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Old May 9, 2009, 04:12 AM   #1
Owens187
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Best defense offense??

Hello, I am new here, just want your thoughts on my best defense. Now, let me explain my house as well as I can.

As you walk through my front door, four steps forward and my oldest daughters room is to your right. Another four steps forward, and to your right is a small hallway, maybe 7 feet long. If you turn 90 degrees to your right and enter that hallway, there is a guest bathroom to your left, and my youngest daughters room is directly in front of you, down that hallway. Now, if you then turn 180 degrees, facing the opposite direction, you are facing my living room on the left, and my dining room and kitchen on the right. (open floor plan). If you walk to your left, through the living room, the master bedroom is at the end of the living room. If you walk through the bedroom door, our bed is at your left, headboard against the wall adjoining the living room. If you continue straight into the bedroom, there is the master bathroom door to your right. If you turn 90 degrees to your right and enter the bathroom, directly to your right is a walk in closet, which is where my guns are stored.

So far, since I have kids in the house, my plan is as follows:

at the end of the closet there is a 4 foot tall dresser. On top of the dresser is all of my rifles, in carry cases, unloaded. My ammo also sits on top of this dresser, locked in a "sentry" safe. In this safe I also keep my .38 special, fully loaded. Above this dresser on the upper shelf, I keep all of my motocross riding gear. As of now, I have the key to this safe hidden up in my riding gear, inside one of my riding boots, so I would basically have to run to this closet, grab the boot, get the key, and unlock the safe. To my best guess, it would take less than a minute from the bed. While in the safe, the best goal would be to waistband the .38 as a backup, and grab some shells to throw in my Mossberg.

Just so you know, the weapons options I have are a Mossberg 500 pump, A J.C. Higgins model 30 semi auto .22LR, A Marlin/Glenfield model 20 bolt acton .22LR (with a 7 round clip, also loaded and in the safe)., and a S&W .38 special, as I said, fully loaded and in the "Sentry" safe.

What is my best defense??

My floor plan is obviously very crappy from a HD point of view, as If I come out of my room armed, I am firing directly across the house toward both my daughters rooms, which is what makes me feel that the Mossberg fired at head level would be my best bet.

Any thought would be extremely appreciated, as this issue is always heavily on my mind. Every time I ponder my floor plan, the issue of HD is always at the top of my thoughts.

Thanxs!!

Eric
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Old May 9, 2009, 04:18 AM   #2
GojuBrian
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Keep rounds (OO buck) in the mossbergs tube, but not the chamber. Keep all guns out of reach from kids. Under too much stress you probably won't be able to use the key.
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Old May 9, 2009, 04:23 AM   #3
Owens187
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Keeping the Mossy loaded, even on the highest shelf, is just too much more risk than I am willing to assume. My kids safety comes first, Im just trying to strike the best balance of the two.

Thanx!!

eric
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Old May 9, 2009, 04:55 AM   #4
GojuBrian
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Not sure how old your kids are, but do what you think is safest first.
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Old May 9, 2009, 05:34 AM   #5
Owens187
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youngest is 5, oldest is 12.
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Old May 9, 2009, 11:53 PM   #6
Donn_N
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If you think your kids won't find the key if they start looking for it, I think you're mistaken.
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Old May 10, 2009, 12:00 AM   #7
Kyo
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keep one copy on your key chain, keep the other on your wife's. keep a gun on your nightstand so you got somethin on the way over to said safe.
Then get a different house where the kids aren't the first rooms as you walk in, or put outside doors in their rooms and lock up so people can't just break those down. Get a dog.
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Old May 10, 2009, 01:17 AM   #8
Lee Lapin
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What is my best defense??

1) Get a gun safe to store your guns in while they are unattended. At the very least, a locking steel cabinet of the Stack-On/Homak/etc. type, bolted to the floor/wall in the closet. But you MUST find a way to secure your guns better than you have them secured right now.

2) Your house's floor plan and the fact that you have children to defend makes yours a situation requiring some serious HD planning, and some work and expenditure to harden your home's perimeter as a first step.

See (among many other sites):

http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/homesecurity.html

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/hardhome.htm

http://www.bankrate.com/yho/news/loa...rity_a1can.asp

http://www.homesecurity911.com/avoid...den-your-home/

http://www.crimedoctor.com/home2.htm

3) You need to know HOW to plan and WHAT to plan as far as family emergencies are concerned. You need to have plans for other family emergencies as well as those involving criminal intrusion into your lives. In fact any number of events are probably higher statistical probabilities than criminal intrusion- fire, mediacl emergencies etc.

Even so, good family emergency plans and preparations can enable you and your loved ones to deal successfully with all sorts of potential problems. Good plans reinforce and support one another. And a sense of preparedness, responsibility and independence is a lot better thing to encourage in your family than a sense of helplessness.

The best place I know to start learning a thinking person's approach to HD is in the NRA's Personal Protection In The Home class. See http://www.nrahq.org/education/train...ictraining.asp for a class description and to use a locator tool to see if anyone is teaching the class near you. If not, you can get the classroom portion on DVD from http://materials.nrahq.org/go/produc...tid=ES%2026840 and the textbook from http://www.nrastore.com/nra/Product....uctid=PB+01781 .

This ought to be enough to get you started, and to keep you busy for a good while. hope you find it helpful,

lpl
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Old May 10, 2009, 04:57 AM   #9
Owens187
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...Just a few more notes....

I do have a dog, a full blood male Boxer.

I know the key can be found if someone really searched for it, but my 5 year old cannot access this shelf, and my 12 year old is very knowledged about the dangers of guns, and would never snoop around my room in the first place. Even if she did find the key, she is not the type of person to fool around with a gun. Also, on the rare occasion when me and the wife are not home and shes by herself, our room is locked with a deadbolt for that reason.

I am a member of the NRA, so maybe Ill look up the program that was mentioned.

I do plan on finding another, more secure floor planned house, but in the meantime, I just wanted your thoughts on my best bet for safety. Also, I live out on 10 acres of forested land, so 911 will take some time, I'm basically on my own in that situation.

eric
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Old May 10, 2009, 05:06 AM   #10
Owens187
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Another thought I just had...

Maybe I should just keep the spare safe key on the same ring as my truck keys, and every night just stick the keys in the lock of the safe, so all I'd have to do is run in there and turn the key......

That way I'd never forget to lock it back up in the morning, as I would need my truck keys to go to work anyway....

FYI...there is a safe key on both mine and my wifes car keys, as well as the one "in the boot"....
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Old May 10, 2009, 05:46 AM   #11
scottaschultz
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Quote:
I know the key can be found if someone really searched for it, but my 5 year old cannot access this shelf, and my 12 year old is very knowledged about the dangers of guns, and would never snoop around my room in the first place
As the father of three and grandfather of 7 (with #8 due in December), don't count on it! Children can be very creative! Guns are what some in the legal profession call an "attractive nuisance" and no matter how much you trust your 12 year old, please do not rely on anything less than a locked safe.

As far as looking for another house, I can't imagine giving up 10 acres of land. We have 3 acres and can't imagine anything less. If you like the property in general and the location provides you with access to good schools for your children, why not build another house to better suit your needs on your property? Especially in this crazy real estate market, this way you won't have to worry about selling your present house in order to buy a new one.

Scott
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Old May 11, 2009, 05:04 AM   #12
Brit
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Your own house, on your own land! Neat, could you build an other entrance?
Children before you in the house plan? Not good.

A lot cheaper than moving, and giving up ten acres? <Not.

The big worry with children? Friends/Visitors. But you do need an instant access weapon, and a safe method of securing same.

Sounds like you have a 4 legged early warning system in place.
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