Do you use a night stand gun around kids?

[Ozendorph]

My main concern in having unlocked firearms stashed in my bedroom or anywhere else, is the chance that a burgler might discover the gun while looting my house while we're away at work/school. We live in a good neighborhood, but no one is immune to this sort of activity.

I've considered removing my .40 from the safe nightly and returning it in the morning, and that may ultimately be the best solution. I just have to be very consistent in this ritual.

In the meantime, I keep a sharp Estwing hatchet and a 3-cell maglite handy for all my bump-in-the-night needs. Our home is small, and the short, narrow hall connecting the bedrooms to the common areas serves to mitigate the advantages of a firearm.

 

[hso]

This looks pretty good if it actually works- http://www.buyasafe.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=445

Hang a picture over it with a hinge to swing aside to keep it out of sight and slap a finger on the scanner. If the scanner fails to read punch the code.

Alternately, use a key system and wear the key 24/7 so that fumbling fingers and blurry vision are less of an issue.

Regardless, unless the gun goes with you or the child goes with you, if both are unatteded for more than a few minutes there is nothing to keep them apart except luck and locks.

 

[dwestfall]

A P7M8 or leaving the chamber empty would be reasonably safe to leave on the nightstand for a few years. A 4 year old is not going to have the hand strength or dexderity to chamber a round.

That said I have a 4yr old and I like the safes from handgunsafe.com. Like you I was prone to bungle the combination with the GunVault, and would have to wait what seemed like forever to get another chance. With the Simplex safes you just twist the lever and can try again right away.

But I wonder -- if you can't work the combination of the safe because you're too groggy, do you really want a gun in your hand with a mobile 4yr old possibly running around in the dark?

 

[MikeIsaj]

GET A DOG! A big, protective, loud and intimidating dog. We have a large German Shepherd free roaming in the house. My plan is that while he's eating whoever was stupid enough to come into his house, I will retrieve a gun from the safe, in case he needs my help.

Seriously, a good dog is the best frontline protection for your family and your castle. A good dog will adopt your children and give their life in defense of the kids.

 

[Konall]

Height is not security

About the shotgun on high hooks in the closet...
provided I have this attachment process down, I've attached a photo of my son at age 3 (almost 4) going for the high shelf (7+ feet) in my closet. He stealthily stacked the blocks up and had almost made it to the shelf by the time I interrupted him. Just relying on height alone is nowhere near effective if my kids want something.

My guns live in a locked cabinet. I have a 120lb dog who likes to sleep in front of the door, and is LOUD if disturbed. She's a coward, but my hope is that her barking will distract any goblins long enough for me to get the cabinet open.

 

[B.FRANKlin]

Kids & guns

The very best thing to do for your child is to teach them about guns, both the fun things and the dangers. Start the very young with a BB gun then as they grow, get them the time-honored .22.
There is the stupid commercial locally shown about a 10 year old hiding under a bed while playing soldiers and finding Dad's .44 revolver. He grabs it and shoots his buddy. This should never happen in real life, and wouldn't happen if the kid was taught about guns in the first place.
The best place to keep a loaded gun is with you. I love my Irish Setter but I wouldn't want him hurt by some idiot criminal. The best way to treat a criminal in your house is to shoot them dead. That way, they won't rob anybody else and, being dead, they can't sue you . Teach your kids well sue fun and dangers. Teach the fun and dangers T

 

[Boats]

I should have made it clear that the shotgun is only hung at night. I think I'd hear a mountaineering expedition into my closet. During the day it is in the safe.

 

[armoredman]

I should mention that my headboard holster is only used at nighttime. My PO1 is on me all the rest of the time, except in the shower, when it is hidden in there, and the bedroom door locked.
My son has zero curiosity about our guns - he knows where the rifles are, he sees the pistols, he's handled them, and knows if he wants to handle one, we will allow him to do so, unloaded, under our immediate supervision. He goes to the range with us every time we go, and loves it.
Gunproofing our kid one day at a time...he uses his cap gun to demonstrate safety...

 

[Cap n Ball]

No kids in the house. I keep the bedroom door locked if I get visited by nephews. Instead of a shotgun I have a 1842 model smoothbore military 'horse pistol' loaded with 50 grains of BP. It works like a sawed-off with buck and ball. I keep it slung in a leather thimble within easy reach on the headboard. Got a real nasty pattern and I figure that's better than trying to hit someone in the dark with a .54 cal ball that might go into the neighbor's house. With a tounge of flame reaching fifteen feet, even if I miss I'll still set them on fire.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Teaching your kids about guns is absolutely essential, but it doesn't reduce the real risks to family and finances unless you totally keep all other kids out of your house. Your kids' friends and visitors can and will explore, while visiting (while going to the bathroom, etc.), and you really don't want to go where they can take you.

Get a small gun safe that YOU'RE comfortable with. There are many options, levels of technology, and price ranges -- but its a minor cost compared to the costs of things going wrong.

If there are kids in the house, I would argue that a small safe, near at hand is the only realistic and practical solution to a problem that can have horrible consequences.

 

[antarti]

You think YOU have problems...

Well, as the adoptive father of 2 very damaged kids from Eastern Europe, let me tell you how I manage.

(the kids)
My kids are VERY disruptive, they are not the types to be trusted, and may not be even after years of therapy. I bought them (ages 6 and 3) a 2000 count box of Legos, they immediately turned all of them into 15 or 20 "pistolen" and "avtomats" and went around telling the whole family they were going to kill them. Their fave game is "the soldiers come, they kill everyone, and throw the bodies in the garbage, repeat". Not kids to leave around guns for sure. Before these kids can be educated about gun safety, they have to be educated in "normal life", so the "Eddie the Eagle" thing is a waste for now. Believe me when I tell you (and it pains me), my kids are worse than yours in this regard...

(my solution)
As far as long guns, they are in a safe, locked car trunk in a locked garage, or OFF PREMISES. No chances are taken, period. I have 3 pistols on premises, ALL of which I carry on me during daylight hours using a couple of different holsters. Each hand has a go-to weapon, and theres a single (small) back-up if the two-fisted treatment isn't enough. Wifey has her own routine that she is comfortable with.

When i get home, 2 of those get locked up, the other one goes into a large smartcarry, with each side "pinned" for either of the primary guns (9mm or 45), so I can choose which to sleep with.

Yeah, its a huge PITA, but I'm not taking chances, whether protecting the kids from further problem adults, or protecting them from themselves.

If you have doubts, I recommend you carry 24/7. Nobody is going to steal it that way, it's always ready, and the kids will be safe. YOU however will be inconvencied, but peace of mind is more important to me.

 

[entropy]

Good on ya, antarti, for the labor of love you have undertaken. I hope they are able to respond to the love you show them, and they grow into decent people.
I will be expanding my safe storage when I move this coming month, but I've been storing my non-HD weapons with the bolts (Most of them are Bolt actions, I collect Mosins) or firing pins removed, and stored in the safe. The HD weapons are stored so as to be ready for action immediately, yet safely stored. My sons (11 & 7) are well-trained in firearms safety, and while I cannot trust them to clean their rooms , I can trust them not to touch any guns unless I am there, or in defending the household as my older son has been trained to. (His mother can't be relied on to do so, a situation I am trying to correct, but I have to take it slow, unfortuately.)

 

[duck hunt]

Our gun storage methods are about to change a LOT when Suleiman the Destroyer arrives in August. NOTHING will be unlocked.

Getting a dog is a good solution for dog people, but if you are not, it is a disservice to the dog. They are living, loving beings, not tools.

And, before I close, I wanted to add another "Good on ya" to Antarti. As a teacher who has worked with a number of abandoned/abused/refugee children, I raise my glass to you.

 

[BlackCat]

I don't even leave "unloaded" guns where my 20 month old daughter *might* get hold of them.

You're worried about a kid that may or may not even be able to walk yet loading, flipping the safety off, and discharging a firearm?

Better safe than sorry, but that's overly paranoid in my eyes.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Black Cat:

Kids have a way of growing up very, very quickly.

And other kids visiting the house can go places they don't belong.

 

[Gunsnrovers]

At night, the revolver, a speed strip, and a flashlight are in the nightstand. When I leave for work, the pistol and speedstrip go up into a lock box

My 3 year old son loves Eddie the Eagle, he never goes into my nightstand, and he never climbs in our closet. It's just not worth finding out what happens if that ever changes.

 

[Greymoor]

My "House" gun is in a pistol safe under the headboard of my bed. I have a little Brussels Gryphon who does not like any strangers messing with his house and gets quit loud about it. He's not real intimidating but he does make a good "alarm" dog.

 

[antarti]

Another thought..

Truth be told, all kids will have to be "gunproofed" at some point, or run intolerable risks.

No matter what any of us do at home, they will grow up and find unguarded loaded firearms (sooner or later) at a friend or close relatives house, and probably when supervision isn't around.

A friend of mine runs a 3+ childrens karate/self-defense class where they also teach the Eddie Eagle stuff to the kids and practice in a class setting. The "class" atmosphere makes it a fun excercise for all the kids, and that peer reinforcement makes it stick. That's increasingly sounding like a good idea. You may seek out something similar.

As far as our home, dogs (even big mean ones) are out, the kids would eat them for lunch (almost literally). I would really like one though for peace of mind and companionship for the family, damn shame.

My point with the previous post and carrying 24/7 is this: If you go through the trouble of protecting them from others, and you worry about them hurting themselves with firearms at home AT ALL, you've gotta go all the way and either eliminate or control the guns 100% of the time. Period. Make the commitment to do either, follow through, and sleep easier.

Thanks for the kind words about our situation... you have no idea how appreciated they are.

 

[armoredman]

You are a strong, good man, for taking on a responsability like that. I salute you, sir.

 

[Snowjob]

Walt Sherrill
Thank you for raising a very important consideration. There is an everpresent potential for children and adolescents other than our own (whether friends of our kids, those of family members, or even just neighbors) to be where they don't belong.

My parents have neighbors whose boys are not shown any consistent discipline or expectations for appropriate boundaries and behavior. In spite of having been given rules for time spent at my parents' house, they do whatever and go wherever they want (which is usually what they've been told not to do) as soon as the opportunity arises. They have also been known to enter my parents' house while they are away. Mom and Dad now have to be more concerned about two 4 year olds entering uninvited than they do about an ill-intentioned thug.

When my sister stayed with us for a while, she occasionally had friends over. While we trusted my sister to utilize common sense and maintain appropriate boundaries, I wasn't about to make such an assumption about her friends, whether I knew them or not.

There are those who might argue that visitors ought to know better than to go snooping when in our homes, but the responsibility to keep gun-related catastrophes from occurring in our homes lies solely with us - whatever the method.

 

[David904]

Hey Boats, it's me (Kampfjaeger) from BFC. I have two young kids. One is two years old and the other is five months.

I used to keep my HK .40 in my nightstand; however that has changed. I purchased a safe and put it in/under my nightstand. It's a little more of a PITA to access the guns, but I get the warm fussies knowing that uneducated little hands aren't going to be able to touch anything in there that might enable them to harm themselves or friends.

As the safe resides underneath (sort of... tough to explain) the nightstand, I am toying with the idea of simply taking my HK out of the safe at night and placing it in the nightstand drawer. In the morning, I would replace it in my safe. The trick is to make DAMN certain that I don't forget to replace the firearm in the safe every morning.

I intend to pick up a shotgun, but I currently have no idea how I am going to stow it safely. I cannot afford a full sized long gun vault.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

I have an underbed gun safe -- got it realitively inexpensively (around $70 a few years ago). Its not good for QUICK RETRIEVAL, unless you were to leave it unlocked at night -- but its certainly good for securing several long guns or a bunch of handguns.

It can be "screwed" to a wooden floor. (We bought a different bed, and the bed frame now conflicts with the safe -- so you have to be sure that your bed and that sort of safe are compatible. I bought a large, fireproof gun safe for another room, downstairs, and keep a small, cigarbox sized gun safe and have it screwed to the floor in the bedroom. Its not fireproof, and a sledgehammer could open it, but idle or unprepared hands aren't going to get my "nightstand" gun.)

The problem with leaving the underbed safe unlocked at night is that you eventually leave it unlocked -- out of forgetfulness -- during the day.

If they made one with the push buttons, it would be almost ideal.

 

[Bluecard]

I have a special drawer that I keep locked during the day and at night I insert the key into the lock. I have attached a large key chain on the key so that I am reminded to take it out and place it hidden away when I leave the house. I have a 3 yr old and a 7 yr old. My oldest is very trustworthy and I have a good idea that he wouldn't touch a gun even if it was right in front of him. My youngest on the other hand, would, even if I told him not too, that's just his personality. Soo, to be safe, all my pistols are either locked in the safe or in the drawer with an empty chamber. I personally think you need to be awake enough to identify your threat and the need to chamber a round is just another step to help avoid any accidents. JMO

 

[CAS700850]

Like Boats, I locked up the guns when our now almost 5 year old started joining us at night three years ago. (Before anyone gets one me, let me say that his little brother, age 2, picked up the same habit. And yes, I am working on gunproofing the older boy, thank you.) In the place of the handgun (Smith Model 19, if you'd like to know), I relied upon my daily carry pocket knives (Benchmade CQC-7), a 3 cell Maglite, and my mean looks to get me the three feet from the bed to the safe.

Anyone know if the Magna-Trigger is still available?

 

[loandr.]

I vote for the Dogs

If a BG gets to my nitestand GUN....it will be to finish himself BEFORE the kids get to him But seriously if puppies arent an option a good Finger tip combo lock box is the way to go. No light needed, and little ones cant access it . leave gun Chambered ready to go, afix unit to or under bedframe and you are just a press or 2 away from go. IMHO

Loandr.