little kids in the house...revolver or semi auto?

Buy whichever you prefer and lock it up.

Guns in the house should never be accessible to children. Ideally, the gun should be loaded and 100% accessible all the time because you carry it on your person all the time.

If, for some reason, you feel that you should have a gun in a "place" that you have to run to in order to get it when seconds matter (not such a good idea) then it's best to keep the gun in one of those gun safes that have the key-coded entry.

Also, if this type of set-it-and-forget-it type of personal home defense is for you then I suggest going with a revolver. Revolvers are almost 100% reliable and cannot have failure to feed.

The major benefit is that most who operate this way are happy to leave the gun site for years and years at a time. Revolvers have no magazine springs to wear out so you can leave the gun loaded for a decade and as long as you used the proper amount of gun grease and oil before putting it away the revolver will aim and fire as if you shot it every day for the same ten years.

This is actually why I bought a used S&W 686 .357 as my first gun. I thought that having the gun easily accessible in the home was good enough. I've since been educated.

Goldsworthy, you are sure to get as many different answers as there are posts in this thread, so I will start the fun!

First, (and maybe this is preaching to the choir) your children are precious and worthy of not just your protection, but mostly your instruction and proper raising. You have to teach them about firearms safety! That is paramount for their safety around your firearms. All of my children (four of them younger than six years), with the exception of the baby, know how to be safe around the guns in our house.

Second, get a quick access safe. Plenty of good ones out there.

So, as to your question, I don't know which type of pistol would be 'safer' than the other. the unloaded semi-auto would be hardest to fire, but slowest to fire should you need it. A 1911 with safety on would take more steps to fire. Hope this helps!

Curiosity killed the cat, so to speak.

I am a firm believer that kids should be taught about guns at a very early age. Starting when they are still in pampers.

If they ask to see a gun, show it to them.
If they ask to hold a gun, let them.
If they express a desire to shoot one, take them shooting.
All the while teaching safe gun handling practices.

As for your question?
No difference, except many revolvers have heavy DA triggers with long trigger reach, which would be difficult for a child to master, even accidentally.
Most auto's have shorter, lighter trigger pulls.
But some autos have magazine disconnect safeties which render the gun inert when the magazine is removed.

But in the long run, no amount of hiding the gun in high places, or safety systems on the gun will prevent a determined child, or their friends with no gun training from finding and firing a loaded gun.

Get a safe or foolproof gun lock, and use it.
Your problem simply cannot be solved by choice of action type.

rc

http://www.tarnhelm.com/magna-trigger/gun/safety/magna1.html

You can look at the Magna-Trigger conversion for S&W revolvers. It installs a powerful magnet that is activated by a ring you wear on your middle finger. Makes it pretty much impossible for anyone not wearing the ring to fire the weapon. Massad Ayoob is a big fan of these if that tells you anything.
How old are your kids? Can you give them instruction on the safe handling of firearms?

You can't solve this dilemma with hardware, the type of gun isn't relevant.

Teach the kids about guns (a HP round into a watermelon or gourd at an outdoor range would be a good demonstration) and get them gun-proof, then use whatever handgun feels natural on your hand.

NO GUN IS SAFE IF LEFT ACCESSIBLE TO THE INCOMPETENT
Revolver, semiautomatic, blunderbuss or machine-gun ... it doesn't matter, kids are clever enough to try the various manipulable components in different orders until something happens ... unless you demonstrate what can happen for them, preferable in person with the firearm in question.

Magna-Trigger

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$350 for a device that might make your revolver functional when you need it?
No thanks!

I think that regardless of which you choose, the fact that you are even thinking about which might be "safer" should a child find it does not bode well...it may give you a subconscious false sense of security and cause you to be lax in your responsibilities. Especially with small kids in the house, if a gun is not on your person and under your immediate control, it should be securely locked in a high quality safe of which only you have the key and combination.

Good gun safety teachings. Do not make the gun a novelty. I mean do not spark there interest by keeping it away from them. Be honest when questions are asked. Show them the destruction of a gun by shooting some fruit with them watching.

Lock it up when no on your person.

I agree with post #5 by rcmodel.

That said...revolver.

More exact being a dedicated .38spl.
Besides all the other reasons for choosing this platform, another is allowing kid(s) to actually learn by handling and shooting this house gun, with primer only casings, or even better, Speer Plastic training bullets.

This takes out the curiosity kids naturally have, and assists in teaching/parenting/mentoring responsible firearm ownership. Everything from Rules of Safety to Safe Shooting.

Kids are our future, invest in them wisely.

Teach kids "gun safety" AND........lock up your guns (except the one that is on your person)!

Remember, even the most trained child is still a child and is still immature enough to ignore those valuable lessons that you were so sure that you have ingrained in him.

It's kinda like what Reagan said of the Russians..."trust but verify.." With children, teach...but don't trust. Keep extra firearms locked up.

I think the OP should think long and hard as to whether or not they are prepared for gun ownership. Asking this question leads me to believe they are not prepared at all, because this is a question that any responsible gun owner would never think of asking. There is absolutely no way a child should be allowed to come in contact with a loaded weapon, so what type it is should not be a concern. A mistake like that almost always ends in disaster and is not something I would ever want to live through.

rd2007 I hope I am reading your post too literally, and please correct me if I am wrong.

Asking this question leads me to believe they are not prepared at all, because this is a question that any responsible gun owner would never think of asking.

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I believe this attitude on a forum like this, would lead to people NOT askng questions. That's NOT a good thing. Some of us did not grow up around guns and or get proper training to begin with. And sometime we forget.

There is absolutely no way a child should be allowed to come in contact with a loaded weapon

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This is in stark contrast to to what everyone else here is saying. If a child is interested, by ALL means, take them to a range and SHOW them.. shoot down range with live ammo. I even say take it a step beyond that, take them where you can shoot at objects that will show the exact destructive nature of a firearm. (Plus shooting watermellons is kinda fun )


So as I said, maybe I took your comments too literal, and correct me if I am wrong.

so to recap everybody else
1) teach them
2) gun safe
3) teach them
4) always offer to show (unloaded at home, or loaded at range)
5) teach them
6) don't make it something taboo.

I am going to ask this here.. cause I want to know.

I've thought about your scenario, I do not have kids in or around the house.
an auto cocked and locked is "ready"
a loaded revolver is "ready"

I've seen men bring their wives to the range with the wife's 1st handgun a 380 auto or so and watched as the woman did not have enough strength to cycle the slide. Once her husband did, she woudl have plenty of strength to pull a 10 lbs trigger. I would assume most children would struggle and fail with a full sized auto.

The question is..
Do you have enough training / composure to retrieve your weapon from a LOCKED quick access safe, and cycle the slide? Is chamber empty ready enough?

I am unsure of both training and composure for myself. I'm working on both. My 1911 is in a bedside safe, magazine in chamber empty. I hope that as I crouch behind my bed accessing my 1911, I have time enough to asses the situation, cycle the action, determine who or what I may be aiming at.

I was talking about the in the house scenario and that is where a child should never come in contact with a loaded weapon. The range is an entirely different area and of course I support a person teaching a child how to handle and shoot a gun, at a range.
Now that it has been clarified by the OP, I would personally recommend the semi-auto scenario. I like them better for HD and storing them as indicated would lessen the chances of a catastrophe. I know some reveolvers, like my 629, don't take much trigger pull at all to go bang and that thing really goes bang.

If more than six kids, then probably the semi-auto.

It won't matter -- semi-auto or revolver -- if you have a proper safe in the home to keep the little fingers off the trigger of whatever it is you decide to use for home defense.

"If one of the kiddies found the gun I would want it to be impossible for them to shoot it."

The only gun they can't shoot (at least immediately) is one that is disassembled. Unfortunately, you can't shoot it either.

Your "problem" won't be resolved by the type of gun, revolver -vs- semi-auto, nor will it ever be 100% absolutely fool proof safe. Nothing is.

Your best solution is one with multiple layers ... education and hardware. The education layer is to teach your kids about guns, and make them understand that they are not toys and are not to be played with. If you try to hide them (the guns), the kids -will- find them (they find -everything-), and making them "forbidden fruit" makes them just that more attractive. Stuff that is "common place" isn't all that interesting.

The 2nd part of the solution is a quick action gun safe (vault) so that YOU can get to the gun if need be.

Best of luck to you.

This is a horrible question! If they get their hands on it, not only will they get it dirty, but they will figure out how to fire it. This isn't a 'hope for the best just in case' situation. They absolutely positively cannot get their hands on it, ever. They will climb, they will find, and they will be able to figure out how to load it. Get some sort of safe or lock-box before you buy the gun.

Goldsworthy~As has been stated, I think you have to drill it into your children that guns are NOT to be touched without permission. I have a 3 year old daughter as well as a 6 year old son. Both KNOW not to touch any firearm without my permission, loaded or unloaded. They won't even touch it if I'm holding it. That's how my father taught me and it kept me safe and from doing something stupid.

Also, a good of mine shot and killed himself playing with a revolver the summer before he was supposed to go to high school. Very sad event. You just have to let your kids know that they are nothing to be played with.

I think rcmodel might have said it best actually:

I am a firm believer that kids should be taught about guns at a very early age. Starting when they are still in pampers.

If they ask to see a gun, show it to them.
If they ask to hold a gun, let them.
If they express a desire to shoot one, take them shooting.
All the while teaching safe gun handling practices.

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Re: Gun and gun on the person.... BOTH!

I have a Gun Vault Safe downstairs with my brand-new (to me) CZ-82 locked in it, a Mossberg 500 with a Masterlock trigger lock on it in our upstairs bedroom, and as I type this, a P3AT on my waist in a Galco Tuckable IWB holster.

I can't wear a gun me when I sleep, so the Kel-Tec goes into another Gun Vault Safe at night. My wife chooses not to carry, so the downstairs pistol and upstairs shotgun are there for her use when I'm not around.

There is no way to make sure a child can't fire a gun lying around the house. Period. My boys know not to touch the guns or the ammunition, but I cannot guarantee they'll do so all the time (heck, I can't even get them to eat green beans, but that's another story...), and if they did play around with my guns, the results could far, far, outweigh the pain of making sure my guns are safe.

This is not a negotiable for me: I am dedicated to making sure that my family does not become a statistic the Bradys and their ilk.