Child-proofing your home defense arsenal

Hi everyone!
My first new thread in awhile...

I sometimes envy people who are able to keep loaded weapons in multiple locations in the home in case of invasion. I personally dont have that freedom. I have a hyperactive 11yr-old who regardless of education, I dont completely trust to remember or honor what he is taught. For this reason Ive attenuated and modified my "home defense arsenal" to minimize my kid's access and exposure to firearms.

Most people will tell you a shotgun, or an AR or similar is where its at for home defense and I might be inclined to agree with that mostly. But because of my situation I will not keep long guns loaded in the house. No exceptions. I also believe a full mag and one in the chamber, and a firearm available within a few steps (not in safe) is also mandatory for any real state of readiness. No exceptions. I actually do have like 12 handguns and they are all locked up except 3. I have no idea if my kid is aware of the long guns in the house, except for a pellet gun stored alone which makes a good decoy.

I have a pump shotgun and a single-shot one as well. I'm not about to get rid of my pump, but I refuse to keep it loaded as stated. The single-shot 12ga can be loaded or unloaded with ease, so I'm much more inclined to consider it my goto for shotgun defense. My EDC is a 9mm shield which is always fully loaded, 8+1 with five spare mags. I have a 357 loaded with 38's hidden inside a wall that only my wife knows about, and a 9mm hi-power also hidden in a secret compartment with a mag in it...but not racked. I even have an AK which I woukd consider a goto in some situations, but again I keep the mags hidden separately where I can grab one on the way to get the rifle.

Another idea I had for dealing with my situation is to have a small PCC with a folding stock under my mattress, with the mags in a very different place (hollowed out book maybe?) My kid seems to have little notion of gun mechanics, and I seriously doubt if he found one he'd be able to put two and two together quickly. He is seldom alone long enough to be able to rummage that much (i.e. figuring out that you need a certain magazine or a certain caliber). Mostly he plays ball and watches You Tube with his spare time. I am a control freak of sorts and I do routine inspections of things around the house. Being certified ADD, my son is rarely ever able to get into anthjng without leaving a blatant trail and getting himself busted. I regularly watch for important changes in this.

So I'm just kind of curious if anyone else here has been in the situation that I'm in...where they actually limited the types of firearms they keep loaded, or have special strategies aside from simply locking guns up accessible to nobody. Its a fine line, I know. But I feel I'm fairly ready, yet also fairly incognito about what I have and how I keep it. Should I lock everything except two handguns up, "his n hers"? Personally, the older my kid gets the more I expect he will glean from YouTube about how guns work. I would like to follow the traditional advice and just educate him...but I know my son and I know "education backfires

Telum Pisces said:

You are not going to like my opinion! The below statement is a problem with you and you alone!

"Personally, the older my kid gets the more I expect he will glean from YouTube about how guns work."

I have three children. I have 4 nieces an nephews that are over all the time. My children and all my nieces an nephews have been taught about firearms since they were two! All three of my children have different personalities and capabilities. They are aged 14, 10, and 6 as of the moment I type this. All know what a gun is, how to use it, when to use it, when to touch one, what to do if they find one, what to do if they are around someone that finds one, what to do if they are ever in another situation with a firearm and they are not the one in control of it and so so much more!

This is just me and my opinion only! Finding out on youtube about guns is not where I would want anyone to find out about guns and how to use them.

At age 11, your child already knows more than you think. There is no childproofing a home by hiding or being creative etc... other than locking them up! My mom hid a handgun on top of the cabinets when I was young. She never knew I knew where it was.

Do yourself a favor and get out there with your child and teach him/her the ins and outs. You may be surprised what your child can do. Again, just my opinion.

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I envy that your kids have not been hard to train. Mine is. He so far gives me no reason to trust him. He is a high functioning person diagnosed on the autistic spectrum with ADD, as stated in the original post. I dont know if you can relate, but so far either you sped through what I wrote or you simply cant. I know some kids take very well to training and education. I did. But miine likes to toy around wrecklessly with everything new that he learns and does "oppositionally defiant" things on purpose to freak us out and watch our BP rise Its the nature of his disorder not some problem with me as a parent. Ever hear of Tourettes Syndrome where people compulsively swear and throw things? He is similar. I cant trust my kid to put toothpaste on his toothbrush without making a royal mess and sometimes doing things the opposite of how he's been shown...ON PURPOSE. I have tried to talk about guns with him. Things he says regarding that still shows me he is not capable or able to handle them safely AT ALL, among other things. Sorry to kick your opinion back at you, and I agree that education is all many kids need. But you are not really aware of my situation. If I didnt know the situation I am in I wouldnt be asking the question I'm asking. Good luck and and congrats in having it so simple and easy.

I really appreciate that some of you are starting to appreciate my situation in better perspective, and it's possible maybe I still haven't described the situation well enough either. I truly am leading a little more towards the "lock everything up" posture on the matter though. And that was prior to reading any of your posts. I'm not sure there is a black and white answer to the question.

There may be some incidents where a person can open their gun safe when they know their home has been invaded and take care of whatever problem need rectifying. However I've heard plenty of stories where perpetrators managed to break into a home undetected I need to do horrible things to a child or make off with the family jewels while people were actually awake in the house. I live in a somewhat rural area. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen before the cops get there.

My concealed carry weapon is near me personally or on my person most of the time. When I say my other two ready handguns are well hidden I mean that in spades. What is so far Out Of Reach I have my doubts as to whether my wife could even get it in time... but she knows it's there and she checks sometimes. Even I have to reach up inside the wall to feel for the revolver that's in there. But if I had to I can grab it real quick. My wife might have to jump a little. Those are the links that I have done to assure but the weapon is well out of sight but accessible to informed adults.

Before I mentioned how I have a pellet rifle sitting in a closet at the decoy. It's one of those hard to cock Spring Air types... which I'd be willing to bet my son won't even be able to call himself until he's 17 anyway. He's got a new Astaire and so far he has shown very little if any interest in it and apparently has never messed with it because it's always exactly where I put it. See how I test him with more benign temptation?

Since I know he's about to hit puberty I just get the impression that maybe I oughta type things up a little bit

Obturation said:

At 11 no kid should have free access to firearms.

I have 2 little ones, 1 & 3. I keep all guns locked in a heavy safe, except for one. That one is on me, if it isn't on me it is within eyesview and out of reach. simple solution .

I kept a 12 gauge pump in the corner of my bedroom for over a decade before I had kids, when the first one crawled I locked it up and the sacrifice I make is to be armed with just a pistol unless I get down to my basement (which isn't difficult ).

This is part of the reason I carry a full size, relatively powerful gun most of the time, g20 - 15+1 rds of 10mm + a reload. That's considerable firepower to me and I can keep that 100% under my control at all times. There are solutions for long guns but they'll all be slower.

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Thats an interesting reply. I agree with the K.I.S.S. principle too. My cousin's husband just bought a 10mm and kind of surprised us, being that he's never been a gun freak that we know of. I think I might be more kikely to keep a 45 as my main and a well-hidden 357 as a backup and leave it at that. When 10mm is finally found in general abundance in most gun stores, i might be interested in switching. Until then I prefer the common "veteran" calibers. Like you, i also reserve my various types of guns to different parts of the house and different levels of security. That is what I really wanted to get specific about in this thread. Thanks!

Meeks36 said:

Amd if at all possible dont get a digital combination safe. Dude I knew. Got into his dads safe. Took him a few weeks. But he did it without breaking into to. Want go into details. But its doable. Look in youtube the brand of safe yiu are looking to buy. And see if there is an easy way to open without the code.

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Mine is brandless, and I had a hard enough time finding info online to reset the combo several times. I finally did but it took like 20min to narrow it down. Someone i know with ADD and no gun safe knowledge would probably end up watching "powerboat fail compilations" instead in about 3min.