IN THE NEWS

SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. -

"My name is Dylan Ervin, I'm a competitive shooter, a business owner, a husband and a father of two," Dylan Ervin said in a promotional video.

He's re-inventing the way we lock up our guns.

Ervin has been hard at work for the last four years creating the StopBox.

"It's for the in-between point for when your firearm isn't in your holster or in your gun safe," Ervin said.

The StopBox acts as a barrier, similar to a tumbler lock, where you can create your own finger-locking passcode.

It's designed so that the locks on the side aren't accessible by a curious toddler.

And with child-access-to-firearms laws stalled in most states, the need for a device is immediate: research shows children under age 12 die from gun accidents in the united states about once a week:

"A child's hand wouldn't be able to go from here wouldn't be able to go from here to here while pushing down here," Ervin showed.

It's also made for people to keep in close proximity.

"If I was laying in bed and somebody had just come in, I can focus my attention over there while reaching and grabbing and accessing my gun that fast," he said.

Ervin says he wanted to make something easily accessible compared to gun safes on the market that are big, bulky, or require a code that could lock you out after a failed attempt.

"When you're asleep and somebody had just broken into your home," Ervin said, "you need to be able to access it with one hand and in the dark so without being able to see and to do it immediately or at least within a second or so."

Ervin is working on the final prototype to take to a manufacturer.

Once that's complete he plans on making them here in Spokane and roll them out in February 2018.

Source: http://www.khq.com/story/36434317/local-man-creates-system-to-keep-guns-safe-from-kids