It’s easy to blame the user in situations like this. The recall indicates that 39 other people have had the safe fail in the same way. It also states:

Consumers can believe they have properly programmed the biometric feature when in fact the safe remains in the default to open mode

The problem is, everyone can have a bad day. If a user has to be at the top of their game to use a consumer device, it’s badly designed. For a safety device that’s fucking horrific.

is it really too much to ask of parents to read a manual and verify that a lock works as it should, when it is to keep firearms out of reach from your children?

The article doesn’t state whether they did or didn’t follow the instructions. They went through the effort of buying the safe, installing it, powering it, putting their guns in it, and then locking it. That suggests they probably did their best at configuring it.

Putting the onus on the consumer just makes it easy for shitty companies to keep building shitty products