Where do you keep your HD gun?

[Maxx]

+1 on the Gun Vault. It's quick and easy, as good as it can get.

Any gun not on my person is always locked and secured.
The fact I have kids in the house only makes this a more obvious choice.

[OldMarksman]

For what it's worth, in Post 20 I mentioned a Best Defense episode in which a woman raced an intruder to the bedroom, "won the race", and locked the door and got her gun.

I just saw a new episode in which they showed a replay of that "race," they opined that the thing to do in the case of an intrusion is to get to a saferoom. They then said that the safest way to get to the saferoom may be to be armed.

If someone had asked me a year ago what I thought of the idea of carrying a gun in my own house, I would have been highly dubious. But now that I've thought about it, I don't know any other way of avoiding getting cut off from the weapon should someone enter from certain points than having several guns in different locations, and even that entails some tactical risk.

At night? I heed the advice that it is best to have to be really awake before grabbing a gun. That rules out the nightstand, where I kept it for years, for me.

Like Hogdogs, I remember being around loaded guns a a child and when my cousins were very young when staying with an aunt or with grandparents. We knew not to touch them. I would not assume that risk today until the kids were older. I do believe the combo safes are a really good idea for times when the gun is not in the pocket.

My opinions, for your consideration.

[KnightZero]

During the day, my Taurus PT140 Mil Pro is my carry gun - on my hip, as it should be. In the evenings, the carry gun goes on the floor next to my bed - which is just a mat on the ground anyway. Nighttime defense duty is taken care of by my Springfield XD-40 with a mounted Streamlight TLR-2 next to the pillow. My carry gun with charged up Nitesiters is waiting in the wings as backup. The XD goes under the pillow when I get up for the day, or into the shoulder holster if I decide to carry it for some reason.

I don't have kids, a spouse, an SO, family, friends, or visitors, so this setup works for me.

[djohn]

Wow I cant believe people think there kids cant climb 5 ft, please My son at 2 could climb up a 6 ft cabinet to the top.I was at a friends house when there child I think was 4 at the time climbed a wood cabinet that was top heavy and down came the cabinet and child.Thanks goodness it didn't land on top of the child.

[ChCx91]

To the OP, I don't mean to sound rude by saying this but...

It really is not that safe to advertise on here where you keep your firearms. You NEVER KNOW if some perp is on here looking through the forums for information like this so he can use it to come and and steal your guns. No, I am not paranoid because when people talk about where they keep thier "cars, plasma screens, pets, guns, etc" perps read about it and come steal them all. Not all criminals are drunk/high/stupid kids just going into some random house; some criminals actually think about the crime they commit before they do it. Whether it be cost of the gun, a saftey issue or personal privacy, everyone should exercise discretion when disclosing information like this. These forums ARE open to the public and guests.

BTW: I have shared the locations of a COUPLE of my guns on this forum, but I will not disclose the locations of all my HD guns because some of them are just worth more than the ones I mentioned...(EX: My Glock, 870, etc...those are chump change compared to my others...and yes, I have just made it known that I have more than 2 guns)

[pax]

Wow I cant believe people think there kids cant climb 5 ft, please My son at 2 could climb up a 6 ft cabinet to the top.I was at a friends house when there child I think was 4 at the time climbed a wood cabinet that was top heavy and down came the cabinet and child.Thanks goodness it didn't land on top of the child.

Preach that! "Up high where the kids can't get it" is a sick joke, not congruent with reality in any way, shape, or form.

When my son David was just under 2 years old, I walked into the kitchen during naptime one afternoon to find that he had

• climbed out of his crib
  
• climbed over the babygate blocking his doorway
  
• climbed up the face of the kitchen cabinets
  
• climbed to the top of the fridge
  
• opened the "childproof latch" to the cupboard above the fridge to dig into the candy I kept there -- candy that he "didn't know" was there because we always made sure he was out of the room before we put it away.

There's no such thing as "too high" for a kid to reach, and there's no such thing as kids that don't know what you've got in the closet. There are only parents who luck out and fool themselves, and parents who do not.

Store your guns behind locks designed to keep out adult thieves, or keep the guns on your body. Don't trust your ability to hide the guns. The stakes are too high.

Oh, and teach your kids too. That goes without saying almost, but a surprising number of people believe ignorance is somehow safer than intelligent instruction and training.

pax

[EricReynolds]

I have had a couple of different options. I did have the guns in my sock drawer at night, ready to go. Then I had kids. I have a 3 yr. old daughter and a 2 yr. old son. I kept a lock on the pistols with locks on them as a precaution before I had the thought, "Where do I keep my ammo and loaded clips?" I can't put a lock on each bullet, and I don't want the kids playing with them anymore than I want them playing with the guns. My daughter is a good girl, but the boy is a concern. He is one of us. A gun guy by birth. Runs around saying, "I shoot the bad guys!" His mom and gramma yell at him, but I'm secretly proud. Knowing he likes guns, I had to step it up a notch and get a safe. It's the best thing you can do. However, if I didn't have kids, I'd have a gun stashed away in every room.

[Daugherty16]

People too often forget what it was like to be a kid.

For example: I am now an upstanding citizen, responsible gun owner, experienced hunter, committed father, faithful husband and trusted Director-level federal employee. Yet when i was very young, I knew the precise contents of both my parent's dressers, closets, and office, had found the "secret" entrance to the "other" attic accessed in the back of my folk's BR closet, and found and played with my dad's shotgun shells 15' off the ground in a box in the garage rafters. My parents once found me, at 6:00am, in the neighbors kitchen eating their Cheerios straight from the box, when i was 2. I can think of dozens more without trying hard. Need i go on?

Anything I did, I assume my kids have too, or will, or at least could. My carry gun is always on me, or in the master gunsafe with his cousins, or locked in the secure box in my truck depending upon circumstances. At night? biometric safe - top drawer nightstand. Secure, but quick access.

Not only is secured storage responsible, prudent, and simple, it is also the law where I live. Besides the all-consuming guilt should any child (let alone one of mine) injure or kill themself with my improperly stored gun, I would have the added pleasure of an instant divorce, being fired from a good job, hefty fines, legal fees, jail time, and a civil suit. Oh, and permanent loss of gun ownership rights in America.

Kind of a steep price to pay, if you lose that bet that your kids (or their friends) will just "know better". I can't see the upside.

[G-man 26]

And never underestimate the stupid action factor. We should all be able to remember doing stupid stuff at a young age, and not knowing why we did it, even at the time.

I had a couple of pistols on a sheet on the bed the other day, giving them the regular wipe down, light cleaning, and inspection. Right in front of my very eyes, my 7yr old ran into the room, reached out, and before I could stop him, pulled the trigger on my empty glock, as it lay on the sheet. He could not even say why he did it, and while I understood this, I still spanked the living tar out of him before sending him to his room and grounding him. You bet we have covered this before, and we covered it again. He doesn’t know why he did it, and knows better. Still it happened, he did it. Never under estimate the ability of a child to astonish you through action. Good or bad. And we will go over it again, and again, and again.

Totally unrelated, we had a bg in town for a while that broke me of the "nightstand" habit. He would break in to people’s homes, in the middle of the night, and just stand there at the foot of the bed, staring at you while you slept. Huge press coverage, and the police did a lightning fast and fantastic job of capturing this guy. Should this have happened to us, and we had a loaded and ready to go gun laying on the nightstand...(I shudder to think). I keep the thing under the pillow with no round in the chamber. If I can't wake up enough to function the slide, then I don't need to shoot anyway. It is the same amount of (acceptable) time to acquire the gun and make it usable, as placing it across the room. Plus it stays in my control. This may be wrong, but it works for me. If it is wrong, I hope I never wake up to a weirdo watching us sleep. I sure as heck don't want him holding my gun.

Ditto to those carrying while awake. +1 to that idea.

[Re4mer]

I have two within arms reach.

[Gwion]

I keep my firearms locked away in my gun safe at all times. I have three kids in the house so there is no other way for me. My safe is right next to my nightstand.

What I do though is at night I turn my safe's combo lock to just a few numbers off of opening. I can have it open in about the same time as pulling out a drawer. In the morning I simply spin the combo to scramble the lock.

[OldMarksman]

What I do though is at night I turn my safe's combo lock to just a few numbers off of opening. I can have it open in about the same time as pulling out a drawer. In the morning I simply spin the combo to scramble the lock.

That would seem to beg the question, what would you do if a couple of violent people were to crash through the back door while you were awake in the living room?

[erwos]

While we're on the topic, does anyone have any opinions about gun safes for home defense handguns? I'm seeing biometric ones online, and they do seem to have some appeal, but I do have some reliability concerns (not to mention cost). Do people feel that push button safes are good enough for fast access?

[Housezealot]

I have a solution that I seems to work for me having small children, I mounted a set of these
http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2...-LW-00101-.jpg
on the inside of my closet over the door with my mossberg 500 set inside like a gun rack and zip tied to the hangers, the gun cant be racked that way and is up high but a swift jerk snaps the hangers at the bottom of the curve and the gun is ready to go, the hangers are only a couple of dollars a piece so you can practice to make sure it works for you, my wife had a hard time snapping them first try but no problem at all for a 200 pound male. also If I am awake I have a pistol on my hip.

[Dresden2001]

No children in our house, and I have a push button pistol safe in the cabinet on my side of the headboard. I keep my HD pistol near the safe when I am home, in the safe when I am not. My carry pistol is in the safe, or on my belt depending on what I am doing. I have another pistol in condition one in my office since I work from home.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Parents can be remarkable clueless as to their children's lives and stresses. Even 'good' kids can only be good in the mind of the parent. Or they can be under tremendous pressure to confirm in a very short term - unknown to you.

Depending on their development stages, their ability to retain instructions and/or evaluate risk is very suspect.

Very young kids have been shown to have the ability to manipulate most of the standard HD firearms. Racking, safeties, etc. - they can do it and even work on teams to do it. You can give them a safety lectue, leave the room and they pick up the gun.

You really need an impenetrable physical method for kids.

[Tucker 1371]

Leaning up against the wall and my bedpost, mag in, chamber cold, safety on. I'm upstairs though so placement of my HD gun is not as important because its going to take me at lest 30 seconds to get downstairs and with all the goodies downstairs it's doubtful a BG would risk making noise to come upstairs for a look.

[Chettt]

If you live in a high crime area why not secure your bedroom door with a deadbolt and a metal bar across it? Together with a cell phone and a gun I would sleep better.

As for children in the house, nothing is a bigger threat to our 2nd amendment than a kid shooting another kid with a gun that was unloaded, unchambered, hidden, had too strong a trigger pull, had too strong a slide pull, was too complicated to assemble etc.

[LoneStarWings]

I live alone but I keep 3 HD weapons loaded underneath my bed.

.40 Pistol in holster w/ one in the chamber, no safety, hollow points
12 gauge pump, chamber empty, safety on, 00 buckshot
.308 semi-auto rifle, full 25 rnd magazine, chamber empty, safety on, soft points

Weapons rest on top of the egg crate foam of an open hard-shelled case.

[Ian0351]

+1

If I can't wake up enough to function the slide, then I don't need to shoot anyway.

For this reason, and because rolling out of bed is a good start to establishing a position, I go with under the bed, condition 3. In a few years when I get rugrats I'll get a good micro safe to go under there, for now I'd rather have a Shotgun for home defense (apartment living). During the day while I'm gone all my guns live in el cheapo dial combo gun safe from Wally World, this will also have to be replaced eventually. If having kids really is your punishment for the way you behaved, then I'm gonna have my hands full.

[Deaf Smith]

Where I keep my gun is for me to know and the home invaider to find out (at his peril!)