Hello everyone! Just wanting to get feedback on this topic of securing your firearms. Specifically, leaving ammunition and a firearm on your coffee table, leaving a loaded firearm in a closet, and other insecure examples. I have heard incidents that have happened that have led to a loss of life or lives. Then, and this gets under my skin, the firearm owner says well I left my gun and ammo in the closet. Or in a drawer. Or some other sorry excuse. I have a family. A 15 year old son and 8 year old daughter. I also have a firearm safe. Itās a hard choice to make, but I would like to be locked and loaded and ready to protect my family. But at the same time part of protecting them is securing my firearms. So I have a dog that Iām hoping can alarm me in advance. What do you all think about this? I have heard that some of you have firearms in different places in your home. But what about when you have children?
I think this depends on your personal situation. I have loaded guns around, but I donāt have kids, pretty much no visitors, and the GF knows how to handle guns. So no problem for me. BUT, if I had kids, regular small parties or gatherings, I would be doing things differently.
A dog is a great idea for an early warning system. Have you considered the small handgun safes you could put in different places in your house, or at least by your bedside?
I have, and use, small lockable gun safes in different parts of my home. If Iām not in control of the gun (Physically or visually), it is locked at all times.
Having a good dog as a first line notification system is also a great idea.
The children should already be trained in the handling of firearms. All of my grands know to do not mess with any guns unless there is an adult around. But even still I rarely have a handgun laying out, but even then I do not worry about it. I always say if I have my pants on I also have a gun on me. Very rarely is one over arms reach from me, they are no good to you for self defence if they are locked up in the gun safe.
A lot of optionsā¦and opinions on this one. If you can keep it on you, all the better. Easy access and you have control. With others in the house, that changes the whole story. You wouldnāt want an accident, and it also is tied to the whole one in the chamber or not, and safety on or not.
Gun safes and securing your weapons safely is very important. I have grandchildren that come visit me. My gun is always on my person and I do not leave it laying around. My guns I am not carrying stay in my safe. I have heard of stories of tragic endings when gun owners have left their firearms unattended in the open in their home. My grandchildren Know not to touch my guns anyway. Most tragedies happen due to a child being curious. I unloaded my gun and told my son to touch it because it would be the last time. He never touched it again until he got older and understood safety.
Only child grown and married. No grandchildren. No friends with children younger than adults. The guns are kept in a couple of different places around the house, some locked, some not. Anyone who reaches an unlocked gun has already gone through me.
Empty nester. Staged , locked and loaded. Iām not being funny, but watch the āPATRIOTā. Teach, teach, teach. Make the children part of the solution, do you think thereās an 8 year old in Russia or China that DOESNāT know how to manipulate, breakdown (blind folded) and defend themselves with an AK47?
Do you think there are ANY 15 year olds in Israel that canāt handle an UZI. Itās a little late, but we should have been teaching and training our children responsibility, respect and safety with firearms. I feel with proper training there would be less negligent discharges by both adults and kids.
I understand that there is plenty of irresponsibility on the part of some gun owners, they need to be taught just as well, my kids and grandkids learned at approximately 8 years old, they understood early that in the real world you donāt ārespawnā in any location. The biggest lesson was, you canāt unring a bell! Once that bullet leaves the barrel it doesnāt come back. Parenting and teaching, respect and responsibility got lost somewhere between MTV and DVDs.
IMHO , chores in a home that has firearms should include, cleaning, safe handling, placing in the safe, removal from safe, safe handling under adult supervision, wax on, wax off til it hurts!
Iām not advocating that you go against the law. Most states require you to lockdown your weapons, DO SO! You have NO choice! Thatās where the chores come in. After a few thousand cleanings , they wonāt go near them!
I have a 1 year old and a 4 year old. Honestly, there are so many more options available now that it doesnt make sense for firearms to be unsecured for the majority of households. I have the main gun safes that house the majority of firearms as well as biometric safes for handguns and even long guns.
There are so many options for quick access now, and the consequences, not just from a personal perspective, but in many states, legal consequences for the possible results of the firearm falling into the wrong hands, securing your firearms are like insurance. And I say this growing up in a home that never had a locked gun durring my entire childhood. But that was a different time (80ās and 90ās) and in my opinion, its not necessarily about the residents of the house, but other family members, visitors, etc. And its easy to say, oh, well, in our situation we dont need it and when grandkids come over, we just secure them. True, and I can respect all opinions and if it works for you great. I respect that. But to me, its like using a firearmās safety and trigger control. It might not seem as important when you are in a controlled situation at the range, but you are building those habits for when you are not in such a controlled environment.
I have a 13 and a 15 yearold. Both kids have been around guns and taught gun safety from the get go. They can both shoot competently and have a healthy respect for firearms. That said, any gun that is not on my person is locked in a safe. Might be in different parts of the house but in a safe. The kids do not know the code to the safes. I would rather have to let someone take my things than suffer an injury to my child. I also have 3 dogs as an āearly warning systemā.
I am sorry defense is not locked in the safe. Two ARās and an AK and two hand guns with mutiple mags around the house. The lite M&P AR 15-22 with a red dot not something normal for defense. 30 rounds just as fast as I can pull the trigger in less than a one inch circle
Depending on their maturity, you can educate your children, but what about their friends who come over?
Itās a deadly predicament.
A biometric safe/box(s) might be a compromise although Iād prefer a Simplex lock such as in the Fas-1.
OR carry while at home and have 100% control over your pistol at all times.
Do you have small children in your home?
Whenever I have a gun out of the safe, it is on me. To get it you have to take it from me.
Thank you for your input.
My kids are all grown up but I still have my firearms in the safe.
The only exception is my conceal carry piece which, while holstered but off body when we donāt have visitors, is always within reach.
You teach them when they are very young. My father had a gun cabinet that was left unlocked with the ammo sitting on top. Us children knew better than to touch those firearms without him present. We had no incentive to touch them anyway, we already knew firearm safety and how to shoot. The dangerous part of touching them when our father was not present was not the firearm, it was him.
That is about right. With my daughter when she was young, if she was nearby when I was cleaning my firearms, she would get yet another safety lesson. She learned quick to be nowhere around when I was cleaning my firearms. I also would let her handle them when they were made safe. They tend to not be fun child toys when they donāt do anything. I also would break them down and explain how they worked, taking all the mystery out of them. At 8 years old she decided to learn to shoot.
I was more concerned about what would happen if she or a friend found a firearm while with my daughter. I wanted her to know what to do to be safe. I was not concerned about her finding one in my home - the firearm was either on me or in the safe, but you do not know what happens outside the home, outside your control.
Everyoneās comfort level and situation is different, as well as state laws. I believe in training, practice, and personal responsibility. Since this virus thing, I do not carry at home as I spend most of my time working at a computer, so I just have it near me on my desk. I do have another staged elsewhere in the home, but I also do not have a young child, nor is it readily accessible to anyone, but me.
I think most kids in China probably donāt know how to work an AK. I believe guns are under pretty tight control there. Itās why thereās news about some crazies (usually from one of the western provinces) going on a stabbing spree at schools and train stations with kitchen knives or cleavers. Maybe they ought to have knife free zones and start banning knives.
Iāve got a young child at home so whenever a weapon is out of my control (not on me), it is unloaded and locked up in a safe. Ammunition is stored separately in locked containers and out of reach. The only exception are the home defense pieces which go into a biometric safe under the bed with a mag each. Not ideal, but Iāve got cameras and motion detectors monitoring all potential entry points.
While both my older and younger son (younger 14) know not to mess with any of my firearms unattended, and despite them both being trustworthy and taught basic gun rules, I keep one locked up and the other hidden in plain site. I have a simple two tier, four legged, nightstand next to the bed and the hidden one is hanging from a magnet under the upper teir. Not visible unless you squat WAY down and look up under the nightstand, but reachable from the bed or bending over reaching under the table. Even with that we are looking at getting a SimpliSafe alarm system for the one very reason you can program door sensors to send a private notification with out setting off the actual alarm. Our bedroom door will have one so I know if anyone enters the room. A fact that will be related to both kiddos so they know not to go in unless it is an emergency, and they may actually have to use the firearms.