How Do You Lock Up Your Guns With Kids Around?

[UnCivE]

Simple question, how do you strike a compromise between having a gun ready and having them locked away from the kids? I keep a shotgun top shelf of my bedroom closet.

Edit: Daughter is only 2, so I feel like the shotgun being 6ft high is good enough for now. Will need to change it pretty soon though.

[countryred]

Great question. I keep a shotgun close to the bed,..and ammo hid, but closer. Can load and be ready inside 6 seconds. Wife keeps her pistol close, and loaded clips closer, but also hid.

Its a tough balance between ready and leaving it out where young hands can get them.

[ness]

In gun safe, key hidden well. Ammo in another place. I can be loaded and blasting away in less than 5 minutes.

[Jack Jones]

In a gun safe, with a trigger lock on it. Ammo elseware. Anything less is reckless and child endangerment in my book.

[jdmidwest]

In gun safe, key hidden well. Ammo in another place. I can be loaded and blasting away in less than 5 minutes.

Dam Ness, you may as well wait for the Poleece to show up.

Loaded weapon within reach at all times and under my control. Several others mag loaded with empty chambers at main entry points and bedroom. All out of reach of young children.

Older children know how to respect and use firearms. Younger ones realize that they are danger and off limits. I do have a very limited household, just the two of us with a 4 year old a few times a week.

Different situations require different plans. When in doubt, lock it up. Put the keys in your pocket.

[Feathers and Fins]

Education from the time they are old enough to understand the word NO and as they get older more education and handling. ((((( take the mystery out of them and kids tend ignore them ))))) Raised mine that way and I was raised that way as were numerous friends and their kids and no issue's. For home protection with young kids in the house.

I assume your talking pure home defense and for that defense of the home itself starts with making it secure and entry points limited. This is what I suggest, Plant thorny plants around and under all windows, the bigger the thorns the better. Next install motion sensor flood lights around the yard ( never facing the house but so they do light it up. At the doors install floods that will blind anyone coming to the door. Finally nothing is better than a Dog but remember to post signs around the house BEWARE OF DOG.

After that is someone is intent on entry during ( awake hours ) have a handgun on or near you. During sleep hours a shotgun with double00 buck I suggest the shotgun because you will be awakened and accuracy of a handgun when you are not even half awake will suck the shotgun point and pull and let the pattern find the target.

All other guns should be stored in a safe and firing pins stored in a separate safe. To accomplish this Buy a safe big enough for all the guns and then a smaller one that will fit in it for the firing pins.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Loaded weapon within reach at all times and under my control.

If it is not in YOUR hand, it is NOT under YOUR control. I don't care what kind of cat like reflexes you have.

[Al Agnew]

This is a tougher question that some would make it out to be.

Maybe I'm living in the past, but I grew up around LOADED guns in the house. There was a loaded shotgun on the wall and a loaded handgun in the nightstand next to where my dad slept. The shotgun was in plain sight, the handgun was hidden and never mentioned, but being a curious kid, I knew it was there. But I also knew it was loaded and I knew what a loaded gun meant. I would never have dreamed of actually picking up that handgun, or showing it to a friend. I was taught from a very early age, as was my sister and brother, that all guns were to be considered loaded and never pointed, let alone the trigger pulled, on anything you didn't want to shoot. And we were NEVER allowed to bring friends over to the house when our parents weren't home.

So now, my wife and I never had kids, but her family includes a lot of kids that have spent a lot of time at our house. We know how these kids are being raised...we've done a little of the raising ourselves...and we trust them. Like me, they have been exposed to guns and taught respect for them from an early age, and if they have friends over to our house, we're there and supervising.

So my guns aren't locked up. They aren't out in the open, they aren't loaded, and the ammo is not with them, except for a .22 rifle that I have handy to shoot bothersome critters occasionally, and the 12 gauge pump that's under my bed with the shells in the nightstand. And I don't happen to own any "sexy" guns like handguns or military style rifles that could be a little more tempting for some kid visiting to play with.

If my situation was different...if we didn't trust the upbringing of the kids that we have at the house, if we allowed them to have friends over unsupervised, I'd be much more likely to make sure the guns were locked up. If we had very young children, I'd definitely make sure there were no loaded or unloaded guns within their reach.

But given our situation, I'm pretty comfortable with the way the guns are stored.

[jdmidwest]

We were always taught to unload the gun before coming into the house. By unload, we simply remove the chambered round and stored it in the house. Magazines were still full and all that was required to load was to cycle the action. Safe guns are fully unloaded and wiped down or cleaned before putting under lock and key. Transported guns are also unloaded or magazines stored separate with the exception of the daily carry.

The only fully loaded and chambered weapon is the daily carry. It is a double action first shot, semi auto with a thumb safety Smith 6906. It requires a pretty strong trigger pull and rests in a holster at my side. No catlike reflexes needed to control it.

Like others, children are taught that all guns are loaded and to treat them with respect. None are laying around in corners or behind doors. None are under a bed or a pillow. I intentionally locate the night defense gun away from the bed so it will require a conscience effort to get it and avoid any dreams or accidents. All others are in multiple safes under lock and key. A few are in wall racks, out of reach of young children.

[ness]

I'm pretty comfortable with the way my kids are being raised -- and they've been around guns, know the danger and respect them. But I still lock them up. I'd rather not depend on things going just the way they're supposed to when there's a gun around.