There's been a couple of really good posts in the last two days about contacts with law enforcement officers and some really good advice about how to handle the situations.
So far none of the threads have turned into outright "cop bashing" so they are still going strong.

I just happened to be thinking about how I would feel if local police were called to my home for one reason and suddenly things went awry and ended in having thousands of dollars in firearms being carried out of my house all over a misunderstanding. Then the many months it would take to get my property back, not to mention the monetary costs. Its doubtful you would ever completely recover from the experience (monetarily).

I'm suddenly aware that situation wouldn't play out so easily for the local cops if all of your firearms were locked in an 800lb gun safe. Especially if you were the only one with access (combination and keys). Those  home disturbance calls couldn't so easily be turned into a confiscation if the police couldn't access your firearms. This is why you don't give access to anyone, yes even your wife/husband.

While the police can ask to see your firearms, I don't beleive there is any reason compelling you to show them without a valid warrent. No longer will the police be able to seperate the occupants of a household and trick someone into giving permission to search. Hmm, isn't this one of them machine guns? We'll have to confiscate them all so they can be tested.

I'm not so foolish that I beleive the police will just go away, though. If the situation is serious enough I'm sure they could/would detain you and seek legal ways to search your safe. But, what this does is add a barrier to ensure your rights are protected. While they are retreiving their warrent you would hopefully have time to contact an attorney.
I do have a legal service provided by my employer that gives 24 hour access to counsel if the need arises.

In an extremely serious situation, I beleive the police would be pre-armed with a search warrent and probably a locksmith to open a safe but that is beyond the scope of this. This would be reserved for the extremely criminal types.

Any other thoughts on this?

... lock, key and combo ONLY possessed by me, myself and I

I guess the summary of my thoughts was spoken by some old cop who wrote, "If you didn't call the police, then you don't want them."

What he meant by that is, unless you phoned for them to come for some reason, they have showed up to "get" you.  You have nothing to gain and everything to lose by "cooperating" with them.

A locksmith?  Ha!  I work for an armoured car company, so I get to see a lot of nice safes.  You'd be surprised at how much money a few companies are willing to spend on security.  I've been to two just after the police served a search warrant.  In one case the person who knew the combination wasn't there, so the police had a tow truck driver take a grinder to the safe.  In the second, they wouldn't let the owner open it for them, and they also ruined the safe.  My advise, if you really think the police are going to want to get into it, is to buy enough of a safe to deter burglars, but not one so expensive that you can't afford to replace it.  After all, if the police want a safe open, it's going to happen, and they will probably ruin it in the process.  Better advise would be to keep your less valuable weapons in an easy to find (cheap) safe, like a Wal Mart gun cabinet, and hide your better safe.z

"i forgot the combo officer"

[b][/b]

Or...how about rigging it with enough explosives so that anyone who doesn't properly disarm it and tries to open it is blown to pieces?
Or...maybe not.

"sanitize my place, pal"

A good reason to have a sealed envelope with a buddy that is coded - you use your one phone call to call him and give him another code that when added together, will let him into your house, past your alarm and into the safe.  Provide detailed instructions on just what needs to be removed.

Or, just tell them you reload, and it has powder in it.  Then, they'll probably let you open it for them.  I don't think a jewelry store could get away with that, but I think I could.z

After my last incident when I trusted and co-operated with a cop I will do nothing to help them out in the future. They are just trying to trap you into saying something. They will need a search warrent to get anything from me other than what I am legally required to do. Don't let them come into the house go out and talk with them on the front porch or driveway. Be polite. If they won't give you an idea of what thier concerns are then they don't have a valid reason to hassle you. Just send them on thier way for a search warrent.

How about getting a couple of blackpowder explosives labels on the front of the safe? If the Police bring in a torch or grinder start acting real edgy like your blackpowder for your navy colt might explode if sparks hit it.