Displaying handguns in the home?

[ApacheCoTodd]

So - instead of taking this down the route of getting the thread locked for a pissing match, how about some more display options?

I know I'd like to see some non-permanent (shadow boxes scare me) profile display options for revolvers.

 

[kayakersteve]

Ridgeback racks.com ....... 'Nuff said

 

[Zoogster]

I would be against leaving handguns on display.

Handguns are what is generally sought for criminal use, and leaving them on display announces an available source of multiple firearms to both those who see them, and whoever they talk to about them.

That woman you think is not an issue has a friend that is friends with or a family member of the meth addict on the other side of town. While innocently talking about things information gets passed and extends beyond just those you invite into your home directly.



Long guns on the other hand may be stolen, but due to being less convenient for criminal transport and use are not sought out like handguns. Precautions should still be taken, especially for multiple. But handguns take it to a whole different level. If someone knows they can smash a window to get a handgun or multiple just sitting there, and be gone in 10-20 seconds because they don't have to deal with any other barriers or even search around, it will be an appealing target.





Additionally there is laws in some states that make it a crime to allow a child to get ahold of your firearm.
While this does not apply to the child that breaks into your home, it does apply to the child a guest brings over that steals that firearm and takes it to school.
They might not steal the several foot rifle hanging on the wall, but the handgun that can be concealed from sight...
Unexpected vistors don't allow for child proofing your home before you let people under 18 come in. Telling family or friends they cannot bring thier child they showed up with inside is also not going to make you very popular.
Additionally if someone else has the keys they also could bring a child or allow a guest with a child to come over and still get you into trouble.
Your wife or girlfriend or family member that may not think about such things as quickly may have company that brings a child.

 

[rondog]

I'd LOVE to have a secure enough room in my house to be able to display my guns as I wished. I'd have 'em all over the place. But, this would require a concrete vault with a Ft. Knox vault door, which I ain't got.

But I do have two of these shadow boxes from Hobby Lobby (this one's not mine), they're pretty cheap. The neat part is, the glass front is hinged, so you can open the box and take the pistol out easily to put it in the safe, and just leave the box mounted to the wall. I haven't used either of mine yet, I don't really have a good display spot and the wife ain't too keen on the idea either.

 

[justice06rr]

Locked display cabinets (with plexy-glass windows) are my suggestion.

if you choose to display them openly, make sure they are unloaded, not functional, or hide/store the ammo elsewhere.

 

[kayakersteve]

This might work.....

 

[hq]

Locked display cabinets (with plexy-glass windows) are my suggestion.

I've thought about using a sheet of leftover 5x7', 1" thick 6-layer armored glass to build a wall-mounted display case with a hardened steel frame. It can be secured to a concrete wall with about a dozen anchor bolts and have secured hinges and a comb-type locking mechanism. Basically a gun safe, disguised as a display case.

Being very visible might still be a problem. Alarm system is always a good idea, but a determined professional could probably open a case like that with an angle grinder in a few minutes. Cutting the power from all sockets in the room might slow a thief down, but knowing what gasoline powered power cutters are capable of, I much rather keep my guns in a real safe.

 

[PabloJ]

Guns are not for displaying.

 

[Manny]

I live alone and seldom have visitors other than immediate family or close friends. Still I try to be low key and discrete about any valuables, not just guns. Why advertise and provide temptation or make yourself a target?

 

[MR2Aaron]

I can actually imagine making a display case that would be secure enough. You'd just want to be careful to put it in a private room.

For instance, something that looks like this:
http://www.custom-guncabinet.com/extra pages/wall pistol case.html

Fake edit: Actually, that one looks like it already has most of the features I'd design into it, plus a few others I hadn't thought of.

The trick would be to use very thick lucite for the "glass" part, and securely reinforce the channel it fits into. You'd also want to use a better locking mechanism than the one shown - fancy bulletproof polycarbonate doesn't do you any good if the bad guy can just force the door open.

I've actually used these plans to make a 4-pistol rack, which I keep locked away.
http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinRacks05.htm

 

[mcdonl]

I love how everyone thinks we all live in the same environment. Just because some of you chose to live in areas where meter readers are scared of guns, or armed bandits patrol the night looking for gun displays to steal does not mean we all do.

I also love the hypocracy... Who says guns are not for display? Man people on here tick me off.

 

[MR2Aaron]

Guns are not for displaying.

Depends on the gun. A flintlock musket isn't really all that great for much else these days, but hell if it isn't neat to look at.

 

[GCBurner]

A neighbor with a big house on the river had a beautiful wall display of about 50 antique black powder pistols and early revolvers on the wall of his living room, in lighted glass-front cases. The burglars came by boat one night while the family was out of town, smashed the glass, and stole every one of them. They didn't get the more modern pieces in a heavy-duty gun safe, though.

 

[shinyroks]

I've thought about using a sheet of leftover 5x7', 1" thick 6-layer armored glass to build a wall-mounted display case with a hardened steel frame. It can be secured to a concrete wall with about a dozen anchor bolts and have secured hinges and a comb-type locking mechanism. Basically a gun safe, disguised as a display case.

Being very visible might still be a problem. Alarm system is always a good idea, but a determined professional could probably open a case like that with an angle grinder in a few minutes. Cutting the power from all sockets in the room might slow a thief down, but knowing what gasoline powered power cutters are capable of, I much rather keep my guns in a real safe.

Not much short of a bank or government vault is going to stop (or even slow) a determined professional. Especially if they have resources like a gas-powered saw. Even your top end browning safes are no match for that, so I see it as a bit of a stretch to use that as an excuse for not displaying your arms in a lightweight home made safe.

 

[F-111 John]

Guns are not for displaying.

The NRA's National Firearms Museum might have a different opinion.

 

[hq]

Not much short of a bank or government vault is going to stop (or even slow) a determined professional. Especially if they have resources like a gas-powered saw. Even your top end browning safes are no match for that, so I see it as a bit of a stretch to use that as an excuse for not displaying your arms in a lightweight home made safe.

The actual gun vault is several feet underground, surrounded by bedrock, reinforced concrete and a gas-filled vault door, with a wireless, UPS backed up online alarm system to a security company with a guaranteed 6 minute response time. That's my baseline, not a commercial safe. You can also guess where the spare sheet of armored glass came from.

While this is very nice and quiet neighborhood, I still prefer not having guns visible from windows. It doesn't help that the whole south facade of the house is glass, from floor to ceiling. Just a personal choice, nothing else.

 

[Girodin]

So - instead of taking this down the route of getting the thread locked for a pissing match, how about some more display options?

 

[CraigC]

Well, that's just the thing, you could very easily do something about a lot of those things. You could, oh I don't know, have a safe. A decent alarm system helps a lot too. I don't sit around and worry about such things either, but I do take easy, responsible, steps to mitigate risk. Its actually a little hard for me to understand why someone would willfully refuse to do so.

I never said I did or did not have a safe. I certainly did NOT say NOT to use a safe. I only alluded to having a security system but that is not really the discussion. It is not whether to keep your guns in a safe or not. It is not even whether or not to display them. The question was 'how' to display them.

I would never assume that meant all or even most of them anyway. Totally impractical for me because I own nearly 80 and could not possibly display them all, even if I wanted to.

IMHO, some people are just weird about these things.

Why advertise and provide temptation or make yourself a target?

Who exactly are you guys "advertising" to??? Personally, I don't invite strangers into my house and I have this wonderful invention on all the windows. They're called blinds, then over them is a set of curtains. So hopefully any passersby cannot see what is in my house. Nor can your average peeping tom. So I'm confused by this advertisement reference that's popped up in this thread several times. If I have a sixgun in a shadow box in my office, who exactly is going to see it and then decide to break into my home???

I love how everyone thinks we all live in the same environment. Just because some of you chose to live in areas where meter readers are scared of guns, or armed bandits patrol the night looking for gun displays to steal does not mean we all do.

I also love the hypocracy... Who says guns are not for display? Man people on here tick me off.

Agreed.

 

[Girodin]

Who exactly are you guys "advertising" to???

As an attorney, who worked in prosecution, let me tell you that a lot of burglaries are committed by people who have a connection to the home. Not all of them are, but enough that its, to me at least, disconcerting. In short anyone who comes in your home and anyone who they might talk to and make mention of what they saw. You may never have a delivery guy, a repair man, a carpet cleaner or a maid come into your house. You may never entertain or have events at your home. You may not every have work associates, and perhaps their families over. You may never have a friend come over who brings a date or friend. You may not let the neighbors in, etc Lots of people do though. Many of those things are pretty common.

A lot of times it is someone who has been there or who hears about something from someone who has been there.

Again it doesn't mean that if you do all those things you will have a break in. It does increase chances.

I think its up to individuals to make choices for themselves. They should be making an informed choice though.

 

[blkbrd666]

Yep, that's what I do to display my guns. I just come home every day and open the safe door, turn on the lights and sit down and look at them.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Geeze - you'd think this thread was being overtaken by THEM given how many folk are telling me how, where, when and under what conditions I should enjoy my firearms in addition to the posts intimating that one should almost adopt the position of shame for owning let alone displaying them.

As with all things - I'll operate within the law and take my lumps when and if things go south. Nannieists not withstanding.

 

[PabloJ]

Just trying to help prevent guns from being stolen and fall into wrong hands strengthening hand of those who wish to ban them. I would like to be able to hold on to two I have. I hope you don't mind.

 

[SFsc616171]

I'm a writer. How many 'elder edition', 'big', dictionaries do you think are on my shelves? How many 'old', er, out-of-print large editions of something might I have about the house? If I were to say, for the sake of the question asked, that I were not of the Abrahamic faith, who would question having an old 'family style bible', somewhere in sight?

Yet, to directly answer your question, as it was stated, "Your house is NOT the Smithsonian Museum." And, in these days, where the beloved 'Homeland Security' team wants to know everything, through anybody snitching about anything, it is not wise to display such things.

 

[PabloJ]

Okie dokie when I used to get The Sporting Gazette and The Field I came across something
Avant Grande for country villa. Mitt Romney Style if you will. Google THE BESPOKE GUN CABINETS Company. Much is possible if one has lots of money.

 

[CraigC]

Oh no, I have $2600 worth of leatherbound books just sitting on shelves right there in the open!!! What will I do if the milkman sees them in the window and talks to the paper boy about it, who talks to the hardware salesman about it, while a burglar is listening in the hardware store, buying tools for his next job??? Should I put them in a safe too???

I've had people break into my house and it has had a profound effect on my wife and I. Somebody else stole tools out of my truck just last year. I trust no one whom I don't know and am basically anti-social. Yet some of the posts in this thread sound like the silly example I just gave. The worst part is, nobody asked for your opinion on whether or not to display guns in their home.