Category: You have to be kidding, right!?!
SHENANDOAH, Iowa — An Iowa family wants a safe taken off the market after their 6-year-old opened it and took a gun to school, KETV reported.
As gun owners with a little boy in the house, the Shenandoah, Iowa family bought a safe to make sure their gun was secure. Only a registered fingerprint can unlock it. At least that’s what the family thought.
“We put those safeguards in place. We did our best. We thought we were doing what we needed to do to protect our family and community. And unfortunately, it just didn’t happen in this scenario,” said the 6-year-old’s father.
In early March, the man’s 6-year-old son was on the school playground at recess when teachers found a gun in his backpack.
“They confiscated a gun from a student and they needed officers out to the school,” said Shenandoah Police Chief Josh Gray.
Gray said he contacted the boy’s parents, who insisted the gun had been in a locked safe.
“He just saw the safe and then he put his thumbprint on it and it opened right up for the kid,” Gray said, confirming that the safe, sold by a Chinese company named “BBRKIN,” unlocked for the 6-year-old.
Police went to the home to check the safe.
“The father was more than willing to work with us, show us anything we wanted to examine,” Gray said, adding that an officer examined the safe. “He went to go put his thumbprint on the safe, and right away, as soon as my officer did that, the safe opened right up for him, which it’s supposed to be just for that owner and his thumbprint.”
In fact, the family quickly discovered any fingerprint, or even toe print, unlocked the BBRKIN gun safe.
KETV NewsWatch 7 Investigates agreed to disguise the father’s identity to protect his 6-year-old son.
“We still hold a lot of like guilt for it. And we feel personally responsible but we’ve taken every action that we possibly can in my own power,” the father said.
He said he bought the BBRKIN biometric safe box on amazon.com in November for $229.
The company notes that in default mode, any fingerprint can open the safe.
But the father told KETV he set it up according to the manual, including the fingerprint reader that unlocks it, and it remained locked when his wife tried to open it.
Reviews posted on Amazon.com echoed the Shenandoah man’s concerns. One user said the safe opened with “all 10 of my fingers and toes.”
“They know it’s an issue. I mean, based on the reviews you can go on for, it’s a known issue, and they’ve already resolved some of those by sending you a new safe,” the father said.
KETV NewsWatch 7’s Sarah Fili has been working to contact BBRKIN about the Shenandoah man’s ordeal.
The company has not replied to any of the requests for comment.
Amazon said it had no comment for this story.
But the man provided us with copies of emails he said he exchanged with the Chinese company.
In one email dated March 13, BBRKIN said “Two months ago we updated the chip program that the safe can only open it until users have registered fingerprints successfully. Users cannot open it when it is in default mode/received the safe.”
That update was a month after the man bought the safe.
“Why wasn’t there a recall when you decided to put new chips in? Why didn’t you recall that? Like, why wasn’t anybody that purchased that safe prior notified that, hey, this is a potential risk?” the father questioned.
KETV wanted to see if BBRKIN’s upgrade changed anything.
So, KETV NewsWatch 7 Investigates bought the same safe in late March.
We set it up according to the directions, including the fingerprint reader, to read only reporter Sarah Fili’s fingerprint. After programming our photographer tried the fingerprint reader, with no success. Over the course of a day, almost a dozen different KETV employees tried their fingerprints.
Not one unlocked the safe, except Fili’s.
Days, even a week later, it still only opened for the one registered fingerprint. Fili let the Shenandoah father know the upgraded safe seems to work. He’s thankful, but asked about all the other safes with old chips that could still fail.
“Get this product removed. So this can’t happen to somebody else. Because in talking with an attorney, they can’t do anything about it unless somebody was injured,” the father said.
In the case of the gun on the Shenandoah school playground, no one was hurt.
The Page County Attorney declined to press any charges
But, under Shenandoah school district policy, the 6-year-old was expelled from kindergarten, leaving his father still asking questions about the maker of that gun safe.
“This is about accountability. Everybody doesn’t have a problem holding us accountable for it. I think they should be held accountable as well,” the father said.
KETV NewsWatch 7 asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission if it was aware of issues with the safe.
ALSO SEE: Chicago police collect 450 guns at turn-in events across city
The agency said it can’t comment on anything it “may or may not” be investigating, but the father said he has submitted a complaint there and provided the information.
Again, KETV has reached out repeatedly to BBRKIN, but they have not replied to our questions about the safe or the upgrade.
Three weeks after getting our safe, it still unlocks only for Fili.
If you have a gun safe, take the time to know who can actually unlock it.
Amish Farmer Targeted by Govt for Operating Outside Reach of USDA Regulations
An interesting story promoted by
Rebel News, highlights the plight of an Amish farmer who operates a private market club for his products. Because his crops, dairy and beef are not sold to the ‘general public,’ and only to those who are members of the private food club, Amos Miller contends he should not be subject to USDA regulations.
Miller’s organic farm operates on century old farming practices. His farm uses no electricity, no tractors, no diesel, no gasoline, and he produces exceptional all natural yields which people are willing to pay top dollar to purchase.
Additionally, because Mr. Miller doesn’t use chemical fertilizer or fuel, his farm has not been impacted by the increased costs that have hit industrial farms. He and his customers are completely unaffected by outside influence.
However, a federal judge ruled that despite his closed members-only market, he must have USDA inspectors for his beef and cattle slaughter processes. Miller does not want to use the regulated and required pharmaceutical antibiotics, and other regulatory processes required by the USDA. He now faces jail time and a $300,000 fine. [Rebel News Article]
While CTH is completely on the side of the Miller farm, it’s not fair to share this story without providing the alternative perspective from the side of the regulatory agencies.
(Via Lancaster Online) – […] “The United States submits that Mr. Miller’s continuing recalcitrance and flouting of the court’s orders requires a robust, more-coercive civil contempt sanction than previously imposed,” government attorneys wrote in its request filed in late July. “Specifically … the court should order him to be incarcerated until he has paid these sums that are long overdue.”
U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith scheduled a hearing for Sept. 26 at the federal courthouse in Easton for Miller to show why he should not be jailed.
And the government wants Miller’s wife, Rebecca Miller, added as a defendant in the case because she is a co-owner of Miller’s Organic Farm. That will also be addressed at the hearing.
Miller — who has an attorney, but has been filing paperwork on his own — filed a response on Aug. 5 suggesting Smith and the government are “working in concert” in supposedly violating his rights. The filing seeks a stay of the proceedings and indicates Miller plans to appeal issues in which he contends the judge is wrong.
[…] Miller first came to the attention of federal authorities in 2016, when the Food and Drug Administration said it identified Listeria in samples of Miller’s raw milk; the agency found the Listeria to be genetically similar to the bacteria found in two people who developed listeriosis — one of whom died — after consuming raw milk.. (read more)
It’s an interesting issue, specifically interesting because the members of the private food club are in a hold-harmless relationship with the Miller farm.
What do you think?
Two juvenile males were arrested for the armed robbery of a delivery driver in Santa Monica on Monday and were only apprehended after one of the suspects shot himself in the hand, authorities announced.
Calls about the robbery, near the intersection of 3rd Street and Idaho Avenue, came in at around 2 p.m. When officers arrived at the scene, they learned that the delivery driver had been threatened by the two suspects, one of whom pointed a firearm at the victim, according to a news release from SMPD.
While police were investigating the robbery, a call of shots fired in the 800 block of 2nd Street came in. Officers quickly learned that one of the suspects from the robbery had accidentally discharged the firearm and shot himself in the hand while inside a residence.
Police were able to locate both juveniles and arrest them.
The uninjured suspect was booked at SMPD and taken to juvenile hall. The injured juvenile was treated for his wound at the hospital, released a day later and was also taken to juvenile hall. Both suspects have been charged with robbery.
Detectives say the continued investigation of the incident has tied the two youths to “multiple additional crimes that occurred in the area over the past few months, including residential burglaries, auto theft and a stabbing.” Additional charges against the two are pending. 
Questions remain on enforcing new red-flag gun laws in Michigan
Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy said last month he would not enforce the red flag program, saying there is a violation of due process.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) – The latest piece of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s gun reform platform is now official – with her signature on a bill greenlighting so-called “red flag laws” also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
They allow cops, mental health professionals and worried family members to get a firearm taken away from a person believed to be a danger to themselves or others.
“We have heard too many times from those who knew a mass shooter who had expressed concern in advance about that mass shooter’s intentions,” Whitmer said earlier today. “We’ve seen situations where local police flagged someone or even spoke to them about their violent statements but weren’t able to take any further course of action.
“With Extreme Risk Protection Orders we have a mechanism to step in and save lives.”
But there are questions about the legality of the laws – with officials in places like Livingston County thumbing their noses at them.
Sheriff Mike Murphy said last month he would not enforce the red flag program, saying there is a violation of due process.
“If all the gun safety laws work so well, we wouldn’t have issues like Chicago,” said Colleen Quinn. “So, we are standing by our commissioners and our sheriff, we are very proud of them.”
Quinn attended Monday night’s meeting of the Livingston County Board of Commissioners. It is a body that recently declared itself a “Constitutional County” meaning they will not back any laws that violate the Second Amendment in their view.
“So I feel our commissioners did a great job, our sheriff, we are behind him 100 percent,” Quinn said. “And these laws aren’t going to move the needle.”
Governor Whitmer was asked about local authorities who refuse to enforce the Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
“I think that every prosecutor takes his oath to uphold the laws of the State of Michigan,” she said. “And that’s the expectation.”
Here’s how the red-flag laws would work:
A judge will have 24 hours to decide on a protection order once it is filed. If granted, the judge would have 14 days to set a hearing which would then give the red-flagged person a chance to prove why they are not a risk to themselves or others.
Another layer to the enforcement element is, Attorney General Dana Nessel has said if the local law enforcement chooses to not follow through on a red-flag order, she will find someone with the jurisidiction who will.