Do you hide your guns? Keep them secret?

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I don't openly advertise what I have to anyone except my closest of friends. I may share a few here and there with others if there is an interest in a particular model but overall I keep my numbers pretty close to the chest, so close that at times I kind of forget my own actual count.
 
My guns are in cases laying on top my 3 pitbulls kennels. No the kennels aren’t locked it’s just where they like to go and sleep.
 
I live in an OldFarts Community and several of the neighbors have recent targets tacked up in their garages where everyone can see them. I've not done a detailed analysis but I'd guess that about one of three homes have targets up on the garage walls. I don't have any targets simply because I am usually one who balls them up in disgust and shoves them way down in the trash bin before leaving the range.

I am armed all the time though and so folks that come to the door will most likely see a gun on my hip. Some have even commented; usually a comment like "My grandfather had an old gun like that!" or "Does that still really work?" or "I didn't know they still made holsters from leather.". What I generally don't see around the neighborhood are any "tactical" firearms, no "Black rifles", no handguns with rails and the only laser lights are the ones used to entertain the kittens.
 
Your description of "selective" pretty much describes me. I'll talk openly about them and show them to friends or other gun people. Anyone else visiting my house will have no clue that I may have a gun or two. Unless the deer heads and other animals in "The Dead Animal Room" give them a clue!:uhoh: I guess some of the books in the book case could provide a hint too! Oh well!

I live in a small farming community and I would say that we have a higher than normal percentage of hunters. Ducks and Deer are plentiful. Most every farmer has a gun or two in their truck. They chase the birds off of freshly broadcast seed and shoot the random Coyote. No one thinks it unusual to see someone looking at or handling a gun out in public.
 
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If1HitU said:
I only share my guns on forums,no one get to look in my safes when they come over for a visit.
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my safes are hidden with sheets over them, in my "guitar room" so unless someone goes snooping they will never know I even have safes, and in reality guitars are in one safe anyway. I protect my nice guitars as well as guns.
 
I’m pretty sure everyone around here knows I own guns. I build some pretty neat racks for folks in their pickups, enough the state troopers recognize them when they stop someone.
But the crack heads also know they’ll get shot if they break in while I’m home and we have lots of vehicles that some get left in the field so you can’t really case the place. Plus lots of old folk neighbors always home and a 2 cops within 1/4 mile.
 
My friends and colleagues know I'm a shooter. I shoot with guys from work and church. But I keep my firearms out of sight and secured, and don't answer the question, "How many guns do you have?"
 
My house was burgled in 1992. I had one of those sheet metal boxes I put my guns in, but like a complete idiot I had forgotten to lock it the night before when I was putting guns in it. There was a two person team that hit during lunch. One drove off while the other broke the lock and gathered up the loot. That way there wasn't a strange car in the drive. When the driver came back in 10-15 minutes the other guy carried my rifles out to the truck like a pile of tobacco sticks. Through either sheer luck or divine providence the parent of one of my students who knew I lived there was driving by at that exact moment and pulled into the driveway, spooking them before they could go back in for another haul. They pulled out so fast that the police found my nightstand pistol (in one of my pillowcases) in the middle of the road that had been driven over several times. The truck had no tailgate and it fell out the back. My rifles were bouncing around in the back with a case of Pepsi on top of them. To complete the story they were stopped at a traffic light in a city an hour away when the bulletin went out over the police radio...and a police car was right behind their truck without a tailgate. Again, either sheer luck or divine providence got my guns back, but they were a bit worse for wear after having been thrown in the back of the truck. My Marlin 1894 would only feed two rounds from the magazine after that because the tube was bent.

Why am I telling this story? To explain how these complete strangers who lived three counties away decided to target me. You see, this happened the week before deer season. They were cruising around the weekend before looking for targets and happened to drive by my house as I was carrying out two rifles in order to sight them in.

So this story has three points: (1) The fewer people that know about your guns, the fewer people who might like to steal them. (2) Load your car in the dark, or in the garage. People are watching, even if you live on a remote country road. (3) If you have a storage container for your guns, lock the damn thing! These guys wouldn't have been able to breech even a cheap sheet metal box in the time they were there, but thanks to my stupidity they didn't have to.
 
I’m paranoid as hell. Back when I had a much more, ahem exotic one of a kind car, I was followed more than a few times from the range. I’ve always been paranoid but those experiences made me even more so. Only a select few know of my stuff. I load my car in the garage, cover my stuff even when transporting it, etc. heck I don’t like my car out of my sight when I have stuff in it. I have a hidden room/vault at one of my houses. Like I said only a few know about it. I try not to advertise. I don’t have stickers, etc. not even the wife knows the vault combo. I may be a little extreme lol but to me it’s not wise to advertise. On the other hand I don’t have anything anymore so...
 
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Hard not to know I've got gun somewhere since my reloading bench is the first thing you see walking into my garage.
That and the stickers (have I mentioned I like stickers?) on everything.

My gun safes kept in small locked room, and bolted to the concrete pad.
 
I'm selective about what I have, moreso about where theyret stored & how they're secured. Being an apartment dweller, and a frequent relocated for most of my life, most of my small collection ( 3 rifles, 2 pistols, a PPC) live in locked cases. The cases live in out of the way spots ( e.g., behind the back of the sofa in the spare room ) and are further secured to an eyebolt in the wall or floor with a motorcycle cable lock. The pistol safe is in a draw, bolted in, with a long cable going out the back of the drawer, through the back of the nightstand, to a eyebolt in the wall.

In one apartment, a walkup over a garage, I had a RSC. Rather than drag it up the spiral staircase, I bolted it to the wall in the foyer, and made a 3 sided cover for it from a water heater box. If anyone commented on it ( which was rare ) I just said it was an old leaky one that the landlord hadn't gotten around to hauling away.
 
I’ve only got a few and they are all common models, nothing really special, except to me. I have maybe 3 people a year that aren’t family over and in my house and they all know I have guns, shoot frequently, and reload. My reloading bench is in the living room, as are stacks of ammo cans and some of my better targets on the walls.

We live at the end of a dead end road, have an empty lot next to us, the neighbors are disabled and home all the time, as are my wife and I. I carry all the time, lock the deadbolt even when home, and most of my neighbors are hunters(skinning animals in the front yard during season), shooters, and a few reloaders. All my kids have been raised around guns all their lives, know how to handle them, and not discuss them with their friends.
 
Waveski said:
You make a good point for being discreet about your firearms. The case described in the linked story is interesting and troubling ; I was inclined to comment on it but thought it might lead toward thread drift.
New thread , perhaps?
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This is a disturbing issue that we may see more of in the future. Think of it like a “civil restraint order,” and a very broad nexus between the petitioner and the accused. It’s scary. A new form of “McCarthyism”
 
Keith G said:
Where I live yards are measured in acres and guns are simply tools, no different than a shovel. People here don’t hide them or flaunt them,
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This.. I don't know anyone on my dirt road that doesn't own guns.
 
If by hidden you mean locked securely in the safe, then yes.

Then again around here nearly every house has at least a few rifles in it, usually in a garage or basement safe. When looking for houses I saw safes/rifle cases in every house we looked at.

Anyone who might know what I have knows I have two big, loud, dogs as well. Not an easy target when we are always home.
 
Sniper66 said:
I had a discussion with an old friend about just how open are we with others about the extent of our gun collections. I am fairly open about it and am glad to show my collection to friends, but I am selective. If someone asks about my guns and I don't really know them, I change the subject or say I don't really have much. A friend of mine had his house burglarized and his guns stolen 2 weeks after his son showed them to some of his friends. .
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In my former business, before I retired, our contacts with law enforcement were quite positive... their information was; someone steals your guns or, in the case of a friend of mine, camera equipment, It will mostly be either someone you know, (maybe even family!) or someone that knows someone you know. In the case of a camera, it was his daughter's extremely poor choice of a boyfriend, and the rest of the time it was mostly..."You know (....?) he's got these neat guns in his house...yeah, he keeps them in his bedroom!" From idiot's mouth to thief's ears!

Sometimes, it doesn't seem to do any good, no matter what you do. I had a customer, a Reverend Gentleman who had a burglary at his house. He bought a Guaranteed Man-Killing German Shepherd for protection. The thieves waited until he had replaced his property, then fed wieners to the dog as they removed his new stuff. The good Reverend was HIGHLY perturbed! It would be funny if it weren't so common. So, like in Boxing..."Protect yourself at all times!" Whatever you consider the proper measures to be.
 
I bought my first gun safe when i was about 20 years old. Answered the door and a guy i have never seen in my life says " I hear chew have alotta guns"
I say i have no idea what your talking about. You have the wrong apartment.

That night i was pushing in my RSC. Still have it, but it just holds ammo now. Cant afford that go walking off either.
 
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