Check with a gunsmith first.
With the key. If you do not have the key, take it to a gunsmith. If you are not comfortable taking it to a gunsmith, you are the reason the lock was put there in the first place.
Go go gunsmith school
Have it checked over by a gunsmith first.
Have it examined by a good gunsmith first.
Take it to a qualified gunsmith.
The gunsmith in Tennessee is Levon Helm.
We do not know the name of the first gunsmith to cut grooves inside the barrel of a musket- it was in the mid 1500s, and possibly in Germany.
Alexander Henry - gunsmith - died in 1894.
Alexander Henry - gunsmith - was born in 1828.
because it helps the gunsmith protects itself
You would start as an apprentice to a gunsmith, and learn the craft of gunsmithing while helping the gunsmith to make or repair guns.