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

[GLOOB]

Guns in a safe - ok. Hiding guns from your children - futile and dangerous. If your children are responsible, teach them about guns as soon as they are old enough to understand. Show them where the gun is stored, and let them examine and handle it under your supervision, when asked. If they are idiots, then keep the guns in the safe.

If you try to hide it, and the hiding place is discovered, guess what? You won't know until something bad has already happened.

Idiot child finding a gun's "hiding place" will eventually dry fire it. If he/she is still alive, the next thing that happens is showing off to a friend. Eventually the luck may run out.

I think a revolver is probably safer because you can see the bullets. An auto can be inadvertently loaded at some point following a chamber check. As in "I'm the only one in this room qualified to handle this GLOCK .40..."

 

[Vonderek]

W.E.G.- you are a little devil aren't you?

 

[Shadow 7D]

You can't child proof a house
you can't child proof a gun
you can't idiot proof it either

You can train you child and gun proof him

go to corneredcat.com
she has an awesome section about children and guns

lock it up, or keep it on you

 

[Tallinar]

I have small kids in the house as well. The only gun even remotely accessible to my children right now is an unloaded side-by-side 12 guage in the corner of my bedroom closet. Ammunition is secure in the back on the top shelf.

When my children are old enough, the best way to keep them safe is to educate them. Learning how to handle them safely and treat them with respect is how I grew up.

My dad's still proud of me when he sees me clear a chamber before handling or handing someone a gun.

 

[Bentonville]

Tallinar
"secure on the back of the top shelf" is not secure. Too many children have either killed or been killed by guns and ammo that were "secure". Forgetting or failing to lock up a gun is not an option. Neither is hiding a weapon/ammunition and then expecting that no child will ever find it. We strap our kids into the car on the remote chance we will have a crash but most of us have never had one. Why risk a child's life with "hiding" ammo or a gun. I believe there is much less risk of a home invasion than risk that a resident child and/or friends will find a weapon/ammo hidden in the home.
Educating your children is, of course, absolutely necessary. However, if you know kids, you know you can not reliably predict their thought processes or actions 100% of the time. My friend would give his own life to bring back his young son who died at the hand of a little friend who found his daddy's gun.

 

[Goldsworthy]

All very good responses. Thank you for the insight.

I have been around guns my whole life. Was an avid hunter when I was younger, was on a rifle team, and later, on a pistol team.

The firearms that I owned, and the firearms that my father owned (when I was a boy) were always unloaded and locked away. We made them pretty much unaccessable during a potential "we need it now" emergency where a firearm might be justified, due to the fact that it would take too much time to get them into the game.

So I never really prepared myself to use a firearm for anything other than hunting/target shooting/plinking. Wasn't until recently that I thought I should add that "tool" to my "toolbox".

I've always prepared myself to use other "tools" and have trained hard in those areas (20 plus years), but now I feel that I should also look at using a firearm, because I know that some tools work better in certain situations than others.

But I need to get with the learning curve if I go that route....hence the question.

 

[mfcmb]

Goldsworthy:

• When it's out of the safe, having the gun on your person in a good holster is the safest place it can be for your children.

• If you want it in a central place, and not on your person, put it in a bolted-down, quick access safe such as the Gun Vault.

• Teach your kids about gun safety but never assume that they'll actually do as taught if you're not with them. My personal experience is that my kids could recite the things I taught them chapter and verse, and would nod thier heads at all the right places, and disparage all the right things, but that when my wife and I were not around, and particularly when under the influence of peers, they would do the exact opposite of what they were taught and claimed to have believed.

Good luck!

 

[Tallinar]

Tallinar
"secure on the back of the top shelf" is not secure. Too many children have either killed or been killed by guns and ammo that were "secure". Forgetting or failing to lock up a gun is not an option. Neither is hiding a weapon/ammunition and then expecting that no child will ever find it. We strap our kids into the car on the remote chance we will have a crash but most of us have never had one. Why risk a child's life with "hiding" ammo or a gun.

My oldest child is 2 years old. Moreover, I don't think I understand the seatbelt analogy. It is more likely that I would need a shotgun to defend my 2 year old than it is likely that my 2 year old would manage to get to my shotgun; open the action; reach a 6.5 foot shelf by himself; discover a box of buckshot; know what it is; let alone what to do with it. If my 2 year old can do that, I have bigger problems on my hands than bad guys.

I will always have a shotgun and ammunition stored in a place where I can reach it in the dark and without having to go through a lock and/or key. I will not store my shotgun with shells in a magazine, let alone in the chambers of a SBS. By the time my children know what a gun is, they will also learn the respect it correctly as I was taught to growing up. If I need to change the way I store my shotgun as my children get older, I will certainly adjust to what is necessary for their safety. As others have noted, children obviously cannot always be relied upon to do as they are taught. I recognize this.

I appreciate and resound your concern for safety, but I don't believe all firearms and ammunition should be under lockdown in a household. Should most of them be? Absolutely. But when the time comes that I need my shotgun, it's going to be accessible in short order.

 

[devildog32713]

Glock of your choice of caliber (9x19mm, .40S&W, .357SIG, 10mm, .45ACP) *the .380 glocks have been banned for some weird reason on US soil) and choice of frame size (Full size, compact, subcompact) in a lockbox, full mag, loaded chamber with more loaded mags in box, PLUS LOTS OF INSTRUCTION WITH KIDS, tell em if they are interested, then you will show it to them (empty of course) and let them check it out, and shoot when there hands are big enough) (I shot my first glock, and handgun when I was 8)

 

[Shadow 7D]

Who said it's your kid that shoot themself
maybe it's the teenage baby sitter
maybe it's her boy friend

maybe it's a cousin
maybe it's a neighbor

It could be some child you have never met, a friend of your wifes child, who manages to snoop around your house,
and kills your child "accidentally"

POINT IS, the gun, and the ammo aren't secure, really, where did you dad stash stuff, what was hidden by your siblings, as a child, can you tell me that you didn't know where most of the stuff was hidden around the house?

If you have a HD gun, you also might want to secure it, would suck to wake up to your own shotgun in your face.

 

[Harley Rider 55]

Define "little"
I owned my first rifle at age 9. I bought my first shotgun at age 10.

 

[Sunray]

"...think a loaded revolver would be easier for a child to fire..." Nope. Wee hands that don't have a great deal of strenght can't overcome the springs. Pistols don't have a whole lot of spring pressure to overcome.
Mind you, teaching the kid to respect firearms, in general, makes the whole issue go away.
"...Too many children have either killed or been killed by guns..." Nobody, anywhere, at any time, children included, has ever been killed by any firearm. Inanimate objects can't do anything by themselves.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Sunray, unfortunately, little hands have and do fire those DA revolvers,

see the thumb is the strongest finger, and if it takes two thumbs, well now which way is your revolver pointed??? Don't get into to semantics, please, because you need a grammar lesson, your inherent premise is self defeating.

 

[.38 Special]

My two year old has a little shooting gallery game with a little plastic DA pistol. He got the game when he was about 18 months old and didn't have the strength to pull the trigger with his index fingers. He could do it with his thumbs, though, and exactly as Shadow pointed out, with his thumbs on the trigger the muzzle is in his gut. That chilled me to the bone -- especially with my loaded house gun locked into the GunVault not two feet away.

Moreover, now that he is two he has the strength to pull the trigger with his index finger -- and I measured the trigger pull at nine pounds. I have DA revolvers with triggers of around that weight. And there's no way in hell you can teach a two year old boy not to touch a gun if he finds it. Anyone who thinks otherwise has simply never spent much time around two year old boys. He'll learn when he's ready, but for now the only course of action is to keep him away from guns, at least when unsupervised.

 

[.38 Special]

Oh, and W.E.G.? I signed onto this thread intending to post that verbatim. So, well done!

 

[Pilgram]

Browning Hi Power. With the magazine removed and stored somewhere else, the weapon cannot be fired.

Lots of folks disable this odd Browning-specific safety, but it's great with curious kids in the house.

 

[bigfatdave]

So you would toss a magazine-free BHP into a room full of toddlers cocked and with one in the chamber?

Relying on hardware to maintain safety is hardly a long-term solution.

 

[FAS1]

The OP has been around guns all his life. I have always safely locked my guns up. Perhaps the way I asked the question was lacking.

What I needed to know, was how to have a gun "ready to use" in a self defense type senario at home and still keep my kids safe, as I originally planned to have the gun located in a central area instead of on my person (I really never considered carrying the "ready" gun on myself).

You see, I recently realized that an unloaded gun is not a very good option, and until today, I thought that a gun centrally located would be good enough.

Kids add a new spin on things...that's all.

You can keep your handgun secure and accessible with the right handgun safe. Here's our solution to the problem you describe. You won't ALWAYS be able to have your gun on your person and this is a good option for you when you can't.

Link with 25% discount: http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=459871

I would also make sure you teach your kids gun safety as well. Like anything you teach them, you have to repeat yourself many times for them to absorb it. Having guns and kids require you to be very proactive in doing everything you can to keep them safe as kids will always be curious. That's how they learn.

 

[hammerklavier]

First, teach them DO NOT TOUCH!

Second, put it out of reach/lock up when you are not around.

Third, a semi auto with no round in the pipe would be harder for kids to fire. The young ones don't have the strength to rack the slide, and the older ones may or may not figure it out. Don't depend on that fact, however.

 

[doc2rn]

there is a storage device with a push button combo lock in the shape of a hand.

 

[doc2rn]

duplicate

 

[MisterMike]

Goldsworthy--

I think you've gotten a feel for the sentiment of the crowd here, as well as some helpful comments. I'll toss in the following thoughts:

-I'd suggest that you choose a gun you find most suitable for its intended purpose. There's not really going to be much of a difference in the danger posed if a kid were to get his/her hands on a loaded weapon, whether it's a revolver or semi-automatic.

-I agree with familiarizing the kids with guns, and especially with the notion that, until they have your specific permission to do so, they are never to touch a gun of any sort, any time, anywhere. The proper response is to leave the area and tell an adult immediately. That's something to drill into their little pea brains, knowing that there are people who may not be as cognizant of the danger to kids as you are.

-Having said that, kids will mess around with guns they find. I know I did when I was a kid: I specifically remember climbing on top of a chair to check out the little Beretta .25 that my dad kept on a valance near the front door . . . and which he was certain I was not aware of. You have to assume that, even if you've taught your kids well, their judgment is not to be trusted.

-Therefore, you have to secure your gun(s). I think one of the keypad or fingerprint ID cases is the right answer, but others here have differing opinions. Again, I'd emphasize that you need to account for the possibility that your kids--even if you've said and done everything right--may attempt to get access to a gun if they know it's in that cool black box you keep on your nightstand.

This really is one of those situations where you have to balance the risks and, in my opinion, constantly err on the side of caution. Anything you do to secure a gun will compromise your ability to access it instantly, but the consequences of not doing so can be horrific. I'm sure others will disagree with this, but I'd at least consider added measures, in addition to keeping the gun in a lockbox--like possibly keeping a semiautomatic unloaded with the magazine in the box. Or, in the case of a revolver, adopting the same approach with a speedloader.

 

[SSN Vet]

Here's your solution...

get a gun vault

http://www.gunvault.com/handgun-safes/mini-mini-deluxe.html

I've used it for ~9 years and just purchased my second one (one by the bed, one on the first floor).

Midway has the mini on sale this month.

Best $100 you'll ever spend.

Don't bother with the biometric lock as the regular key pad works very well and is very fast

Lock the keys away somewhere else. You'll only need them should you forget your combo or let the batteries die.

Keep the combo very simple and don't tell anyone who's not competant to handle what's kept inside

I can roll out of the sack and stand up armed in 3 seconds flat.

 

[Wolfeye]

Something most people never address when having discussions on this topic: when teaching kids about firearms, also teach them how to take it apart & clean it. Nothing makes a gun more mundane to a child than helping Mom or Dad clean it at the table. It helps take out the unhealthy mystique that pop culture gives firearms, and also shows them that guns aren't just fun & bangs - if you want to shoot them, you gotta take care of them.

Also show them how to reload if you happen to do that too.

 

[Tallinar]

Very good suggestions Wolfeye. Dad had me cleaning his guns at the range and manning the reloading press at a very young age. I'm sure this had something to do with shaping the way I regard firearms.