Just starting - Kid safety

I

iamjamesbrown

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I've not owned a pistol before but have used them. I have three younger children and am confident they will be fine with a gun in the home but I"m wondering if there are suggestions for a gun safe, pistol specific would be fine, that is easy for me to get in to but not so easy for the kids. We have had homes broken into recently and this is the primary reason I am getting a gun so I want it easily accessible but not so easy for the kids.

Any other suggestions you may have regarding kids and guns? Do I need a safe and a trigger lock or just the safe? Any other thoughts?

Thanks,
James
 
Trigger locks don't work all that well just the safe should be fine. I don't have kids so I just leave my gun on the night stand but in my car I use a 20$ walmart lock box that would probably work just fine for your night stand.
 
A home defense guns is worthless if you have to go get it when you need it. "hey now, wait just a second, while I go get my gun".... not likely.

Educate your children. Get an airsoft gun for $20 and leave it laying around until your children ask about it. Then, short class on safety. Repeat as needed. If you make a firearm "forbidden" or "off limits" to small children, they WILL find a way to access it.

Take 'em to the range, but leave 'em in the car. Show 'em what happens to a shaken pop can when hit with a .22.... the demo usually opens little eyes, big time.
 
Kids in the house

iamjamesbrown said:
I've not owned a pistol before but have used them. I have three younger children and am confident they will be fine with a gun in the home but I"m wondering if there are suggestions for a gun safe, pistol specific would be fine, that is easy for me to get in to but not so easy for the kids. We have had homes broken into recently and this is the primary reason I am getting a gun so I want it easily accessible but not so easy for the kids.

Any other suggestions you may have regarding kids and guns? Do I need a safe and a trigger lock or just the safe? Any other thoughts?

Thanks,
James
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I have a two year old and keep this in my closet. It's discreet and will keep her out of it. When she gets older, I'll show her how to handle firearms, but for now - what she can't get into can't hurt her.
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A handgun safe is ideal for the bedside. I keep this one by my bed:
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It's a combination lock, so it's easier to get to than fumbling with a key, and it has a cable you can wind around the bedpost to prevent theft. We also have a pushbutton combo safe in an upper dresser drawer for my wife's gun. You'll find other more expensive models that have biometric inputs.

But I agree with everyone else here. The gun on your hip is the safest place for it. My one suggestion is when the kids discover your gun and ask to see it, if they're mature enough, unload it, chamber check it and let them see it. I have two boys who are pretty crazy when it comes to nerf guns, military toys and lightsabers, but they take gun safety seriously. When they walked in on me holstering my gun (no privacy!), their eyes lit up like they'd walked in on some secret ninja ritual. After a few seconds holding the gun and a short lecture on what to do if they ever find a gun, it was like "meh."

Then again, they're Cub Scouts and go BB shooting at every campout. The older one's done skeet and recently shot his first AR-15. My dad bought a rifle and I had my older child recite the four rules for him. I don't have too many success stories with taming these wild children, but they take guns seriously and still have fun.
 
Another vote for carry it.

Check out the NRA's Eddie Eagle program - there's a video on youtube and you can order activity books to go along with it. The Cornered Cat website has a good section about kids too. Take away the mystery so they don't have any desire to go looking for it when you're not there. My kids are now 8 & 10, but we started down the gun road a couple years ago. They know they can look and/or touch whenever they ask me. They know not to discuss this in public. They both have shot my pistol at least once, and they have a kid-size .22 rifle that we take to the range. Building up a respect for guns doesn't take long, and can prevent problems down the road - just like any other tool.

I wouldn't bother with a trigger lock if you have it in a safe. I just use the box my XDM came in, with a padlock on it, for the house; I have a minivault for the car because it attaches under the seat with a cable.
 
I wouldn't get a safe either. Too hard to get into when seconds count. I concur with everyone saying to teach your children how to handle them. Takes away the curiosity and let's them feel involved with "grown up things". Installs a sense of pride and responsibility to do the right thing.
 
As many have posted - don't make it 'forbidden fruit.'

My daughter's 14 now, and has been a part of my shooting culture since she was 8. I took her to the range, did NOT let her shoot.. got her to understand that yup, daddy's gun can be kinda loud... and yup, it's pretty messy after it shoots. range time was kept to a minimum, more as an 'exposure' thing than as an educational thing. The firearms were not locked up - but then again, she was living with my ex, so it was never an issue. When she was over, the weapon was in my night-stand, and she knew that it was loud and dirty - two things she wasn't really fond of.

She's big for her age, always has been (5'8 at 14 years old, now) - when she was 10, she towered over most 12 year olds around us. I took her to the range, because she wanted to go shooting. She loved it.

Afterwards, though.. I took her out to the back 40 and showed her what happens to a melon about the size of her head when it gets hit by 147 +p... and told her: I don't want this to happen to you, so now we're going to set some ground rules."

She loved shooting... so the deal is - whenever she's with me, and she wants to, we'll go to the range. The catch? If she ever lays so much as a finger on a weapon when I'm not around, and/or I haven't expressly told her it's okay.. she will never.. ever.. EVER go to the range with me, ever again.

We've never had any issues, not a single one, in the past 6 years.. She's a well-behaved (as well as any 14 year old girl can be, anyway) kid who has a healthy respect for firearms.

I'd strongly encourage the same.

Were she living with me full time, odds are I would have locked up the weapon if I wasn't carrying it, until such time as she was old enough to be able to fire it.. but all in all, my educational method seems to have worked out quite well.
 
As stated, The NRA's Eddie Eagle program is a great learning tool for kids to learn about gun safety. There are a number of quick access gun safes. I am talking about the gun safes were you place your hand on the safe and are able to enter a 3 to 5 digit combination with your fingers.
 
I have an 8 year old son...I started getting pistols when he was 5 or 6...he has asked about them and my husband and I have educated him on them. He knows he is NOT to touch them at any time unless we are cleaning an unloaded weapon. You ask him why this is...and he will tell you that you have to treat the weapon as it is loaded at all times...also ask him where you are to point a weapon....always downrange...or at the floor. I let him hold my weapon after a cleaning, before it is loaded to empty his curiousness. We got him his own .22 rifle last Christmas...(he is a great shot for having ADHD) He blows out the bulls eyes. I think if your kids are educated, and if they are mature enough...you will do fine. GOOD LUCK!!!
 
Educate the kids. Don't taboo the guns as this will just draw attention to them. Train in proper handling and then lock the gun up. I use the "gunvault" specifically the nanovault.

Awesome product at $30. You can have few throughout the home and car.
 
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