Firearm security arrangement

Details Firearm security arrangement Firearm security arrangement

2001-06-01

2002-10-01

Johnson, Stephen M. (Department: 3641)

Firearms

Safety mechanism

On trigger guard

Reexamination Certificate

active

06457272

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to firearm safety lock devices, and more particularly, to gun lock hardening arrangements for making such locks more resistant to tampering or disabling by unauthorized persons.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Thousand of handguns, shotguns and rifles are purchased every year by citizens for use in sporting events, such as hunting or trap and skeet shooting, or for use in home protection. Typically, guns are stored at one's home or apartment in drawers, closets or even under the bed. While a minority of gun owners have gun safes to store their guns, most guns owners store their guns in unlocked areas of the home accessible to others dwelling there. As such, guns provide a danger to children or adolescents whose curiosity may lead them to find and play with a gun. Additionally, a child finding a firearm may take it to show friends or take it to school. While adults may believe that guns are safely put away, children and adolescents always seem to find them, and as a result, fatalities and injuries resulting from the accidental discharge of firearms, particularly by children, has become problematic. Also the intentional use of guns by children against classmates and teachers in schools has been increasing over the last several years. Suicides by use of firearms are also at an alarming rate. In response to the rise of this danger, the US Congress and many state legislative bodies throughout the country have enacted or are in the process of enacting legislation requiring that each new purchase of a gun be accompanied by the purchase of a suitable lock. Additionally, states are creating strict requirements that gun locks must pass to resist tampering and attacks that could disable or remove a gun lock. This is in part a response to the large number of commercially available locks that are of poor quality and unreliable, and the material used to construct certain gun trigger guards that can be easily compromised, allowing the removal of the gun lock.
Conventional gun locking devices typically have two sides which clamp around the trigger guard of the gun to prevent access to the trigger, such as the devices shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,158 “Trigger Guard for a Firearm”, U.S. Pat. No. 4,499,681 “Security Device for Firearms”, U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,281 “Gun Trigger Lock”, U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,842 “Gun Trigger Lock”,and U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,945 “Universal Self-Conforming Trigger Lock for Firearms”. Other conventional gun locking devices are designed to immobilize the trigger as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,360 “Gun Lock”. Some gun lock devices have been developed without key locking arrangements to allow quick access to the gun by adults but rendered safe against children who may gain access to the gun, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,221 “Gun Lock Using Manual Pressure” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,119 “Gun Trigger Blocking Structure” assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Other more complex structural gun lock arrangements are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,624,945 and 4,499,681. U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,945 discloses a trigger lock with two complementary side elements which are compressed together around the gun trigger guard by a complex internal ratchet lever locking mechanism in the locking assemblage. The side elements carry a plurality of spaced-apart yieldable plungers in proximity to the trigger and guard to prevent shifting or movement of the lock assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 4,499,681 discloses a fire arm security device with a pair of opposed trigger guard covers, one of the covers having an elongate protruding housing containing a latching portion of a latch member and the other cover formed with an opening in which is disposed a catch member adapted to engage and retain the latching portion when the covers are pressed together. The latch member may be moved out of engagement with the catch member to release the covers by means of a manual actuator which is controlled by a combination lock contained in the cover.
Many of these above-described prior art gun locking devices are limited to accidental discharge or simple child access protection and have one or more weak areas of construction rendering them vulnerable to attack by unauthorized users. In fact some of these gun locks are removable with simple household tools, such as hacksaws and hammers, and accordingly do not provide a sufficient deterrent to persons who find guns with these locks. Further, they offer little cutting protection in advanced attempts to remove the lock or partially remove the gun's trigger guard to circumvent the lock.
Attempts to make other types of locks secure have met with limited success. For example, as shown in
FIG. 1
, deadbolt locks
10
for doors have hardened pins
11
installed parallel to the direction of the deadbolt action. In operation, when locked, the deadbolt action
12
extends and seats into a receiving cavity in the side of a door frame. If there is a space between the door and the frame exposing the deadbolt action, the hardened pins resist cutting of the deadbolt action.
Other examples also exist. Key actuated high security cylinder locks
14
with a rotating tumbler
15
actuated by a key may be made more secure by placing a number of hardened inserts
16
around the tumbler as shown in
FIG. 2. A
ridge
15
A along the tumbler cooperatively mounts into groove
14
A in the cylinder lock body. The hardened inserts
16
seat in grooves
14
B. The inserts
16
are designed to deter drilling the shear line of the cylinder tumbler to disable the lock.
Conventional key lock cylinders
20
primarily used for doors may have a smooth metal ring
19
circumscribing the lock, shown in FIG.
3
. The ring is generally free spinning and is generally designed to prevent the use of tools such as pipe wrenches and vice grips from “wrenching” or “spinning” the lock off its setting. The ring prevents the tools from getting a good grip on the lock cylinder.
Adapter rings
18
may also be used behind cylinder locks (also shown in FIG.
3
). The adapter ring
18
is generally made of metal and is typically used when retrofitting a lock into a hole larger than the lock or to cover up mistakes during the lock installation, such as wood splinters when drilling the hole. The ring
18
therefore is generally intended to provide aesthetics only, not strength.
On conventional shackle type locks, the exposed shackle has been reinforced by adding a shackle guard which covers the shackle when the lock is closed. Another arrangement for toughening a portion of conventional shackle type locks is illustrated in FIG.
4
. The lock body
21
houses a removable lock casing
22
which provides the mechanism for engaging the shackle
23
to lock it in place. The lock casing houses the key lock cylinder
22
B and the lock pin housing section
22
A. The lock casing is held within the lock by a small retainer screw
24
, which screw is shielded by two pins
25
. While the two pins
25
prevent sawing through the body and retainer screw from the direction indicated by arrow
26
, by cutting upwardly from the bottom of the lock parallel to the pins
25
along the direction of arrow
27
, the pins can be circumvented and ultimately the lock can be defeated.
Unfortunately, the above-described conventional lock security arrangements are mainly intended to protect property and documents and are not sufficiently robust for use with gun locks which require a high degree of reliability, as human life is at stake. Furthermore, these arrangements are designed to deter access to the objects they are securing, opposed to providing reinforcement for the material used in the construction of the object being secured. A reliable gun locking arrangement that is enhanced with simple yet reliable security deterrents would be an advancement in the gun locking art. It would further be an advantage in the art to provide a gun locking device that can be applied to a number of different types of guns and can be readily removed by an authorized user, but reliably prevents u

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