zorex1-a3d0a055e62f0bc1255854bfa671c294e6c5ed04f2a8f3f0b6a0756f9fd41121

On the one hand, the simplest solution is usually the best. On the other, I love me some tech-y gadgets. The folks at Zore (an Israeli company based in Jerusalem) have come up with an interesting concept for a gun lock that has some truly cool features, and if everything they claim is true, this might become my top recommendation for nightstand gun locking options. They just launched a campaign on IndieGoGo and here’s what they are offering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4gnnQViUMM

There are three really cool features here that make the Zore worth a look.

First is the concept of a motion-based alarm. I can’t think of any other weapons lock system on the market that sends you an alert any time the firearm is moved, but that feature seems extremely useful. There are plenty of stories where children who have gotten hold of their parents’ guns come to a tragic conclusion. A simple alert system could provide parents with the ability to quickly intervene in those situations and administer some recurrent training on the basics of firearms safety (starting with “don’t touch it without permission”).

Second on the list is the ability to unlock the gun quickly with a three digit code. The locking mechanism is battery operated and programmable, but the battery is said to last for about a year before replacing. A quick turn of the dial to three positions and the gun unlocks — just rack the gun and the lock flies free while you load the next round from your magazine. Or you could also unlock the gun from your Bluetooth enabled phone if you prefer.

Last but not least there’s the timer feature. Using your phone the app will time how long it takes you to find your gun and unlock it, allowing you to practice for the “bump in the night” scenario without a buddy running a shot timer.

In theory this sounds like a cool solution to a common problem. MSRP on the system is $199, or you can get one via their funding campaign for $125.

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50 COMMENTS

  1. If you can unlock it from yoir phone then it can be kept locked by someone else. Bad idea. Will not buy.

    • Versus the lock I don’t keep on my gun now? If I have to go into a metal detector force of law place my current tactic is to remove the backstrap on my PPS and lock it in the glove box.

    • Hey. I am part of the ZORE team. That is incorrect. The dial is separate from the rest of the system and overrides it so even if your phone and app (which are both encrypted) were both hacked – the hacker can’t prevent you from unlocking ZORE.

      • Yachdav –

        Is there any chance The Truth About Guns could get a sample unit for a test and evaluation?

        I heard about it back in May and requested TTAG contact you guys…

        • Hey. Just emailed back and forth with one of your guys two days ago. We are not sending them out yet but will be in NY in the beginning of August and would be more than happy to let you guys put your hands on ZORE X.

          Please contact me at [email protected]

          Thanks

      • Can it be set to unlock automatically if I’m within a few feet of the unit? If that were the case, I’d be fairly interested. I either have my phone on me or it’s charging on my nightstand a foot from the gun anyway. Will it work in the chamber of a CZ Scorpion Evo 3? 🙂

        …otherwise, I’m fairly happy with the simple lockbox I’ve been using. Also a fast punch code to unlock and it’s affixed via a cable to my metal bed frame, which provides another kind of security vs an on-the-gun lock that prevents usage but not easy “relocation” of the gun.

      • my concern is less about a hacker and more about others who would wish me to be “unarmed!” Do not get me wrong, I love the whole tech idea about it. But if it has any type of firmware, there could be “trojans” implanted by demand of certain governments. Now, your company may be very pro 2A and tell those govs to go fly a kite. But now that the tech exists, it doesn’t mean that another company could not make a similar device and they see no harm in allowing a government a “lock down” capability.

  2. I agree – anything that can be manipulated with a smart phone is just a hack away.
    Other than that, sounds like a pretty good idea.
    Could also prevent someone from grabbing their gun in the middle of the night thinking it’s a medicine ihhaler or something (heard that one, but don’t know if it’s true)

  3. Why not just install a motion-triggered alarm on your cabinet/safe? I have no doubt someone could work up a Raspberry Pi or Arduino-based system that sends an alert to your phone if your safe or cabinet is opened. That way you don’t have to bother buying something for each and every gun you own, and it’s not something you have to actually take off the gun itself in case of emergency. I like the concept, I’m just not sure I’d pay $200 for this.

  4. For the purposes, it doesn’t have to be a secure lock. It just has to go off when someone’s tampering with it. You’d be alerted by the time the person picking up the weapon had realized there’s a lock.

    That it doesn’t alter the firearm makes this the sort of technology l could support.

  5. Your active gun should be on your person and ready to go. Your inactive guns should be in the safe.

    Why spend 170 bucks on something that will just make you complacent and incrementally less ready for an emergency?

    • I like the idea of a good gun lock, with an alarm for those times I have to lock the gun in my car due to GFZ and metal detectors.

    • Hoplopfheil,

      Those who own only one or a few guns can hardly justify the cost of a safe. Gun locks are for those people.

      I tend to prefer low-tech locks myself, but to each his own.

      • Well I don’t know about that. I have a big safe in the garage for all of my firearms except for my CCW piece and HD gun. Those are in/on the nightstand in a small safe/lockbox. The Zore could be a substitute for that, providing similar safety but potentially faster access.

        …Actually I’m not a huge fan of it for the CCW piece since I prefer to simply keep that holstered and chambered all the time, taking it from the safe and putting it in my belt and then replacing it back in the safe when done, never removing it from the holster and leaving it chambered all the time (I think this is a safer practice for multiple reasons and it’s also more efficient).

        As for Hoplopfheil’s “on your person & ready to go” comment that’s all fine and well, but I doubt any of us sleep with a firearm on our belt. Or with a belt on at all. The gun now isn’t on your person and depending on your living arrangements it may need to be secured. That probably describes a huge portion of gun owners.

  6. I like the unlock mechanism and the alert if moved. Do not like the bluetooth unlock feature. Too many parents fail to keep positive control of their phones, and even hand their phones to children to keep them amused in restaurants, grocery stores etc. My then-toddler made a total mess of all the icons on my wife’s iPhone just by moving them all into random folders. I would only consider this if the BT unlock involves contemporaneous use of the thumbprint scanner AND a code.

    • I don’t think this would be my primary keep guns out of hands device. Maybe a good car lock, but honestly I just like tech stuff enough to give one a try at a future lower price.

  7. I like this even though I’m not a lock user and unless I’m cursed with a child I won’t ever be one.
    Don’t like having to rely on a battery though. I assume it will not unlock if the battery dies or the brain strokes out.
    Could possibly see myself getting just the motion alerting piece at some point.

  8. No.sometimes too much tech is bad, this is one of those.

    Not for me.

  9. I thought having the extractor snap over a rim, rather than sweeping into it as a round feeds, is generally a bad thing.

    If you remove this lock by racking the slide, it suggests you’re shortening the lifespan of a rather important part if you use it frequently.

    Not trying to be a nay-sayer, this looks to have interesting features; but I would be a little concerned if the idea is to use it daily.

  10. I like the idea, but it’s a little pricey, no? One might be able purchase a fast-opening two-gun safe for less. Also, is it CA DOJ approved? If it is, great. If it’s not, it won’t satisfy CA’s safe storage requirements, or the requirements of other slave states.

  12. administer some recurrent training on the basics of firearms safety (starting with a good spanking.

    Fixed it for you.

  14. It’s cool but it seems like an overly complex and expensive solution to a simple problem.

    What it really needs is a camera and some Semtex added to it. That way if you see it’s a bad guy handling your gun you might lose the gun but that jerkwad loses his hand.

  15. IDK about some of you naysayers, but I don’t sleep wearing a holster! /s
    Perfect for my EDC the nightstand when I sleep. My grand-kids live with me and though they’ve had gun safety instruction I’d feel better with Zore X locking my pistol in a place I can easily reach at night. Currently I have to keep the weapon on a high shelf across the room, etc.
    There are times you have to leave your weapon somewhere, and this is far more portable than even a small gun safe/box.
    I’m plan on getting one.

    • If that’s your concern and you can operate a drill you can find solutions that will work just as well for $50 or less.

      • strych9 :
        That a near genius level 9 year old can’t defeat? I’m not kidding. He’s been through a battery of tests and the results are sky high.
        His mother is going to pitch in half the cost to keep her kids from getting to my pistol. They’ve had instruction on gun safety and we’ve never caught them trying to access a weapon yet, but I remember my self as a kid. Despite training I safely handled my father’s pistol after I found the loose board he hid it in.
        I’m curious what I could drill up that would be as secure and quick to access as the Zore. Honestly!

        • Is this a serious reply? When I was nine I had a teacher flip out that I had ADHD (she had a weekend class on the subject) and I had to be put through a battery of tests, no ADHD, just an IQ of 141 and some boredom at the pace of lesson plans. At that age I understood how to use a chair, a stool and a ladder to get a hold of objects out of my reach.

          If you really think your high shelf idea is better than even a cheapo safe you’re dreaming. Sorry, you just are.

          You want something you can drill up real quick. Plastic coated steel cable properly attached to a 2×4 in the wall with a padlock is reasonably secure against children. Now, you’re gonna be worried about picking, so I’ll tell you how to generally avoid that. Photos of what I’m about to talk about will be available in a reply to my own post because otherwise this whole post will likely be blocked.

          Regular old padlocks can be picked fairly easily. More difficult for a child will be warded locks because they are quite difficult to pick without a specific warded pick set. So run a cable around a 2×4, put the cable through your gun and lock it off with a decent quality warded lock and you will be far more secure than you will be with a high shelf.

          The next message will contain the pictures I speak of.

        • This is a quality lock pick set:

          https://www.anony.ws/image/J9i5

          Most of what is shown here can be made at home by a determined child. None of it will open a warded lock.

          This is a warded lock from MasterLock (not a great company but the first warded lock to come to my hand tonight):

          https://www.anony.ws/image/J9iD

          Again, it’s not something you can pick with regular picks because it doesn’t function in a way that would allow such a thing.

          This is a “roller” lock.

          https://www.anony.ws/image/J9iN

          Any retard can watch five minutes of Youtube and make/open that lock with this:

          https://www.anony.ws/image/J9ik

          That lock can be opened by a child. Easily.

          Now, let’s go back to that warded lock. Warded picks to exist. They look like this:

          https://www.anony.ws/image/J9ia

          In fact that little ring of five will open just about any warded lock on the planet if you know how to use them. They work basically like a master key. The one that’s standing out opens that particular lock.

          Here’s the thing: Do you have a set of warded picks lying around your house? Does the kid in question have access to the machining ability to make each of these to a pretty good tolerance out of high quality stainless or carbon steel so that they will stand up to the spring tension in a warded lock?

          https://www.anony.ws/image/J9ib

          The chances of that are nearly 0.000% unless you just leave warded picks lying around your house.

          So yeah, a smart kid can figure out a ladder, with out very specific tools and a good knowledge of locks they can’t get past the warded padlock unless they decide to use a bolt cutter or saw.

          The idea you’re gonna argue against using some sort of cheap locking mechanism rather than a high shelf and/or replace that high shelf with a nealry $200 piece of tech… I mean really?

  16. I don’t know. I kind of like it. My first thought before the video was that it’s going to be overly complicated because of the tech. But the manual unlock method is great. The comment about Arduino is true, but that’s true of everything. There is almost always a cheaper home-built solution to any commercial product. And for $70 for the motion-only option, I’m not sure it would be worth the time and materials for most people to build a motion sensing, wifi enabled alerting device for your cabinet or nightstand.

    Can the X be configured to alert on a phone without enabling unlocking from a phone? Does the device allow locking from the phone as well? I would hope it’s unlock only.

    I would actually prefer an option that only alerts via smartphone and does not have a lock/unlock function via smartphone feature. I see little use for manipulating the lock via phone and maybe that could reduce costs for that option.

    What happens when the battery dies? Does it need to be changed before the device will unlock? Would be better if turning the dial a few times could build up a charge for unlocking in case the battery dies.

    I just don’t know about $200. I may still jump on the fundraising deal though.

  18. can you unlock it, with the dial, in the middle of the night with no lighting? That is the real test i am curious about.

  19. Or….. you could just buy a quick-access safe…. now.

    A solution looking for a problem, IMO.

  20. Revolver fans are out of luck, apparently.

    But this is nifty enough to make me ponder a switch.

  21. I do like the motion sensor. That alone has me interested.

    Although I don’t have kids, I also don’t live alone, so something like that would be a nice extra security layer.

  22. This is a great idea with one fatal flaw. It relies on Bluetooth technology to remotely alert or disarm your firearm. Bluetooth technology is one of the buggies pieces of modern technotogy that has ever been devised. Can you imagine how difficult this will be to pair the adapter to your phone. What happens when your phone or your Zore and your adapter lose their pairing?

    If you’ve used Bluetooth for anything, then you know that it is too buggy to rely on for something as critical as this. What Zore really needs is a local audible alarm that sounds loudly if the gun is handled. It also needs to remember if it has been handled so that when you return to your gun and move it, it will notify you audibly if it has indeed been handled.

    If, however, Zore is used without all of the buggy, gimmicky BT capabilities it appears to be a solid device that I would definitely consider purchasing as an alternative to a stand alone one-gun safe. What I want is a unit without the BT features for $50ish less.

    Good luck Zore!

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