Orem-based manufacturer’s gun safes have plates 3 times tougher than steel.

By Vince Horiuchi

| The Salt Lake Tribune

In a state where the right to own firearms is a priority, the need to protect them is also important.

Which is probably one of the reasons at least five gun safe manufacturers are headquartered in Utah.

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One of the higher-end companies, Orem-based Fort Knox, was at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center over the weekend to show off its latest line of gun safes.

The annual four-day expo, which ended Sunday, included some 500 guides, outfitters and manufacturers, from camouflage clothing retailers to the makers of precision rifle scopes and binoculars.

But there was only one gun safe company at the show, Fort Knox, which produces custom-designed safes ranging from basic $899 models to one that is 7 feet high and 5 feet wide, weighing nearly 2,500 pounds and costing upward of $14,000, said company vice president Bill James.

To keep someone’s firearms — or any other valuables, for that matter — protected, these safes use plates three times stronger than steel, corner locking bolts and even remote second locks that can engage when it senses someone is trying to break in. They also are lined with fire-retardant materials that can protect the inside from heat as high as 1,680 degrees for 90 minutes depending on the level of fire protection you pay for.

The company boasts celebrity owners from wrestler Steve Austin and actor Joe Mantegna ("Criminal Minds") to famed hunter and rocker Ted Nugent. And these safes are not used to just protect guns, James said.

Customers have purchased their safes for "everything from custom knives, to coin collections, to jewelry, documents, family heirlooms," he said. "We’ve made safes for guitars. We have a few celebrities we make safes for that have specific needs in their industries."

But gun safety is the primary focus of their business, which has been owned and operated by James’ family since it began in 1982.

"We feel that gun storage is essential, whether you’re protecting yourself from yourself or from others," James said. "There’s too many stories out there where a kid will pick up a dad’s weapon or the neighbor kid will pick up the neighbor’s weapon, and there’s too many accidents that happen out there."

According to a Harvard School of Public Health survey, more than 20 percent of parents have a loaded firearm and 8 percent store at least one firearm loaded and unlocked. It also found that households with teenagers are more likely to store firearms unsafely.

Other local manufacturers of gun safes include Liberty Safe and Security Products in Payson, and ProSteel in Provo, whose safes are distributed through gun manufacturer Browning.

"I think it’s just because ProSteel started and people that work there thought, ‘OK, I’m going to go off and make my own business,’ " Browning spokesman Paul Thompson said about why there are so many firearms-safe manufacturers in Utah. "So I think most of them are offshoots from the original company, ProSteel.

"But it’s always been a good business for us," Thompson added about selling safes for ProSteel. "It’s just peace of mind."

vince@sltrib.com