LPL Picking Gun Locks

this is the lock picking lawyer and what i have for you today is one of the most disappointing locks i've encountered in a while and it's not disappointing because it's the worst lock i've ever seen but because it's so bad despite the fact that it's designed to do something very important where the consequences of failure can literally be life or death this is the santa cruz gun locks model sc5 universal gun lock for shotguns and rifles it's actually the lock portion of a lockable gun rack and though this can be used in a variety of different applications the main place where you see this used is to secure patrol rifles usually ar-15s in police cruisers and i think usage is very important here because if this was used to secure a gun to a rack in a secure arms room in a secure police station then it may be sufficient however when it's used to lock a firearm in plain view of the general public it's my opinion that this lock does not provide adequate security today we're going to discuss four different exploits to which this lock is vulnerable all of which take just a few moments the first exploit is using the key which i normally wouldn't demon exploit but this lock is the rare exception now santa cruz gun locks has four different keyed override options for this lock the first is a disc detainer core which offers reasonable security then they have wafer and tubular lock options which are varying degrees of inadequate in my opinion and finally they have the option used in this lock which is horrifyingly bad this lock opens with a standard handcuff key there's a keyhole right here in the side you just put it in turn it 90 degrees and it can be opened up now why is this so bad well this is a key that can be bought by anyone for less than a dollar at any one of thousands of different places and even worse it's carried on a daily basis by an increasing number of non-law enforcement officers and i want to put in context just how bad this is santa cruz gun locks is located in california and their locks are used by a number of california agencies if we look at california standards for approval of gun containers that are used by the general public the lock needs to have a key or combination with no less than 10 000 differs this lock has just one differ and it's an absurdly common key i think that's patently inadequate for securing a firearm in a public space and it's why i think this is one of the few situations in which using the key can be viewed as an exploit now i certainly hope that most agencies are wise enough to see the dangers and folly of selecting the handcuff key option but some don't as evidenced by the fact of this lock which before i purchased it on ebay was removed from a police car okay the next exploit is picking these handcuff key locks tend to be extraordinarily easy to pick and this one is no exception i'm just putting a hook in there and turning it around just a tad and this opens right up i have to use the pick again to re-lock it and once again it's locked up let's do that just one more time again we're open and let's re-lock it so as you can see very very easy to pick the next exploit has to do with the ratcheting mechanism there's ways to design relatively secure ratcheting locks but this isn't one of them all we need is a little shim or really anything thin and stiff and we place it right down here where the teeth of the shackle are and we can open this right up let's do that one more time just stick that shim down there and the shackle opens so very very easy to get do and an inexcusable exploit one that's very easy to avoid finally exploit number four each of these locks has an internal electromagnet that can be used to withdraw the locking log this allows an officer to unlock the gun by pressing a hidden button in the car but if an internal magnet can open the lock so too can an external magnet unless the lock is properly shielded which is not the case here so we can put a lock right here on the side of the lock that's not the proper position so you can see it's still locked however if i slide that up it opens right up one more time when it's not in the proper position it's locked but if i move it up just a little bit we have it unlocked so i think it should be pretty clear right now that i don't think this lock is adequate for its intended purpose and it's a little bit upsetting to me because this is an expensive product with a deadly serious purpose and it provides shockingly little protection anyway that's all i have for you today if you do have any questions or comments about this please put them below if you like this video and would like to see more like it please subscribe and as always have a nice day thank you