printed on the door reflects shelf design—not usable storage.
The Bottom Line
Traditional gun safes rely on stories.
Modern firearm storage relies on engineering.
Fire ratings, steel thickness, and capacity numbers were never reliable indicators of performance. They became industry standards simply because they were repeated long enough to sound credible.
The future of firearm storage is built on honesty, adaptability, modularity, and respect for how firearms are actually used.
SecureIt leads that future by addressing the problems the industry refuses to acknowledge.
By Line
By Line
Tom Kubiniec Role: President CEO, SecureIt Tactical In 2001 the Department of Defense called on CEO Tom Kubiniec to transform their cluttered weapon racks into organized, efficient weapon storage systems. Tom Kubiniec is the founder of SecureIt Tactical and a recognized authority on firearm storage and armory design. He has spent decades designing, evaluating, and correcting weapon storage systems, including the modernization of armories used by U.S. military and law-enforcement units. Kubiniec is the inventor of CradleGrid®, (used in military armories all over the world) a modular weapon-storage system developed to replace the fixed interiors and poor access common in traditional gun storage systems. His work centers on building storage systems that protect equipment, allow clean and repeatable access, and remain functional as firearms and gear change over time.
