Gun cabinets approved for firearms storage in Sweden

Gun cabinets approved for firearms storage under Swedish law

What the law requires of the cabinet

The requirement is in the Firearms Act and made specific in a regulation. The Act says firearms must be locked away; the regulation says what the lock has to be fitted to.

The Firearms Act (1996:67), chapter 5, section 2: "When firearms are not in use they shall be kept in a security cabinet or in some other equally secure storage space."

The Police Authority's regulation, FAP 551-3, chapter 17, section 4, defines what a security cabinet is: a cabinet that meets Swedish Standard SS 3492 or equivalent requirements, and that is certified by an accredited certification body.

SSF 3492 is the current designation. The standard was called SS 3492 until 2015, when it was renamed with identical requirements and test methods. The regulation still uses the older name and expressly accepts standards that reach the same level. A cabinet marked SSF 3492 and certified by SBSC therefore meets the requirement, and an older cabinet marked SS 3492 is no weaker.

There is no list of approved gun cabinets. The police do not keep one. What counts is the certification, and the certificate appears on the plate on the inside of the door. If you are buying second hand from a private seller, that plate is what to ask for a photograph of before you pay.

Does it have to be bolted down, or will weights do?

Either works, and the regulation says so explicitly. FAP 551-3, chapter 17, section 6:

"A cabinet which, without firearms, weighs less than 150 kg shall be anchored to the building structure. Such a cabinet may, as an alternative to anchoring, be fitted with weights so that a weight of 150 kg is reached."

Read "without firearms" carefully. The 150 kg is the weight of the cabinet itself. The rifles you put in it do not count. A cabinet weighing 120 kg does not become compliant by being filled.

The concrete plinth is for the second route. The cabinet is mounted on top of it, so the plinth becomes a heavy foot underneath that takes the whole thing past 150 kg without you drilling into a floor or a wall. That is the answer if you rent, live in a flat owned through a housing association, have underfloor heating in a concrete slab, or simply would rather not make holes.

It does one more thing: the plinth raises the cabinet, so the bottom shelf and the butts of the rifles sit at a more comfortable height. No crouching to reach your firearms. Plinths are under Accessories on the product page.

If you are bolting it down after all: a coach screw into a timber structure, an expansion bolt into concrete, and in a plasterboard wall at least one bolt has to reach a stud. The board itself holds nothing. If you have underfloor heating, get the installation drawing out before the drill comes out.

The Weight filter shows where each cabinet sits relative to the threshold.

How many firearms may I keep?

There is no upper limit in the Act, but there is a point where the requirements change. General advice in FAP 551-3 says the police should impose specific storage conditions where someone keeps more than five fully automatic firearms, ten handguns or twenty rifles. Those conditions should then be based on the rules that apply to shooting clubs.

This is where the industry points system comes from. A rifle counts as one point, a handgun as two, a fully automatic firearm as four, and the limit is said to be twenty. Do the arithmetic: twenty rifles, ten handguns and five fully automatic firearms all come to twenty. The points system is a way of remembering the advice above.

But it is advice, not a rule. The text says should, not shall, and the conditions are imposed case by case. The firearms officer at the police authority decides, weighing the type of firearm, the number and how you live. The advice also excludes firearms with a model year before 1890, replicas of those, and small-calibre pistols under 5.1 mm.

If the firearms officer decides you are to have specific storage conditions, the rules point onward to the level that applies to shooting clubs, and a security cabinet is no longer enough. What applies then is a vault or a value safe rated to SS EN 1143-1 Grade 3, a heavier level of protection in a different class.

Two things are worth knowing before buying one. The club rules require an alarm as well as the safe, so the safe alone does not satisfy the condition. And a Grade 3 safe costs considerably more than a security cabinet.

So wait until you have the condition in writing, then call us. Conditions are worded differently from case to case, and reading the decision together is cheaper than buying the wrong safe twice.

What size do I need?

Start from the number of firearms, not from the dimensions. The Number of rifles filter above the products shows how many long guns each cabinet is built for, and that is the figure that decides whether a cabinet will do.

Leave yourself room. Collections grow, and nobody enjoys buying the same cabinet twice. Buying for exactly what you own today often means asking the same question again within a couple of years.

The filter shows the cabinet's maximum, and that usually assumes the shelf insert is out. Many cabinets hold roughly half as many rifles with the side shelves fitted as without. A cabinet that takes sixteen rifles empty may take eight with the shelves in, and you gain room for ammunition and valuables instead. What applies to a particular cabinet is set out under Gun capacity details on its product page, in plain language and for both configurations.

Allow for what the firearms carry. Scopes take width, and a cabinet for five rifles holds fewer if they are all scoped. If ammunition, optics or other accessories are going in the same cabinet, go one size up.

Placement often decides more than contents. The Outer Height, Outer Width and Outer Depth filters help when the cabinet has to go into a wardrobe, a recess or a store room. Measure the narrowest point on the route in, not the widest.

Keypad or key lock?

We recommend an electronic keypad, and the reason is practical. The key to a gun cabinet is not an ordinary key. It is long, double-bitted and bulky enough to wear a hole in a trouser pocket.

The key also has to be kept away from the cabinet. The regulation requires that neither key nor code is within reach of an unauthorised person, and a key hanging beside the cabinet or lying in the drawer underneath defeats the whole point of the storage requirement.

That is where the problem starts. The key is awkward to carry, so many people hide it near the cabinet instead. Burglars know this. If the cabinet is locked and the key is gone, they look for it, and they look without regard for whatever is in the way. The damage to the room often costs more than the keypad would have.

A keypad removes that whole chain. Nothing to carry, nothing to hide, and nothing for a burglar to search for. The code can be changed whenever you like, and more people can be given access without a key being handed out.

Key locks are still available and a reasonable choice for anyone who would rather hold something physical or worries about forgetting a code. Bear in mind that the keys are copy-protected and cannot be ordered afterwards, so order a spare from the start and keep it somewhere else.

Use the Lock Type filter. On a large part of the range the keypad can be added as an option when you order, under Accessories on the product page, and the cabinet arrives with the lock already fitted.

About the keypad: batteries last around two years, are changed from the outside on most locks, and you will not be locked out when they run down. Use good quality alkaline batteries, and change the code a few times a year so that worn buttons do not give away which digits are in it.

Are gun cabinets fire resistant?

Not as a rule. SSF 3492 tests burglary resistance. Fire is not part of the test, and a gun cabinet without a fire rating will not protect its contents in a house fire. Worth knowing before you put passports, cash or hard drives in the same cabinet as the rifles.

Some of the cabinets here do have a fire rating, tested to NT Fire 017 for paper. The Fire protection filter shows which. Choosing one of those gives you both in a single unit, which is usually cheaper than two cabinets and always easier to find room for.

If you want serious fire protection for documents and valuables, document cabinets are built for it, and there is nothing to stop one standing next to the gun cabinet.

Handgun cabinets, ammunition and fittings

A handgun cabinet is the same rating in a smaller format. The regulation does not distinguish between long guns and handguns: the cabinet must meet SSF 3492 and be certified, and that is all. What differs is the size and the interior.

See every cabinet intended for handguns: handgun cabinets and cabinets without rifle fittings. Same range as above, filtered to the cabinets built for handguns rather than rifles.

And the 150 kg rule applies exactly the same way. A small cabinet almost always weighs under 150 kg, which means it has to be anchored or weighted up. That is the most common oversight when buying a handgun cabinet: the cabinet is approved, but the installation is not finished until it is fixed in place.

Ammunition may be kept in the same cabinet as the firearms. If you want it separated, there are cabinets with a lockable inner compartment.

Fittings such as barrel rests, a butt mat, shelves and door racks decide how the cabinet actually works for you. What each one comes with is listed under Fittings on its product page.

If you want a cabinet you can keep building on, we recommend Nor-Lyx. The range has a classic hunting look in green and an accessory programme made for exactly that: decor panels, a wooden top, door boxes, cleaning rod holders and key hook rails. It lets you fit the cabinet to the way you hunt, and lets it read more like a piece of furniture than a steel box in the corner. See every Nor-Lyx gun cabinet.

Cheap, second hand, and what not to compromise on

Price often decides between two cabinets that both do the job, and that is a reasonable position. The rating is binary: the cabinet is certified or it is not. Two certified cabinets give you the same approval, and at that point your wallet may as well decide.

What you pay more for is space, fittings, lock type and finish. What you should not compromise on is the certification, because without it the cabinet is not a gun cabinet in the eyes of the law, however solid it looks.

Be careful with second hand from private sellers. Cabinets sold before the rules changed in 2011 may lack a valid rating, and the exemptions that existed then have expired. Ask for a photograph of the plate on the inside of the door before you pay, and allow for the freight: a gun cabinet weighs a hundred kilos and upwards.

We have used cabinets from time to time in Bargain basement. They are rated, checked and carry the same approval as a new one. What we have there changes with what comes in, so it is worth checking back.

What does it weigh, and how do I get it in? Three things to check before ordering: the floor structure if the cabinet is going anywhere other than ground level, the narrowest doorway on the route, and the stair corners, which is where heavy cabinets get stuck. We can carry it in for you. Carrying-in is quoted separately, since the price depends on weight, floor level and what the route looks like. Tell us the conditions and we will price it.