Who Leaves Loaded Guns Unlocked Around The House?

Lots. Yes, even when we are not home.

Just my wife and me in the house. Not much more useless than an unloaded gun.

Each according to his/her comfort level.

I have no kids and I keep a loaded and holstered handgun next to the bed 24x7. If I had kids running around, I'd keep it in a lockbox.

Two conditions or readiness.

My wife and I have two sets of circumstances.

Mostly, several firearms are kept with loaded mags and empty chambers, inaccesable to our toddler son. Locations vary from a wall rack to a bedside safe.

When ANYONE else comes into the house, one of us will "clean up" quickly. The AR mag gets put in the drawer, rifle goes between matress and box spring. Bedside safe is double checked to be locked. 12ga is opened and cable locked (so we don't have to empty and reload the mag tube). The only firearms left loaded are the ones we are wearing.

A consideration when securing a firearm in your absence is ease of access upon return. You don't want to come home to a baddie between you and your locked up gun.

There are at least 4 loaded and unlocked guns in my home at any given moment ... 5 if you count the one on me.


We don't (can't) have children, there are almost never children in our home (on the rare occasion there are, the guns get locked up).


Don't come 'round my place at night unannounced.

I know where they are. And they're handy.

one shotgun, two pistols, one taser gun, three cans of pepper spray

I keep a loaded 1911 in my nightstand and a loaded Win 1300 in the corner of the bedroom. I don't have kids and no one besides me or my girlfriend goes into my bedroom. If I had kids running around I would be much more cautious.

No Kids here....no safe YET....no lock box.....3 handguns and 3 shotguns loaded at all times. I also have an alarm system...not that its the best deterrent but it helps.

Oh yeah....I have a Healer/Pit mix that loves HER territory (and toys) and one Pissed off 12lb Chihuahua with a bad case of the--- I'm a Great Dane Syndrome---
So go ahead, come on in and have a sit down...IF YOU DARE

I have 2 young kids. Both have been shooting, both have had Eddie Eagle instruction at their school, and my wife and I have taken pains to make sure that guns are not an irresistible mystery to them. I do not believe that they would play with a gun were they to find one.

HOWEVER: 1) they have friends whose gun familiarity I know nothing about, 2) when playing with their friends, kids often like to show off, and 3) even were there never any other children in my house, what I believe about my kids and what they will actually do might be very different.

Because of that, all of the guns in our house are kept locked up in safes unless they are on my person (or my wife's person). I'm willing to sacrifice instant availability at night for peace of mind about the kids.

I keep them locked up. I don't want to come home to a criminal that is now armed with one of my guns.

I keep them locked up. I don't want to come home to a criminal that is now armed with one of my guns.

Click to expand...

Heh. I focused entirely on unauthorized access by my kids; never even thought about that possibility. I feel doubly comfortable with my choices now!

Easily accessable lockbox that is open when I go to bed and gets secured when I leave the house for the day.

LOL lots.


I have an AR15 under my bed, a 1911 in drawer by bed, a .30-30 in the gun cabinet (don't know why i leave that one loaded), a .17hmr in the cabinet as well and a .357 mag, and a Ruger P95. All strategically placed around the house


None of them are chambered by the way. well except for .357 mag

When I am not home they get locked up....

I keep home defense weapons loaded and outside my safe at all times. No kids to worry about.

I do, but then again nobody comes in but myself, fiance, and two-three close friends. No kids running around or anything.

Yes. Several. No kids at home. When the grandson is visiting they are out of his reach but accessible to me and the wife. Someone is ALWAYS with him since we have a pool (and he is a hoot to be with). The pool is deadlier for children than all of my firearms.

I do, but I don't feel comfortable doing it. I don't have any kids and my girlfriend respects them and doesn't touch them. I have yet to take her shooting. She's comfortable with them, but just hasn't shot much in her life.

Anyway, I have a loaded bedside pistol and shotgun as well as a Kbar.

I'm trying to come up with a great alternative to locking them up each night, such as concealing them in plain sight.

i kept unlocked guns in the house until i was burglarized. since, i've bought a minivault for bedside, and another safe. learned my lesson too late.

i feel much better about the situation now. i keep my carry on me or within arms length while in the house.

no kids in house. when there are, i'll get a safe. until then, the dogs protect the house when i'm not present. my wife and i almost never have visitors, so i don't really have to worry about strangers getting access to my weapons.

I keep 3 loaded 45 ACP's around the house in different areas in case I am in a particular section of the house if something happens.

29 locked in the safe, all with bolts removed and locked somewhere else and handgun actions opened and cable locked, one shotgun under bed, .357 on me or on bedside at night. No kids, one dog, very understanding wife.

I have a gunvualt mini, under the bed, locked to the bed frame with a cable lock whose lock is inside that safe.

I have two pistols. Both are either on me, at the range on the "bench" (shelf) behind me open and unloaded, or in that safe. In very rare occasions (only once so far) I'll need to put a gun in the trunk of my car: I have a combination padlock in the trunk which I'll put through the revolver's open frame then so that the cylinder can't close.

The safe is normally closed; sometimes I leave it open while asleep overnight just because there's no reason to close it then.

With a safe like that there's no reason to keep a gun at home unlocked. My wife and I do not have children yet (please pray we do! she is gluten-intolerant and has trouble staying pregnant) but it would be a bad thing if someone were to break into our home when we were not around and obtain a gun as well as our laptop computer.

My wife's birthday is approaching. Besides a more romantic gift, I'm going to get her one of those gunvault safes for under her side of the bed for her jewelry. We do own a fire safe, but it is hidden in a different part of the house and slow to access, so the few pieces of "real" jewelry that she wears more often tends to not get stored in it. (It's not a surprise gift; she is looking forward to it.)

Just the one on me. The rest are locked, and usually stored in the gun cabinet. There are two locked pistols on the floor next to me, because I just finished cleaning them.

--Len.