A Colorado entrepreneur is doing his part to make sure gun-owners have a reliable option for keeping their firearms safe and secure.
Brent Norris is the owner of Protec Safes, a Morrison-based company specializing in unique, top-quality stainless steel safes and vault doors. Norris custom designs all the safes and vault doors and has been showcasing them at gun shows along Colorado’s Front Range for the past year, to great acclaim.
“I saw one of Brent’s safes at the gun show in Loveland and was just blown away by how they looked and operated,” said frequent gun show attendee Adam Sinclair recently. “They are functional and they are beautiful. It’s something any gun owner would be proud to have on display in their home.”
Gun safety has been a big concern nationwide because of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and, closer to home, the Aurora theater shootings in Colorado. The state legislature passed several new laws aimed at curbing gun violence. The laws, limiting the number of rounds magazines can hold and beefing up background check rules, went into effect on July 1.
Norris is not a proponent of these and other proposed government regulations, but instead thinks personal responsibility and better firearm stewardship is the answer to gun violence. “If we are to maintain our right to own weapons, then we must own them responsibly,” Norris said during a recent interview. “This will do more to avert tragedy than any legislation ever could.”
Gun safes have long been recognized as a key component of responsible firearm stewardship. Safes generally serve two purposes – to keep burglars from breaking into a home and stealing the firearms; and to keep firearms out of the hands of children living in or visiting the home. Norris believes his stainless steel safes and vault doors offer the ultimate option in security.
Protec offers portable handgun safes, custom long gun safes, vault doors, and panic room doors – all custom built to the client’s specifications and all made from stainless steel. Norris believes he is the only stainless steel gun safe manufacturer in the United States. He is also proud of his Flex Cylinder design, a stainless steel rotating shelf system which allows access to any firearm without removing another.
The safes and doors Norris builds feature recessed handles and locks, providing flat doors for ease of concealment. Norris also incorporates other security features into each safe, including pry bar protection and fully TIG-welded seams.
Norris grew up working alongside his father on various projects and at an early age discovered the difficulty of drilling and cutting stainless steel. Over the years, he built numerous safes and doors for family and friends and finally decided to begin marketing them to the public in 2012.
Gun shows seemed a logical way to introduce the stainless steel products into the market. Colorado has a gun show almost every week, somewhere, and Norris knew the people who attend them would be interested in his creations. “The response has been unreal,” Norris said.
The gun shows are an example of the cultural differences in modern Colorado. A frontier state once dominated by conservatives who believed in a small government and individual rights, the Rocky Mountain State is almost evenly split now between conservatives and liberals. A Democratic majority in the state legislature and a Democratic governor paved the way for the aggressive new gun laws that just took effect.
A coalition of Colorado county sheriffs are challenging the constitutionality of the new laws in court, and two of the legislators responsible for writing the laws are facing recall elections soon as a result of their gun control efforts. Meanwhile, attendance at the major gun shows has spiked. Sales of guns, magazines and ammunition are at record highs at the shows.
As the two sides continue to draw lines in the sand, Norris believes his safes and vault doors are examples of the most logical solution to the problem of gun violence. Gun owners should keep their weapons safe, away from the hands of criminals and children.
“I’m a big believer in the Second Amendment,” Norris said. “And I think that along with the right to bear arms comes a responsibility to our fellow citizens. Responsible stewardship of guns is of vital importance.”
Information and quotes for this article were obtained during recent interviews with Brent Norris and Adam Sinclair. For more information, visit www.protecsafes.com.
