About keeping a pistol near to hand.

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Sato Ord

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I have three pistols as of this date. (I'd mention why I have so few, but it's been a good day, so why bring up my ex-wife other than to say that I hope her new husband shoots himself in the foot with my guns.) Well, actually one of my current pistols is my wife's. I plan on buying more, but money is tight so it will be a while.

However, even if I had more pistols I think I would rely on one more than others, even though I would still be familiar with and accurate with the rest of them.

I've read posts by several people on this subject about keeping pistols in different rooms of their homes. Is this simply a comfort issue over carrying a side arm around the house?

My thought would be to have my carry pistol, and perhaps a backup, at hand at all times. I would prefer to rely on the pistol I train the most with for the sake of familiarity. Remember, I also train tactical with snap caps as well as actual range time for accuracy, and when possible I do live fire tactical training as well. I would just prefer to have the main pistol I use in training in a SHTF situation.

I always have my backups in the bedroom, which is where I'm heading in a panic situation anyway.

What do you say on this?
 
I certainly prefer to have my gun on my belt, or if not there, then in my pocket; somehow pants-attached, at any rate, whether I'm out or at home--pretty much any time I'm wearing pants. Perhaps the folks who don't want to carry a gun at home take their pants off when they get home? ;)
 
Everyone will have their own line for what level of inconvenience they feel is an acceptable tradeoff for an increased feel in safety.

Personally I would harden my house so intruders would have to take a little extra time and have to make more noise to get in and have a long gun reasonably accessible. Other people will take their gun quite literally into the shower and I can understand why people do that too.
 
I carry at home. I am not comfortable leaving guns where an unauthorized person (friend or bad guy) might find it. I am very comfortable carrying at home.

I look at it this way. I spend half my time at home. Why should I go unarmed in a place where I spend half my life if the chance of me being threatened there is more than zero?

OK, maybe I'm more likely to be mugged at the mall parking lot than at home. But I only spend a few minutes at the mall, while I spend 12 out of every 24 hours at home. Why be prepared only half the time?

And home is probably the easiest place to be armed. You can carry anything you like, concealed or open, in the ugliest, most comfortable holster you can find, and nobody will care. Why make self defense more difficult and your guns more likely to be stolen by leaving them laying around?

Every time I consider leaving a gun someplace, I remind myself of the remarks I just made, and I strap on that holster.
 
My guns are either in my safe or on my person (with a few exceptions like traveling to the shotgun range).

A safe is not for my home in its "most of the time" state. A safe is for that rare, blue moon mental lapse or odd circumstance.

If you say you don't have kids, maybe you have kids roll through your house once year or so. If you say you live at the end of a dirt road where nobody comes, maybe an irresponsible nephew pokes around your house every now and then. Maybe you have an electrician come out to do some work inside your home on a rare occasion.

Having a safe can help prevent rare mistakes that will change my life for the worse forever. That's the purpose of a safe for me.
 
Too many variables including size of home, how many rooms in home, layout/clutter of home, presence of children in home, etc.

Only you can decide on what level of preparation you can live by.
 
I hope her new husband shoots himself in the foot with my guns
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haha!

I carry at home, but my wife won't, and she only shoots one pistol, so I leave that one out for her all the time (.38special). So if it were me, I'd have everything locked in the safe except what I carry, but the lady needs an option too...
 
wearing a gun at all times around your house?? Guess that would be dictated by the neighborhood you live in.....IMO, it it's that bad, I might look at moving somewhere where I didn't feel the need to have to do that...JMO, YMMV
 
At home I always carry in my pocket and leave one for my wife in a special hiding place. My kids are grown so there's no worry there. Besides, I taught them how to shoot and they have respect for a firearm. The rest are in the safe.
 
onounceload said:
wearing a gun at all times around your house?? Guess that would be dictated by the neighborhood you live in.....IMO, it it's that bad, I might look at moving somewhere where I didn't feel the need to have to do that...JMO, YMMV
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To formulate this opinion, you must (1) not pay attention to the news, (2) not pay attention to this type of thread and (3) not think much about the various methods of home invasions.
 
I have a few variables that have convinced me, at this point in my life at least, to keep 1 or 2 quickly-accessible guns in the same spot in my house and not on my belt.

1. I live alone, with no kids ever in the home for any reason, ever.
2. Although I do subscribe to the theory that a gun should be comforting, not comfortable, when coming home from a long day at work, I want to jump in the shower and then throw on the lightest, most comfortable items I can (cargo shorts and a t-shirt) and a heavy chunk of metal on my hip or in my pocket is not in any way comfortable to me. When out for a walk with the dog, an XD-40 sub compact stuffed inside an IWB is acceptable.
3. I currently live in the least dangerous place I've ever lived in a cozy suburb in Oregon. Brand new townhome in a brand new development surrounded by upper-level income neighborhoods. I don't have a false sense of security, I just know what the odds are of a home invasion where I live compared to somewhere in NE or SE Portland. This doesn't keep me from having a loaded firearm close at hand, though.
4. I'm pretty active. I work out at home often (treadmill, weights, push-ups, sit-ups, etc.) so a gun strapped on me would get uncomfortable quickly.

So for these reasons, I keep a loaded handgun close at hand wherever I am in my home, but not actually on my person. I would think MUCH differently if I lived in a bad neighborhood or had kids around, etc. In other words, it all depends...:)
 
I shower right after I get home from work, and I sometimes walk around nekked for a while after that

sometimes I sit at the computer nekked and check THR, so having 1 gun in a gunvault in my bedroom and 1 gun in a knockoff gunvault in another room works well for me
 
wearing a gun at all times around your house?? Guess that would be dictated by the neighborhood you live in.....IMO, it it's that bad, I might look at moving somewhere where I didn't feel the need to have to do that...JMO, YMMV
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Yes, my mileage does vary ;) .

I live in a great neighborhood where I could probably leave my doors unlocked at night. But I don't, because though I most likely will live the rest of my days in peace, I do acknowledge that bad stuff happens to good folks everyday, often when least expected. I have an 18 month old boy, so leaving guns out of the safe is out of the question, and my safe has an old-fashioned rotary dial, which takes some time to access, even when not under stress. And I am not about to let anything happen to my little boy. So I always carry when at home, to serve as is body gaurd. Most of the time it is a S&W 642 in my pocket. Convenient and comfortable, so I do it all the time.

And yes, if my neighborhood was crap, I would be leaving, despite what arsenal I may have at hand.
 
wearing a gun at all times around your house?? Guess that would be dictated by the neighborhood you live in.....IMO, it it's that bad, I might look at moving somewhere where I didn't feel the need to have to do that...JMO, YMMV
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I'll admit it sounds weird at first, but think about it a little more.

If you keep it on all the time you never forget to put it back on when you leave the house. You know, to run out and grab some milk at the local Stop & Rob for the kid's breakfast in the morning.

It's sorta like putting your wallet in your pocket every morning, even on a weekend when you don't have to drive to work right away. It's just something you do so you never forget it.
 
sometimes I sit at the computer nekked and check THR, so having 1 gun in a gunvault in my bedroom and 1 gun in a knockoff gunvault in another room works well for me
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I could have gone my whole life without knowing that akodo sometimes posts nekkid.
 
I carry my XD-40 around the house and outside, I get it out as soon as I get home, and mexican carry it with no holster down the back of my pants, I sleep with it under my pillow and then put it away before going ot work. My primary house gun isn't the one I'm most proficient with, have trained with the most or would take to war... so why the XD? It was $400, and I already have scratches on my Kimber from the last time I took it outside to see why the truck alarm was going off. Really the LEO do want you to drop your $1000.oo pistol on the cement :(
 
me too, my gun is ALWAYS on my hip, or in my pocket, EXCEPT when i am sleeping, and then it is under my pillow. it won't do you any good if you cant reach it WHEN YOU NEED IT!
 
consider the loudness

Sato, related thought: consider the loudness of the pistol when choosing one for home defense.

I would not chose my 357sig, because it is supersonic, and that sonic boom is hard on the unprotected ears. I try to always get to my 45acp when things go BUMP! in the middle of the night.

Dave
 
I could probably leave the keys in my unlocked car in the driveway, but I don't.

Same reason I DO keep my 1911-A1 on my belt at home....The Bad Guys know how to drive, too.
 
A .32 Keltec in the pocket or at least a .380 or 9mm in grabbing distance.

I don't shower with my handguns, but I have brought them in the bathroom if I was going to be a while.

One reason is I don't quite trust the people upstairs and if they hear the water running, they might think it was a good time to try to break in...
 
wearing a gun at all times around your house?? Guess that would be dictated by the neighborhood you live in.....IMO, it it's that bad, I might look at moving somewhere where I didn't feel the need to have to do that...JMO, YMMV
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It's largely a matter of being in the habit of carrying. If wearing your sidearm is to you like wearing clothes, then you won't ever leave the house and then realize later on "Wait, where's my.... Oh, crap! I left it in the nightstand!"

That and home invasions happen even in the best of neighborhoods.
 
ALWAYS on or near me. ALWAYS

Mine is on my belt at all times both in the house and away from home. I wear it like a watch - it's always on me. I don't shower or sleep with it attached to me but it's pretty damned close to me at those times, also.

In the 4 years of carrying, I could count on one or two hands the number of HOURS that my gun hasn't been within 5 feet of me. The County Court house and the school (rare occational mtg.)
 
Dave, I'm carrying a .40 cal. I bought the "The Beast" - S&W40VE that everyone hates because of the trigger pull. I was actually going to get a 1911 but the cost for one I could depend on first time every time was more than I have right now, so I paid $339 for the S&W and got a $50 rebate and two spare high cap mags from Misters Smith and Wesson. (I don't mind the twelve and half pound trigger pull.)

As for home defense purposes, I either keep my pistol on my belt, or sitting on the table next to the computer. If I have to take a shower, or just use the can, I take it with me and set it down on a small table in the bathroom that is there for that purpose. (It's just a small thing with a little storage for extra toilet paper under the table top.)

I wouldn't mind keeping a long-gun more handy during regular hours in the house. I actually prefer to keep a shotgun close to me. However, I also love to cook and it's hard to chop fresh garlic and herbs with a rifle or shotgun in your left hand. Also, I live in the city and the neighbors get cranky when I carry the long-gun out to the herb garden to cut some fresh rosemary or basil.

Like many of you I just want to be safe in my home, and I don't want an intruder to get between me and my weapon, or worse, have an intruder find my weapon and use it one me.

I did a report on the Mau-Mau Uprising when I was about twelve. I believe I told about his in the other post on this subject. I remember reading about a white land owner who successfully repelled an attack with his pistol. He kept the gun in a desk that was situated between two sets of French doors that led to his veranda. The Mau-Mau who made the second attack came into his house through the French doors. They were carrying spears and the land owner and his family were slaughtered. I only got a B on that report (I didn't do a very good bibliography), but I have never forgotten the lesson about keeping your weapon where you can get to it in a hurry and don't have to worry about an intruder getting between you and it.

In a perfect world we wouldn't have to keep a pistol handy inside our homes, but in a perfect world we wouldn't have rabid antis telling us we shouldn't keep a pistol in our homes either.
 
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