Loaded Guns & Others In The House?

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YankeeFlyr

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A question for all non-living-alone people; whether married with or without kids, or with roommates, or live-ins, or domestic partners, or space aliens in the crawl space or whatever. You get it.


What precautions/briefings have you had with other household members about "that loaded gun in the drawer/closet/pantry" and "don't touch it...unless you NEED to"?

I live in a working-class neighborhood in SW Baltimore. On my side of the greenway (abandoned trolley tracks turned into a garden) the neighborhood has a watch system, with members on patrol in vehicles nightly. On the OTHER SIDE of said greenway, there is sometimes gunfire, and once in a while a shooting, the latest in May.

I keep a loaded 1911A1 next to the bed, with the hammer down on one in the chamber. I've explained this arrangement to my wife, who fired a .22 once in her youth. I made sure she watched me rack one into the tube, eject the mag and replace the chambered round so the mag was topped off again, and lower the hammer.

I told her that if she EVER needed to put the gun into action she needed to pull the hammer back and then she'd have 8 rounds.

She's never touched the gun, and never will, unless I wasn't home and she was absolutely sure that someone was coming for her.

(She was broken into 3 years back, while living alone, and the guy actually came up to her as she slept and made some 'suggestions' to her...she yelled at him and he ran away.) :eek:

Yeah, I know...take her to the range and get her familiarized with the .45; ain't gonna happen.


My question is...what do you tell your household people???


Nothing? Everything? :confused:


What do you folks out there say?
 
All my guns in the house for home defense are always loaded and ready for action.
None are 1911. So it's simpler for my wife. "Honey, just point and shoot".:evil:
 
a few thoughts, in no particular order

1- you have picked the wrong gun for this purpose
2 you have the wrong training in place for that intended use
b -- you're leaving it in what may be the worst possible condition for rapid untrained operation under stress
next point) there are better options for a dedicated home defense gun
another one // training is simple, you could train someone to safely operate a handgun for close-in defense in an afternoon
last = if you can't do live-fire training, get an airsoft gun and do it in your home, with a more appropriate platform

===

solutions to some of the above, in no particular order

Get some training, for the both of you seperately, look for a "women on target" course or similar. "Basic handgun" would be another option, "hunter safety" is everywhere and would work for the most basic components.

No willingness to train with a firearm means no firearms, she isn't going to suddenly understand how to operate a SA gun you've left in a not-really-safe condition because she needs to. Perhaps a stun device or chemical spray would work, or some variation on a bonkin' stick.

Get a better weapon for this purpose, either a DAO handgun or a simple shotgun.
Mossberg has inexpensive and well constructed shotguns, ignore the tactical crap and PGO models and pick up a simple wood-stocked pump gun in 12g or 20g, in a size appropriate to the smallest user, put a recoil pad on it and go blast something.

A single action autoloader, left hammer-down, requires that the hammer be drawn back. Imagine for a moment your signifigant other, panicked, pointing the gun, pulling the trigger as hard as she can a few times, and then trying to draw the hammer back ... will she get out of the way of the slide in time for that unaimed negligent discharge? Leave it empty chamber or leave it IN A HOLSTER with the safety on and a round in the chamber

===

Speaking in a generic sense, I don't let people wander about unsupervised unless I'd trust them with any number of tools, including a handgun. Handguns exist in two categories in my household; "cleared for storage/transport", or, "loaded and holstered" ... if it is in service as a carry gun or just not being carried at the moment, it lives in a holster ... if it isn't currently needed/wanted as a defensive weapon, it is cleared and in the secure cabinet or a transport container. All guns are always loaded, and I WANT some of them loaded, while others should be checked clear every time they're picked up.
In-between conditions for a handgun, like:
-empty chamber & full mag
-cleared with a magazine nearby
-loaded chamber and decocked SA
-loaded and trigger locked
-loaded and internally locked
... all have no place in my home. The closest I come to something like that is having a few loaded M1carbine and sub2000 magazines in a grab&go bag near the locked cabinet containing cleared guns, and that's mostly for natural disasters or other evac needs, not really for "home defense", more for "civil unrest" or "sudden unplanned roadtrip"

When I have guests, I either deny them access to all firearms or tell them where to grab a weapon from if needed, based on how well I trust them, and I simply don't let many people in my home that I wouldn't be willing to hand a holstered handgun if they asked for something. Denied access is accomplished by locking everything up but whatever is on my (or the wife's) person - either it is in a locked container and cleared or it is on my belt, essentially. I'm not rude about it, I simply don't let irresponsible people rummage about in my modest armory unsupervised.

===

other resources:
The Cornered Cat, both a book and a reference website - good reading for everyone, regardless of gender
Massad Ayoob's books and blog on the backwoods home website
 
Yeah

I don't need a lecture; it is what it is...

1) I didn't pick the gun for the situation; I got it when I was single.

2) There will be no training, airsoft (gimme a break, if I could get her to train, it sure as <deleted> would be with a real weapon) or otherwise. That's just the way it is.

I can think of MANY "pick up and shoot" alternatives...but I rather suspect that my shell-shocked-been-robbed-Irish-Redhead-Bitch-wife CAN manage, among all 'combat stresses', without YEARS of "Gunsite" or whatever other elite wanna-be-Special-Forces training, to pull back the hammer and look over the slide to kill some bad boy in the house.


I was just curious about what other folks do. I wasn't looking for advice; I know my situation.
 
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I'm sorry, but expecting someone who is 100% unrtrained and unfamiliar with firearms to remember the proper manual of arms for a weapon shes never, ever fired, and expecting her to to be even REMOTELY proficient, is foolish. I don't mean to lecture, and I know thats not what you want to hear, but it is what it is. If someone plans on ever even POSSIBLY using a gun for home defense, the VERY LEAST one should be able to ask is that she/he becomes at least mildly proficient. An untrained person waving a firearm around that he/she doesn't know how to operate safely has the potential to be as big of a liability as the intruder himself is.....

AS for what I do...I make sure my wife is...at the very least...comfortable enough to handle each and every weapon in the house (10+), and she actually FIRES the guns I have for home defense purposes. She knows which are loaded and which are not, and she knows how the remedy the problem if one isn't loaded and needs to be. I'm sorry, but I could never feel my wife was adequately protected with instructions like "Its there if you need it....just pull the hammer back and shoot!" I want her....and anyone else in the home....to be safe. As such, she is educated in function of ALL firearms, and is TRAINED with the ones she may actually need to use in a time of need
 
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wife CAN manage, among all 'combat stresses', without YEARS of "Gunsite" or whatever other elite wanna-be-Special-Forces training, to pull back the hammer and look over the slide to kill some bad boy in the house.
Nobody but you is talking about years of training or specialized training.
Complain all you want, you posted an irresponsible and poorly thought-out "plan" and it was picked to pieces, with helpful and polite suggestions for improvement offered.

There will be no training, airsoft (gimme a break, if I could get her to train, it sure as <deleted> would be with a real weapon)
your dedication to a "real weapon" is working so very well so far, don't try anything like baby steps, that would be ... ... what? unmanly?
Expecting an untrained person to react well under stress and safely operate a SA handgun starting decocked is a recipe for failure. You are setting your wife up to fail, if she needs a "real weapon".
 
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With one exception, I think you've done the best you can under the circumstances. I might suggest that it's no harder (and probably safer) to flick the safety off than to cock the hammer. If she accidentally gets it into half-cock she's done for (although the guy that takes it away from her will probably need a minute or two to figure out what's wrong also, which might be just the distraction she needs to make her exit).

I have three females in my house, all of whom are willing and able to undergo training. We only keep two kinds of firearms ready for defense: semi-auto handguns and pump shotguns. All are in the same condition: full mag, empty chamber, safety (if there is one) off. Therefore, no matter which weapon they turn to in a stressful moment, the manual of arms is the same: rack it.
 
Your wife went through a break-in and STILL won't do even the slightest thing to protect herself?? My friend, your situation is hopeless. No disrespect meant, but some people are sheep and always will be.
 
Yankee, I have been in exactly the same situation that you are in now with the exception of your choice of gun. As a matter of fact my wife HATED guns and I mean hate, she still isn't a big fan. She hated them to the point that she said explicitly that she wouldn't even use one if someone was trying to kill her. After quite a bit of time of careful prodding and explaining to her that I wasn't asking her to become a gun nut or my range buddy, but that she should really let me teach her how to shoot just in case ,heaven forbid, something happened while I was not home. I told her that if she would let me teach her how to shoot and take her once every three months or so then I would do anything she wanted. I took some time but finally I got her to the range and let her shoot my .22LR. She even told me that it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Like I said, she still isn't a gun person but she has agreed and I have agreed not to push it any more than that. Sometimes when I do something nice she says to me, "I guess I owe you a range trip."

Now she has even said she wants to take an all women's gun safety course. I understand where you are coming from and it can be very delicate, but it can be done.

I wish you all the best.

Shawn
 
Not much point in wasting any time on this one. She's determined not to learn how to use the tool, he's determined that she doesn't need to learn.

Md2lgyk nailed it.
 
I agree that, if nothin's gonna change, then nothin's gonna change. Other than having her practice thumb-cocking it (with an empty chamber, of course!), you can simply decide that it's yours and yours alone.
My wife, raised in the USSR, was made to fire an AK-47 during a "survival" course session once in high school. Other than that, she has no experience with firearms, especially handguns. She did tell me once that she'd like "to know where at least one of your guns is", and I started leaving a .38 snub, lightly loaded, out for her (the only revolvers I have that are small enough for her hands are older Charter Arms Undercover snubs.) However, I have since rescinded that practice, deciding that I'd like to see her handle and shoot it a few times first. I tried to hand her once an unloaded .22 pistol, and she didn't want to touch it right then, as if it had some "bad juju" or something, and I didn't push it.
She and my daughter just returned from an extended stay in her native Russia, and maybe a range visit will be in the near future.
 
I wasn't looking for advice; I know my situation.

Ok.

Not much point in wasting any time on this one. She's determined not to learn how to use the tool, he's determined that she doesn't need to learn.
Sounds like a perfect summation of the situation.
 
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