Mindfullness of where your guns are

[Stevie-Ray]

Why not just keep one on you? It will automatically be wherever you are, and not be wherever you are not.

It's been my philosophy for a great many years. EDC is on me at all times, except when it's on the nightstand while I sleep. It's so comfortable I could forget it's there, though I choose to always remember it as comforting. And BTW:

If I was paranoid enough to carry a gun at home, I'd move!
When I have to carry at home, that's when I check out for good.
Carrying is a PITA, I'm certainly not doing it at home.
How can you relax with a gun strapped to you?
Where do you live, Beirut? Yada, yada, et al

Don't bother, I've heard them all before and they'd be just as silly now as then.

[Sponge14]

Don't bother, I've heard them all before and they'd be just as silly now as then.

Just like some people like myself think that carrying a gun around your own home is silly...

[Polynikes]

With two small toddlers in the house, the safest place for a defensive firearm to be is on my hip at all times. Nothing silly about it...

[Onward Allusion]

ScotchMan
Never understood the point of stashing guns around the house. Why not just keep one on you? It will automatically be wherever you are, and not be wherever you are not.

I too am a firm believer in keeping one on you, but my wife only wears her's when she's doing yard work or out and about. We have ones stashed for that reason. Heck, it wasn't until recently that she started wearing one when doing yard work. Got to thank the coyotes for that!

[Nnobby45]

Just like some people like myself think that carrying a gun around your own home is silly...

I remember a story by Ayoob about the home invasion murders of the husband and wife Dartmouth professors. He pointed out that he knew cops who never carried at home either---until they learned, thru their investigations, how fast someone could get inside your home and be in your face. Leaving you no time to get your gun if it was some place else.

Whether carrying at home is your choice or not, doing so itsn't silly.

[ScotchMan]

Whenever I read people saying carrying at home is silly, I always chuckle. These are the same people who believe that carrying in public is necessary. Let's look at that.

When you carry in public, it's because you realize there is a very small chance that you might need it. You don't expect to need it, and you hope you won't, but you acknowledge there is a possibility, and that the stakes are high enough to justify it.

Unless it is 100% (not 99.anything, but 100%) certain that you won't need it at home, how is that any different? It is still extremely unlikely. Is it so much less likely to need it at home than when you are at Olive Garden?

It reminds me of the people who criticize those who choose to carry a backup gun. If you carry one for the .00001% chance you'll need it, what's wrong with carrying two for the .00000000000001% chance you'll need it AND your first one will fail? These are all statistically unlikely events, so guarding against one but not the other because "what are the chances" strikes me as a little hypocritical.

[Stevie-Ray]

Just like some people like myself think that carrying a gun around your own home is silly...

Hope that you always CAN think that, because unfortunately, if you change your mind it will probably be because of something terrible.

Unless it is 100% (not 99.anything, but 100%) certain that you won't need it at home, how is that any different? It is still extremely unlikely. Is it so much less likely to need it at home than when you are at Olive Garden?

I'd be willing to bet that home invasions are far more numerous than Olive Garden incidents that require you pulling your gun.

[Bubba in c.a.]

Gun safes are a good idea and can be had very cheap. We have enough kids and guests at our house that no gun is left out--at night I stick the key in the gun safe and crack it open--decent access for 2 loaded dedicated HD guns. these cheappy gunsafes also make a good place to store cameras, important papers, etc.

The far bedroom also has a gun safe--with a loaded gun and a big knife in it, too.

[FAS1]

I usually pocket carry around the house, but my HD handgun is stored in a handgun safe attached to my bed. Sometimes I am working on a project and have a handgun out, usually in the garage. I am never comfortable leaving it there for the same reason that she should not leave her purse in the kitchen. Looks like her bedroom is probably upstairs and she retrieved her HD gun from that area and shot the first intruder coming up the stairs. My thought is if I ended up needing my gun at home, more than likely I too will be in the bedroom. I think that if I had several guns around the house they would have to be secured, but quickly accessible. When guest, especially with children come over, I want the peace of mind knowing that the guns aren't accessible to anyone and I don't have to pick up beforehand. I would hate to miss one and end up in a child's hand or in this case a bad guy.

[bikerbill]

No kids in my house and my wife knows how to use all my handguns ... I carry an NAA Pug all the time, but like the idea of having a 1911 within two steps of my sofa, and a j-frame in my commode and a 1911 in my nightstand ... if we're having company, they all get locked up ... the living room 1911 is well hidden but easy to access ... carrying something larger than the Pug all day while I'm home is not comfortable for me, hence the easily grabbed weapons in the house ....

[FireForged]

the day that I honestly feel that I "must" wear a gun inside my home, I will sell everything and move.

[Stevie-Ray]

the day that I honestly feel that I "must" wear a gun inside my home, I will sell everything and move.

Yeah, good luck with that, since this is a real seller's market.

[TenRing]

I have never liked the idea of stashing guns around the house but to each his own. I like knowing that kids and other nosy people have no opportunity to find guns in my house unless they are competent safe crackers or pick pockets.

The only exception that I would make is if I had an extremely unusual and secure hiding place for a gun but I don't know what that could be. The usual hiding places get checked by burglars and we all know what these are: mattresses, couch cushions, tops of china cabinets, desk drawers, book cases, cookie jars (a la Rockford Files), glove compartments and under seats of cars etc. I still think the best place to hide a gun is on your person.

[jimbob86]

On stashing guns around the house: It's your house, your rules ..... but they are also your guns, thus your responsibility. If a kid or pet finds one and something bad happens, you'll have to live with that.

On me or locked up. Either/Or. ..... actually, I can't carry them all, so even if I'm armed, there's still a passel of 'em locked up.

As for you nightstand folks ....... IIRC, I read somewhere about a home invader years ago, who's MO was to creep in quietly, arm himself with the homeowners nightstand/sock drawer gun, and wake them with a polite "Good Evening." ........

Pistol safes with biometric latches are very fast ..... four digit combinations only slightly slower........

[biohazurd]

I have guns in almost every room of my house. But they are all hidden in some way or another. (No kids.)

[Edward429451]

What a great cross section of perspectives on this. I've had guns since before I got married & had kids. I stashed loaded and/or unloaded gun all over the house (loosely speaking) the whole time raising the kids. I couldn't afford a safe then, so I had to be safe. Leaving all my guns in a nice pile all together seemed like a bad idea so they get scattered.

The key to making it work is a layered approach. I always walked hot, and I Gunproofed my children (Ayoob), and wife, always own a dog, and be careful who you let through your door.

I do not think that I "must" be armed at home either...I like it. I grew up with guns handy. Rifle by the window perhaps? We used to shoot groundhogs in the pasture from our bedroom window back on Cherrybottom Rd in Gahanna Oh., and I think that was super cool and very natural thing for me. Mom wouldn't get mad until we started shooting dads AR out the window.

[Nnobby45]

As to home invasions: It seems that one will never know what he/she is doing or where he is when some bandit kicks in the door. Are you setting on the couch watching TV, are you in the kitchen making a sandwich, are you setting at the desk doing taxes????

Just how many guns do you need to scatter about the house to be prepared????

Enough so that if intruders get between me and my safe room, I'll still be armed. That means one gun. I don't have grandchildren and no visiting children will be running around my house out of sight.

As for those who suggest the woman should have "kept the gun on her", there are people on this thread who think it's silly to be armed at home, and remove their weapon and lock it up the minute they get home---kinda like, "whew", I'm safe now--no danger of intruders in my home. Well, I hope they're right, but this woman saved her life by having a second gun for just that kind of emergency--more likely during the night.

[arch308]

I live alone. I keep a few of my guns hidden around the house and don't feel the need to carry. To each his own.
If the young relatives visit I put them up, well, all but one.

[RBid]

Regarding the "If I feel like I need to carry in my home, I'll move/(other)" outlook:

1st, that's your call. I respect your right to have your own opinions, and your right to express those.

2nd, Moving to a great area doesn't ensure that the desperate, unstable, irrational, or evil elements of the world will not find you. Moving to nice communities can certainly minimize your chances of being victimized, but living in a great area isn't a form of self defense.

I live in a great part of a quiet suburb, and a couple were murdered at their dinner table, about 2 blocks away from my place, 2-3 years ago. Why? Because an unstable man who worked with the wife had become fixated on her, and flew into a rage after he stalked her home, and saw her with her husband.

As HIGHLY unlikely as it is that something similar will happen to me, I have seen and experienced 'highly unlikely' things happening, far too many times.


I will not rebuke or belittle anyone who disagrees. Your life is yours to live. I hope that each of us is allowed to live a long, happy life, free from the intrusion of dark elements.

[Nnobby45]

Regarding the "If I feel like I need to carry in my home, I'll move/(other)" outlook:

Not to be taken as critiscism, but this is a way of thinking I don't understand.

To "not feel the need" seems to be a prediction of the future in which no need to defend yourself in your home will arise.

I'm not an expert on the subject, but it's my understanding that there often isn't advanced warning of such attacks, and that they happen in "good neighborhoods"--- where things like that just "don't happen".

About the only time I hear about things like that never happening in the spokesman's neighborhood, is right after it happens.

[RBid]

Well said, nnobby.

[kraigwy]

"If I feel like I need to carry in my home, I'll move

That's kind of like saying "if I feel the need to wear seat belts, I'd stop riding in a car".

[RBid]

Kraigwy,

I think it's more like saying, "If I feel the need to wear a seatbelt in my car, I'll get a new car".


There are countless examples of people being attacked in places where they feel safest, and least likely to need a weapon. Home, church, local parks, work, etc.

[44 AMP]

Leaving aside (for the moment) the discussion about stashing guns around the house being a good or bad idea, I'd like to point out something from he OP.

..but because she had a gun in her purse, and left her purse downstairs, she inadvertantly armed the intruders:....

The language used is indicative of the thinking here. "inadvertanly armed the intruders"? Where the heck does this idea come from? They STOLE it.

If someone steals your money, are you inadvertantly enriching the poor? Inadvertantly redistgributing wealth (yours)?

I could give dozens of examples of this kind of thing, and while grammatically correct, they would each and every one, be wrong. Unless, of course, you believe that the actions of others are your responsibility. I do not.

Yes, the result was not what was intended, so technically the language is correct, but it gives an extremely slanted impression. Unfortunately, this is the society we live in today. And one of the reasons we have many of the problems that we do. Everything is always our fault, never the fault of others, the ones actually doing the deed. Its our fault, because we let it happen.

I, for one, am sick of this kind of thinking. It only focuses on what we do or don't do to prevent or make a crime more difficult, never on the simple fact that if the people who commited the crime had not done so it would be a moot point.

"Oh, you let them get a gun! The HORROR!" Bushwah! They stole it! Anytime anyone takes your property, without your permission, you are not "inadvertantly gifting" it to them, they are STEALING it!

Now, if you are a journalist (or anyone else), with an agenda against personal firearms ownership, saying that you "inadvertanly armed criminals" focuses blame on the gun owner, NOT the criminals. It becomes our fault, not theirs. After all, if we hadn't had the gun in the first place, they never would have gotten it, right? So it must be our fault. Right?

Fine language for someone with an anti-firearms bias, but why do we repeat it?

Seems to me that if that poor woman hadn't had more than one gun, should would be considerably worse off today. She shot one of the thugs, did she inadvertantly let the others escape?

Might as well go and arrest the parents, after all, if they hadn't inadvertantly procreated, their little darlings wouldn't have grown up to be ciminals! Makes as much sense to me....

[rtpzwms]

44Amp you make a point. But and you had to know that was coming if you have not done everything you can to prevent the loss of a firearm, you have not done enough. I have had weapons stolen from me and there is nothing worse than going to the police station and reporting the weapons as stolen. I had nothing to do with the loss of the weapons they were stolen but I did not do everything I could do to prevent it either. If you place them around your home do you put them away when you go to work? to the park or to the store for a gallon of milk? How long do you have to be away before its too long?

My guns are in the safe when I'm not at home, period. That's the best I can do. But how many pickup and pack up before running out for a minute?

I have friends that are cops and I would feel awful if one of the was injured or killed by a weapon that I bought. Again I did not ask for them to be stolen but it happened. So up to 5 criminals may have guns (4 now I did get one back),crook went to jail.