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A gun safe is a safe designed for storing one or more firearms and/or ammunitions. Gun safes are primarily used to prevent access by unauthorized or unqualified persons (such as children), for burglary protection and, in more capable safes, to protect the contents from damage by flood, fire or other natural disasters.
Access prevention of firearms is mandated by law in many places, necessitating a gun lock, locked gun cabinet or safe, or even a dedicated vault or room with security alarms. Reinforced metal gun safes have largely replaced the gun cabinets made of fine stained wood with etched glass fronts used for display that were commonly used decades ago, although some gun safes are made to resemble such gun cabinets.