Do you SLEEP with a GUN UNDER your PILLOW?

I've slept with a gun under my pillow, in motel rooms mainly. I stopped doing it when I realized that it isn't actually very accessible to get to something you're laying on. And when I did do this, my Sig Sauer was in Condition 3 (loaded mag in, empty chamber, hammer down).

Mostly I keep it on my bookshelf (within easy reach of my bed) at home. In a motel, depending on how the room is laid out, I'll leave it on the nightstand or on the other side of the bed covered by a shirt or something. I'd cover it with a pillow, but I usually use both pillows on the full-size beds at those places.

Once I was traveling with my my uncle and grandmother. This was a few years ago. We booked two motel rooms, one for my grandma and a two-bed room for my uncle and I to share. That night I kept the gun under my pillow because there wasn't any other good place to put it and still have it handy. I wasn't concealing it from him, but I wasn't discussing it with him either. Same deal, though, Condition 3.

I'm not as paranoid in motel rooms as I used to be. They're actually probably more secure than my apartment: One way in, one way out, solid bar lock, window in plain view from the bed, and I'm not gonna be sleeping real deeply anyway. Condition 3 on the nightstand does well enough for me.

I used to worry about whether I'd have the motor control to rack the slide if I had to react quickly. Well, a couple of instances where I've been awakened in the middle of the night by a noise (turned out to be nothing) have taught me that it's generally done before I realize I've done it. Good enough.

I do not have it under the pillow, but it is in a normal easy reach. It is a .410 Bond Derringer and within 2nd reach is a 9 shot Ithica Mod 37 Pump with dbl 00 buck and a cheek side saddle holster of 7 more rounds. If that all fails, then I am always and I mean 24/7 with a NAA Mini Revolver in .22lr 1 1/8" barrel on a chain around my neck. I even hang it in the shower with me. I am not paranoid, but I do live near downtown Cleveland Ohio and have had numerous issues and problems with thugs and idiots.

No, but I sleep with a loaded and chambered 9mm (with spare magazine) and two 44 magnum super blackhawks loaded with 44spl JHP's within arm's reach of my sleeping position in my bed. That should be enough for me to fight my way to my 12 ga shotguns loaded with magnum 00 buck...

-MW

A lot of folks here seem to put the weapon in the nightstand, while not a bad idea I do have one question? Am I the only poster with kids? I used to keep my 1911 in the night stand as well but when my 2 little boys came into existence, a gun vault bolted to the night stand became the only way to responsibly store a handgun in easy reach.

I don't want or need to preach but I really hope that the posters who store in a easily accesible way think about the little kids in their life. Teaching gun safety is one thing but being a responsible gun owner and PARENT is another.

NO...but I do keep one in the pocket of my robe, that hangs off the post next to my head. I have instant access to it if things bo bump in the night. I also keep a small superbright flashlight with it. My sons are grown and gone, but about to get married and when the grandchildren come, I will change back to the single gun safe that I had mounted to the sideboard below my head, that I can open with a push button combination in a couple of seconds if needed.

I do not have kids in my house...... if they are in my house they are stealing.... I am not totally sold on the "Oh the kids will get ahold of them" crowd.... I was taught as a a kid at a very early age that guns were an adult item, not to touch. I listened. Do not even get me started on out of control kids that the parents seem not to be able to control and bl;ames it on eating peanuts or something else, seems my parents did just fine. I have and always respected people property that was out in the open or locked up. Today's parents blame so many others for THEIR own and kids actions, it almost makes me sick. I am neither politically correct nor care if I am. You have out of control kids, handle it, or I will if they are stealing from me. It is as simple as that. I have NO sympathy or empathy for parents who do not control their kids, I do not care what their excuse is. Parents today have the Admit nothing, Deney it all and Blame someone else attitude when a kid breaks into a home, room, drawer or where ever and gets a gun and either shoots themselves or someone else by SO CALLED ACCIDENT. Sorry, I am not sold at all on that excuse. It is an "accident" due to lack of education and lack of control, that is not an accident, that is neglegence on the parents side, not my side that I have a legal to own firearm on or in my property and someones uneducated or neglected kid gets it. I am also not willing to try to be sold on the whole issue either, on this one and only subject I am very closed about. read Out of the Ashes by William W. Johnstone and understand what respect for property means to anyone of any age.

Regards,
Mike

Only when in the field under the employ of Uncle Sam. Our generous uncle looks very unfavorably on officers that lose their sidearm.

I always kept the chamber empty when sleeping with it under my pillow. My pillow was generally a rolled up sweater or fleece undershirt.

Edit: Yes - Chamber was empty in both Gulf War I and Iraq. If the area was especially dangerous we maintained a watch. The need for a round in the chamber of a sidearm under your pillow is considerably reduced when guarded by capable soldiers with long guns.

Uh, no. The shotgun doesn't fit.

no.

but my matress has these little loop-like carrying handles that make great loop holsters.

and its right beside my right hand too.

No, because I am not on TV.

If women didn't keep their little pistols under their pillows James Bond would never have been able to find them and as a result would probably be shot dead.

12 ga. by the headboard. OO handy. Have grandkids. When I travel the bonds .45 Colt is in my shoe loaded with OOO 3" shells.

No, I'd shoot my eye out.

Have a belt hanging on the bed post. fits over the shoulder jike a bandoleer, flashlight, gun, mags, knife, and cell phone.

i keep a ruger p90 in a small box loaded with federal hst 230grn+p a round chambered and decocked in a small open top box on the floor between my bed and the nightstand. THe muzzle is pointed towards the nightstand, if it was to discharge somehow while grabbing for the gun in the night, it would have to go through both sides of the nightstand and the wall of the house and travel a several hundred yards to the house at the top of the cul de sac in front of our house

A lot of folks here seem to put the weapon in the nightstand, while not a bad idea I do have one question? Am I the only poster with kids? I used to keep my 1911 in the night stand as well but when my 2 little boys came into existence, a gun vault bolted to the night stand became the only way to responsibly store a handgun in easy reach.

I don't want or need to preach but I really hope that the posters who store in a easily accesible way think about the little kids in their life. Teaching gun safety is one thing but being a responsible gun owner and PARENT is another.

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My kids are educated and handle guns...further the handgun in the nightstand is in a fast access handgun safe that only I know the code to access. It adds about 1 second to my ability to access the gun, but also keeps the gun out of the wrong hands and hopefully will prevent it, the Surefire light, and spare mags from getting stolen in the event of a break in.

Where do you keep your gun at night?
Is it in your nightstand drawer?
Is it under the bed? Is it in a gun safe in your closet?

If you’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night and staggered to the bathroom, you know how incoherent you can be in the wee hours. What would you do if you heard an intruder in your house at night? Try to remember which nightstand drawer it was in? Get down on your hands and knees while blindly feeling under the bed? Stumble to the closet and fumble at the combination for the gun safe?

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Um, I'm perfectly coherent when I wake up at night...
But yeah, I would never sleep with a gun under the pillow. That's what my nightstand and under-the-bed is for!

BTW, everyone who has an AR15 or shotgun: have you considered putting it under a body pillow? relatively practical as unsafe, inane ideas go

Not under, next to.

I have one of the original kel-tec sub-9's I keep folded and loaded under my side of the bed. Between the long cocking effort and that it has to be unfolded gives me a bit more comfort than a handgun if it were to be discovered by (god forbid) a child. And "NO"...I do not leave it lying around in front of children.

I saw where a guy notched the headboard on his bed and put one of those pegboard double ended hooks on it. He then hung his gun on the hook on the backside. It was hidden by the window drapes. Good setup...that depends on the individual. We are all going to do what we think is proper in the end regardless of anyone elses opinion. Heck, some people think we are idiots just because we own guns. And to the 45 guys...I know...I know...the 9mm is a mouse gun and I should man up and get a .45!

I wonder if there are any statistics on AD/NDs with a gun under a pillow. That would be interesting.

Good point, Gamera. Nothing like solid stats to throw a wrench into a good old fashioned inet debate!

No kids in my house. Never under the pillow. I keep my handgun loaded in my sock drawer, two steps from bed. If 'more' needed, sawed off 12ga just inside closet loaded with 00 buck. If that fails, 3 very large irate dogs, always with me.

I have seen holsters that have been screwed to the box spring.

XD40 in the nightstand and a 12 gauge under the bed on my side and a LCP in the nightstand on my wifes side of the bed all ready to fire.