I have a child. How do you recommend I store my guns?

[theicemanmpls]

Thanks for the comments. I will educate my daughter on gun safety. I will also introduce her to the joys of shooting while treating the weapons with respect.

I bought an equivalent to the gun vault. It uses an electronic combination and holds 2 guns. My concern is that it does not have the ability to put the trigger locks on the pistols. Should I be concerned about that? I have 2 357s in the gun safe with bullets in a speedloader. I still feel uneasy about having them loaded, until I educate my daughter and notify my wife that guns are in a drawer.

CDR, If this vault can not be opened without a combination, I would load up at least one of your .357's with .38+P JHP. If you hear a crash in the middle of the night, your hands might not be stable. It will be dark. Also, what is very important, is a small flashlight. You want to make tripple sure you don't fire on a non-badguy. I am assuming that nobody will be able to access this vault except you and your spouse. Regarding your daughters training, a couple of things that I like to inculde in my lesson plans. One is to explain; "If you find a firearm, do not touch it. Everyone leave the room, close the door, and find an adult. The other point I like to make is show what a firearm will do. I will use at least a .357, and travel to an outdoor area, and shoot a unopened pepsi can. This makes quite an impression on students. It also destroy's the worlds worse cola. I also like to get a skill saw, and turn it on. I ask the students, "you wouldn't think of playing with this tool, would you? A firearm is a tool also. Not a toy. Check out the Eddie Eagle program
from the NRA, for some more ideas.
CDR, if you are uneasy about having a loaded pistol, then by all means don't load it. Go the speed loader route if need be. Practice using your speed loader in a dark room. Like the skill saw, don't do anything you are not comfortable with. A great idea is to obtain some training. It will help. This will help sell your wife on the idea. Bring her along by all means. Involve her.

 

[CDR_Glock]

CDR, If this vault can not be opened without a combination, I would load up at least one of your .357's with .38+P JHP. If you hear a crash in the middle of the night, your hands might not be stable. It will be dark. Also, what is very important, is a small flashlight. You want to make tripple sure you don't fire on a non-badguy. I am assuming that nobody will be able to access this vault except you and your spouse. Regarding your daughters training, a couple of things that I like to inculde in my lesson plans. One is to explain; "If you find a firearm, do not touch it. Everyone leave the room, close the door, and find an adult. The other point I like to make is show what a firearm will do. I will use at least a .357, and travel to an outdoor area, and shoot a unopened pepsi can. This makes quite an impression on students. It also destroy's the worlds worse cola. I also like to get a skill saw, and turn it on. I ask the students, "you wouldn't think of playing with this tool, would you? A firearm is a tool also. Not a toy. Check out the Eddie Eagle program
from the NRA, for some more ideas.
CDR, if you are uneasy about having a loaded pistol, then by all means don't load it. Go the speed loader route if need be. Practice using your speed loader in a dark room. Like the skill saw, don't do anything you are not comfortable with. A great idea is to obtain some training. It will help. This will help sell your wife on the idea. Bring her along by all means. Involve her.

Great advice. Thank you, theicemanmpls!

 

[cragspider]

I have a 18 month old now who is starting to get into everything. Knowing that this would happen I have two safes. I have a gun vault next to the bed with my XD45 in it. With a spare mag in the nightstand. Then have a Liberty Centurion in the closet for everything else. Keep the rest of the guns, ammo, and other valuables in the safe. I don't lock it at night cause that's where the 870 sits loaded but not chambered. The safe is locked once I get ready for work and is unlocked at night right before bed. It will be a while before she can open the safe anyway. But once she gets older I will show her the guns and teach her all about the dangers and the correct way to deal with firearms. Plus take her to the range or out back if I have some property by then.

 

[Griffworks]

Great advice, all around.

I've got a couple of options for securing my firearms from children. First is the Winchester Personal Electronic Safe - mine's big enough to hold four medium frame pistols, or two pistols and a large number of loaded magazines. I also have the standard child safety trigger locks, as well as those cable chamber locks. I keep a cable lock in my car so that I can lock a pistol to a seat frame if necessary, as well.

My older kids are well versed in firearms safety. In fact, they were originally schooled by my dad, a Marine. Dad taught my oldest to shoot a .22lr rifle.

.

 

[Griffworks]

BTW, here's the safe I was on about in my post above. It's the Winchester Personal Electronic Safe.

Link Removed

It was USD$140, plus tax. Four digit combo w/LED display and interior LED Light. It has six screw holes to allow for mounting to a wooden surface or to utilize a cable - no included - to mount it to a bedframe or something similar. Comes in three sizes and mine is the largest they make. At least, for this company and for this style.

I'm going to start looking in to one of those smaller, car-type safes. It's either that or cable lock my pistol to a seat frame if I have to leave it in the car for any period of time.

.

 

[revolvers&w]

Secure your keys and ammo until you can buy a gunsafe.
9 and 10 year olds (espesially boys wanting to impress your daughter) are much to resourcefull to leave anything to chance.

 

[thedub88]

BTW, here's the safe I was on about in my post above. It's the Winchester Personal Electronic Safe.

Link Removed

It was USD$140, plus tax. Four digit combo w/LED display and interior LED Light. It has six screw holes to allow for mounting to a wooden surface or to utilize a cable - no included - to mount it to a bedframe or something similar. Comes in three sizes and mine is the largest they make. At least, for this company and for this style.

I'm going to start looking in to one of those smaller, car-type safes. It's either that or cable lock my pistol to a seat frame if I have to leave it in the car for any period of time.

.

I have this safe on the shelf on the night stand. I got the security cable and ran it though the bed and base board. Great safe, it has a lock out feature that locks the key pad after 3 failed code enteries, then the correct code has to be entered (not the key) or the alarm sounds for 2 min.
My only complant is that it has a digital disply that has to be woken up before you can enter the code. What I do is, reach in and hit any button (there is a 3 or 4 second delay before you can enter the code). This will wake up the screen and let you to feel where the buttons are. Then hit the 4 number code and it snaps open.

 

[-06]

Education, sharing, and taking the mystery out of guns is your best way to insure their safety. All our kids are adults with families of their own. I raised them with loaded guns in our home. They got to handle, help clean, and fire them when ever they wanted. My daughters 14th birthday gift was a "M" style golden wood SKS that she still has. My sons got 30/30s on their 14s and pistols on their 21st. All have deer hunted, plinked, and enjoyed target practice since childhood. They are probably the safest gun handlers I have ever seen. The biggest reason is that I placed a gallon milk jug of water beside the patio and as I was coming in from deer hunting with each of them I would "accidentally" fire my '06 into the jug at point blank range. I would feign terror that it could have been them that I could have shot due to my negligence. They never forgot that lesson. At our gatherings we have a kids shooting event and this year a 9 yr old gal shooting a pink 22 outshot the boys. We have them every April and Oct. Gun safety and accessibility are difficult to maintain so gun handling safety is paramount and is your biggest safety tool. Please do not neglect it. Untrained children will find, unlock, and play with your shooters.

 

[CDR_Glock]

I had a talk with her today. I educated her again. I said only careless people get killed or kill others. I told her what to do if a gun is found. I told her the rules of guns. I even let her dry fire. She could not cycle the slide of the 27. Guns are made with one purpose-Killing.

She was overwhelmed but if I am in a situation, she knows my drill. I shall shoot to kill.

 

[handgonnetoter]

My child is 9. She has a friend that is a boy who plays video games with her. I have my guns stored in the following fashion:

Bullets in a bag out of reach-no bullets stored with guns
Gun case locked with trigger locks on all guns
keys to guns in a separate location with a stack of keys (only one opens the case)

This is an ok setup and I can get my guns ready in about 40 seconds.

However, I have considered carrying the keys on my own keychain and getting one of those Firesafes with the guns ready and loaded. That should cut the preparation time to just 10 seconds (for home defense). I live in a safe neighborhood that is gated an I have a security system.

What other recommendations do you have for my easy accessibility but maintain a safe house (without allowing kids access to the guns)?

Yeah, that was a tough one for me too when my kids were younger. I have a decent gun cabinet I have kept everything, but the handgun I happened to be carrying that day, locked up at all times. I have a separate locker that I keep ammo stored and padlocked up in too. I have no problems with my guns being out now. My kids are either grown or in high school and are really quite sick of firearms shooting. I started them out so young and so much that they don't even want to go to the range with me anymore! Lots of good posts from others on this topic. Common sense is your best defense - and take them to the range with you - A LOT!

 

[Anubis]

One of the safest ways to store a gun is to always have it on your person. You kids can't get it if you're carrying it.

That's also the only way a gun will be usable at a moment of crisis, when you don't have time for anything other than drawing and firing. Not having a pistol within reach when you must use it is the same as not owning a pistol.