Keeping a gun at the ready?

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GEM said:
Get some toy pellet guns. Put the guns in your various favorite spots. Have a buddy tor two with pellet guns throw open your first and back doors and go for you. Can you get to the gun from the various spots you may be. You can be sitting right next to it and have to get it from its spot if not in the open. Or you can be away from the guns in normal placement in house, like sitting at the kitchen table, in the closet, etc. Not on top of the gun. See how that works out.
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Do try this.
 
99% of the time I'm carrying at home.

Once I turn in for the night, get a shower and get into my "comfy clothes" (jeans and a t-shirt/ sweat shirt) then I'm generally not armed.

Living in the sticks I'm not overly concerned. I know, I know there's a horde of methheads waiting to breach my house right now, but I'm not worried.

I have debated getting a small single stack 9mm just to keep on me in the "after hours" part of my day. But really its not far to the nearest gun and my pitbull will allow me more than enough time to defend myself, if she doesn't scare off the threat or take care it it.
 
Anchorite said:
Yes, and no, as circumstances are changing. I am in the slow process of putting up cameras to observe the exterior of the Hacienda, so that coupled with my ever vigilant mini daschund pretty well covers perimeter security. I therefore have a j frame in the same room where the wife and I are, but only about half the time in my pocket. If I venture outside, yes, slip it into my pocket.

I no longer keep one in the vehicle as it’s on my person instead. I’m paranoid about vehicle thefts.

A Winchester 1300 does bed-side duty for more serious matters and bump-in-the-night stuff.
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A couple of years ago, I put up cameras. Stopped all the shenanigans around the house!
 
Doing something is better than wishing ya did.
proactive > reactive
Unless I'm in bed or the shower, I've got on shorts; if I've got on shorts, I'm armed.
 
Once upon a time, as a young buck street cop, in the Eighties, I was chasing a bad guy, on foot. The bad guy ran toward an occupied home, and ran right through a glass door, without sustaining any significant cuts, and proceeded into the interior of the house. He was nice enough to make an opening plenty big enough to me to follow, without cutting myself, so I stayed right on his heels, for the capture.

So, these days, when my retired, slower, feebler self is at home, I am fully aware that a defensive weapon must be on or about my person. If is is several feet away, I know that an intruder might end up closer to that firearm, than I am. Even if the intruder does not realize that the weapon is there, his presence could represent a denial of access. Our dogs are wonderful sentinels, but a bad guy who dives through one of our windows, or french doors, may be well inside the house, faster than I can move toward a weapon.
 
At night while peacefully at home…my sense is that "everything counts" towards faster access.
Why bother with a holster in your own bedroom? Placed on nightstand atop a soft mat is fine.
If being awoken by unusual noise either outside or downstairs, I want no unnecessary delays.
 
Blue Jays said:
At night while peacefully at home…my sense is that "everything counts" towards faster access.
Why bother with a holster in your own bedroom? Placed on nightstand atop a soft mat is fine.
If being awoken by unusual noise either outside or downstairs, I want no unnecessary delays.
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Rather than leaving the gun on the nightstand, I use a bed holster:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00POOTWYW/
(Mine is actually an earlier version without the flashlight and mag loops. In my old house I slept with the flashlight lanyarded to my weak-side wrist, it was that kind of neighborhood.) The reason I wanted a bed holster was that I was concerned that maybe in the stress of the moment I would end up knocking the gun off the nightstand, like this that's impossible and it's exactly positioned ready to go.
 
I choose to have guns available but not on me 24/7. I make that choice based on my circumstances (especially where I live). I realize it’s not a guarantee of anything but it does impact my calculus. I’ll count on my German shepherd to slow down any intruders long enough for me to access my gun. YMMV.
 
I’ll count on my German shepherd to slow down any intruders long enough for me to access my gun.
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Based on what I've seen, rather than letting their dogs run interference for them, people tend to step in and try to save their dogs when things get really dicey.

If your strategy is to use your dog as a delaying tactic, you will need to get into the mindset that your dog is expendable, it is on its own and will have to fend entirely for itself while you get your gun. That means if it looks like they are going to kill or injure the dog, you keep heading for your gun--you don't stop and try to defend the dog.

It also means your dog needs to cooperate. If it runs after you when you head for the gun, or maybe just runs away instead of delaying your attacker(s), then your strategy has failed and you might want a Plan B.

I'm not saying that your strategy is a bad one, just that it's important for you to think about the ramifications ahead of time.
 
GEM said:
This is a test someone told me about for the folks who stash guns as compared to having on them. Get some toy pellet guns. Put the guns in your various favorite spots. Have a buddy tor two with pellet guns throw open your first and back doors and go for you. Can you get to the gun from the various spots you may be. You can be sitting right next to it and have to get it from its spot if not in the open. Or you can be away from the guns in normal placement in house, like sitting at the kitchen table, in the closet, etc. Not on top of the gun. See how that works out.
Click to expand...

I have breached dozens, if not hundreds of doors throughout my career and have learned from each and every one. During many instances the bad guys had firearms in the house but our entry was so dynamic they simply stared at us and couldn't/wouldn't react quickly enough to get to their guns. Not that I'm complaining. Anyway, as I grow older I'm starting to slow down a bit so I keep a firearm with me at all times. Although I have guns (ARs) stashed around the house that I would rather fight with, my Glock may have to suffice.
 
We previously lived in a Chicago suburb with a low crime rate. I felt I was being paranoid carrying in the house until someone tried breaking into my neighbor's house in the middle of the day. I stopped feeling paranoid. I have a gun on me when awake unless prohibited by law, such as when I drop my son off at school and at night have one next to me on my night stand.
 
If I'm dressed, I'm armed. If I'm not dressed, a gun is usually no more than a long reach away.

We can do that since we have no children and few visitors. If we were more social I guess I'd lock some of them up and wear the holster with my underwear.

It's not that I'm a gun nut; it just since I'm going to put it on anyway before I go out, why not just get fully dressed to start with? And there's no reason to take it off until I get undressed.

Of course, I've seen people who don't even keep anything in their pockets when they're home; they get keys, wallet, and change off a table before they go out. Seems silly to me, but it's their house, they can do what they want.
 
If I’m dressed I’m carrying. Without fail. The only places I go where I can’t carry are the radiation and chemo clinics and hospital. Any other place I don’t look for signs and concealed means concealed. My decision only, may not work for you. At home I’m carrying a 5” 1911 with a G17 within reach. Wife has her pistol on her bedside table, my Glock sleeps next to me as it has a light.

My area isn’t what it was when I moved here almost 20 years ago and the area is growing rapidly and along with that is the higher crime. Being in the county a little away from town was nice but they have built a town right down the road and a couple thousand new neighbors came with it, may sharing houses with family members that couldn’t afford to stay out on their own and many are apparently of lesser morals and breakins and general theft around here is way up at all hours of the day. Drug problems are worse now and it just seem prudent to carry all the time anymore.
 
In addition to carrying a firearm inside my home, I have reconsidered my behaviors. For example, during nearly my whole lifetime I have taken the garbage outside AT NIGHT. For no darn good reason. That is just a silly old habit and there is no practical reason to do it. Same thing with collecting mail. Doing it during daylight reduces opportunity to randomly encounter a scumbag looking to steal vehicles or case houses.

To make life easy since I often work from home, a sleek hammerless J-frame holstered in a front pocket really is a breeze. Spectacularly easy to blend-in if heading into town for newspapers, coffee, or whatever.
 
Blue Jays said:
In addition to carrying a firearm inside my home, I have reconsidered my behaviors. For example, during nearly my whole lifetime I have taken the garbage outside AT NIGHT. For no darn good reason. That is just a silly old habit and there is no practical reason to do it. Same thing with collecting mail. Doing it during daylight reduces opportunity to randomly encounter a scumbag looking to steal vehicles or case houses.

To make life easy since I often work from home, a sleek hammerless J-frame holstered in a front pocket really is a breeze. Spectacularly easy to blend-in if heading into town for newspapers, coffee, or whatever.
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I agree with this and It’s easy. I mean, we all keep our thousand-dollar cell phones in our hands or on our person from the moment we wake until we fall asleep. Why should our personal firearm be any different?
 
bullseye308 said:
If I’m dressed I’m carrying. Without fail. The only places I go where I can’t carry are the radiation and chemo clinics and hospital. Any other place I don’t look for signs and concealed means concealed. My decision only, may not work for you. At home I’m carrying a 5” 1911 with a G17 within reach. Wife has her pistol on her bedside table, my Glock sleeps next to me as it has a light.

My area isn’t what it was when I moved here almost 20 years ago and the area is growing rapidly and along with that is the higher crime. Being in the county a little away from town was nice but they have built a town right down the road and a couple thousand new neighbors came with it, may sharing houses with family members that couldn’t afford to stay out on their own and many are apparently of lesser morals and breakins and general theft around here is way up at all hours of the day. Drug problems are worse now and it just seem prudent to carry all the time anymore.
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Amen, Brother.
 
I don't trust any electronic device and I go along with the the discussion of how long does it take you to get to the gun from boxes, drawers, under your underwear. Again, I offered a test of those concepts. For example, we have kitchen that opens to the 'great run'. Do I have a gun on the kitchen island and one of the coffee table. If I have to get from the kitchen to the great room coffee table and open some electronic vault - time that. You might be able for the noise in the yard but we are talking about the rare, hi-speed, door kick in or window shatters.

We mock safe guns because we think their electronics will fail in a crisis, so why think that your 'safe' is guaranteed. Anyone remember when Uncle Mike's proposed a biometric holster for cops? That seems to not have made it.
 
GEM said:
I don't trust any electronic device and I go along with the the discussion of how long does it take you to get to the gun from boxes, drawers, under your underwear. Again, I offered a test of those concepts. For example, we have kitchen that opens to the 'great run'. Do I have a gun on the kitchen island and one of the coffee table. If I have to get from the kitchen to the great room coffee table and open some electronic vault - time that. You might be able for the noise in the yard but we are talking about the rare, hi-speed, door kick in or window shatters.

We mock safe guns because we think their electronics will fail in a crisis, so why think that your 'safe' is guaranteed. Anyone remember when Uncle Mike's proposed a biometric holster for cops? That seems to not have made it.
Click to expand...

Ever hear of a Simplex Lock, they are push button mechanical locks with changing the combo capabilities.
Been around forever, and some higher priced safes/gun boxes use them
Fort Knox:
Amazon.com : Fort Knox
I worked for a defense contractor that had these locks on every door in the plant, never a problem.
jmo,
.
 
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