Sleeping with a gun under your pillow?

[jbrown50]

My gun is always within arms reach and with our layered security plus tooth baring sentry I'd get more than enough of an early warning.

Besides, I wouldn't want to keep a gun in the bed anyway. When the wife and I get into some hot action the extreme heat could cook off a round or two......

 

[Dr.Rob]

I've done so with a holstered handgun. Woken up with it under the other pillow, between mattress and headboard, woken me up as it fell between the wall and bed. Also NOT comfy to sleep on.

Nightstand/mattress holster is a better idea--even in a hotel/motel room.

 

[T Bran]

Bad dreams

One nite I had a dream that I was in my truck in the driveway. All of the dash lites were on but when I put it in gear nothing happened no motion at all.
The next morning when I tried to get in the truck the door was locked. Since I never lock my truck at home Apparently I was in it that nite and just didnt turn the key far enough to start it.
After that little episode keeping a loaded gun under my pillow has become a serious no no. I'm just glad I was dreaming about driving around and not dreaming about being on a rampage of some sort.
The upside of being a sleep walker is you do get a little more exercise. The down side is rather obvious.
Stay safe.
T

 

[Old Guy]

I agree with the idea that most likely adrenaline would cause you to empty the mag. That's probably what I'd do.

To the original question, I've slept with a gun under my pillow before. I never felt that there was a risk of an accidental or negligent discharge doing it this way, but it wasn't as easy to reach it as I thought. I found that if I moved around in my sleep, the gun shifted and was never quite in the same place in the morning. Sometimes it moved as much as 8 or 10 inches. If you have to reach for it in the night while you're laying down, you have a limited reach if you lie on your back or on your side. If the gun has moved even half a pillow-length, you are less able to reach for it and can lose valuable time fishing for it.

Since then, I put it on the nightstand. I can reach that way with either hand and it never shifts. It's in the same place every time and it's instinctual to reach for it. Plus, I'm pretty sure there's no way some guy with a machete could get through my house to my bedroom without me being ready. At the very least, he'd trip over a bunch of junk in the dark!

Never under pillow. A big yes to bedside table/night stand.

I have a razor sharp bush knife, use it to cut things in the garden, the thought of a swipe with it? Nasty, he was lucky.

 

[2DREZQ]

Tried it for a while. The gun was never in the same place twice. Moved to a holster fixed to the bedside stand, next to the Mossberg 500 (for when the threat isn't in the room already) When kids were in the house I had one of those fast-open pistol vaults. They are GREAT and worth every penny for keeping kids safe.

 

[Owen Sparks]

T Barn,

There was an episode like this in my wifes family. Her uncle who is prone to sleepwalk 'woke up' in the middle of the night standing in the kitchen holding his keys in his hand. He went put to check the car and found the hood was warm! He has no idea where he went or why. People with this disorder have been known to do all sorts of crazy things and can be very dangerous to themselves or others.

 

[StrawHat]

Apparently, I am the only one who doesn't toss and turn in my sleep. I sleep comfortably and peacefully with my N frame under my pillow. When I wake up, it is always in the same place I left it the previous evening. After I dress, it goes from under the pillow into my holster. It has been this same routine for decades.

For those of you who leave it on the nightstand, what is to prevent someone from taking it? If the fellow in the original post had left it on the nightstand, it is not unthinkable the bad guy may have seen it and used it instead of the machette.

 

[mdauben]

I'm much too restless of a sleeper to keep a gun under my pillow. I often wake up with my pillows scattered around the bed or even on the floor. Aside from any hazard of an accidental discharge while I'm sleeping, there's no telling where my gun might wind up by the end of the night.

I'm much better off with a gun on top of my nightstand or in the drawer of same.

 

[MtnCreek]

For those of you who leave it on the nightstand, what is to prevent someone from taking it?

It's not on my nightstand, but close. My answer would be:

Dogs, locks & security system. I'm sure there are people who could get past that without making a sound, but those types would not be interested in me.

The way I sleep, the odds of me harming myself or my family with a gun under the pillow are much greater than the odds of it saving my family. My TV remote has wound up in some strange places after being left in the bed, so for me it does not make sense on any level. For others, maybe it does.

 

[Owen Sparks]

I just have too many layers of home defense to worry about shaving a second or two off the time it takes to grab my gun. For example, I have:

An electrified 5 foot fence all around the property with a metal gate and chain that makes a loud metalic clatter when opened.

A motion detector that beeps if someone pulls in the driveway.

Several large outdoor dogs that act as roving burglar alarms.

A small indoor dog that sleeps with us and barks at the slightest odd noise.

A wife who is also a light sleeper.

A long 'crunchy' gravel driveway.

2" thick double locked exterior doors and downstairs windows that do not open.

A locked solid core bedroom door.

Plus it is pitch black dark in the bedroom.

There is NO WAY that someone could break in to my house and snatch the pistol off the nightstand in total darkness.

 

[ForumSurfer]

For those of you who leave it on the nightstand, what is to prevent someone from taking it?

What this guy said:

Dogs, locks & security system.

I should be awake by the time someone is by my bedside. If I sleep through all that, I was probably dead already.

I do tend to sleep a little wild, so I at least keep it in a holster or something like this rigged to the frame:

 

[Carl N. Brown]

First off, sleeping with a pistol under the pillow was something I heard from my grandparents and thought it was some sorta 1930s rural legend. It seemed goofy in the 1950s when we actually felt no need to check the door locks before going to bed, back on Planet Ike.

He only shot him one time--sounds a bit fishy to me. Adrenalin would have emptied the mag into him.

In local jurisdictions, dumping a magazine load rather than firing single round then seeing effect, would be considered reckless or excessive force and to some prosecutors negate a self-defense claim. It is as though we have been expected to counter an assailant following Wildlife Resources Agency sporting rules. Not all jurisdictions read the supreme court ruling that calm reflection is not to be expected in the face of an upraised knife. A lot of jurisdictions expect restraint in the use of deadly force. It may derive from a feeling that mistaken identity shootings were the rule rather than the exception, I dont know. But, a single shot fired in self defense would not sound fishy to me.

Gun under pillow? No. The revolver in the bed headstand booknook is not likely to be moved from where I left it.

 

[Trent]

Sleepwalking is a real concern. My 13 year old boy sleepwalks. I once was going to bed and saw him standing facing the corner of a dark hall - scared the hell out of me. Turns out he was peeing in one of our flower pots. Totally, absolutely, 100% asleep.

No, the poor plant did not make it.

Having a sleepwalking child means I have to be EXTREMELY careful about how I choose to respond to 'bump in the night' issues.

 

[Series 70]

My son was 10 or so when I passed his open bedroom door one night. I glanced in and saw him standing in the corner. I asked what he was doing.

He said, "Dad! Get out of the bathroom!"

Yep, he was peeing into his trash can.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I had my mother in law make some nice little pillows that look just like guns. I have them all over the place. j/k

I'm more of the nightstand type guy save if it's a "bad place", then I'll sleep with it holstered on my hip or up by my head unholstered. Usually, the "bad place" is sleeping out in griz country and I have my little guard dog with me too.

 

[ForumSurfer]

Having a sleepwalking child means I have to be EXTREMELY careful about how I choose to respond to 'bump in the night' issues.

Sleepwalkers, they're scarey and creepy. I lived with one. She had fine motor control when she did it, almost like she was partially conscious. I had to lock the deadbolts to keep her inside. I had to seriously rethink home security during that period of my life.

In local jurisdictions, dumping a magazine load rather than firing single round then seeing effect, would be considered reckless or excessive force and to some prosecutors negate a self-defense claim

Maybe so, but I would never advise someone to shoot and observe. That sounds reckless. Every self defense expert I've ever spoken with has the same advice, "keep shooting until the threat is no longer a threat."

 

[smalls]

I toss and turn way too much. I used to even wake up with my feet by my headboard sometimes.

When I was a teenager, my ex said I used to wake up in the middle of the night and walk around, play with the dog, smoke a cigarette then come back to bed. I always wondered why I was so tired every morning!

I don't sleep walk anymore, thank god. But my wife says I say the craziest things all night!

So for me, having a gun under my pillow is not an option. I keep it in a quick access safe on my night stand, due to my toddler.

 

[Trent]

Forum Surfer - I haven't mentioned this previously, because the topic was about the gun under the pillow - but if I woke up to someone trying to hack me to pieces with a machete, and I could reach my firearm, there would definitely be more than one shot fired. Laws would be the very LAST thing on my damn mind.

That's like the worst-case of the worst-case scenarios. You are prone, no leverage, against a weapon that can decapitate you, within striking distance, caught COMPLETELY off guard, physically and mentally impaired because you just woke up..

You have EVERYTHING going against, and working against you. Zero advantage.

Reminds me of a local family in Beason IL that were hacked to death; mother, father, three children included. The 3 year old, alone, survived - but in critical condition that required a life flight.

That was not far from where I live, and even though it was an isolated event, I got a WHOLE lot more serious about home defense.

I like the ideas presented here - seems we all have solutions that work well for us.

And we all agree on the moral of the story - a gun out of reach, even a loaded one, is a worthless paperweight.

 

[Auf Grosser Fahrt]

Think average Joe in decent suburban subdivision. Thick plexiglass storm doors at front and back; both locked. All windows always closed and locked. Solid core doors front and back with door knob locks and deadbolts. Can't close and lock bedroom door because grown kids are asleep in other bedrooms and he needs to be able to hear what's going on in the house. Dog sleeps with one kid in closed room with fans going...may not hear anything. Revolver and 6-cell MagLite on the nightstand. Knife in drawer. What else reasonable is there to do for this average person?

Is this adequate, without going black ops, I mean?

 

[Certaindeaf]

^
Have the dog loose/not shut in with that kid and or get another dog.
Sounds plenty good though.

 

[FAS1]

Not under my pillow, but right next to it.

 

[Auf Grosser Fahrt]

I've contemplated something like this...

Or this...

Better than on nightstand?

 

[Trent]

Auf Grosser Fahrt -

Only thing I'd consider adding are pins in to the floor for doors. Locks can get jimmied, jingled, or picked. But you aren't going to get in if there's a metal pin poking down in to the floor, without a battering ram. And those are damn noisy.

Also consider what goes on OUTSIDE .. motion lights or other always on illumination are great, bad guys don't like bright light at night.

Sliding doors? 2x4 will stop those from getting jimmied and open. Only other way in is breaking glass - and that makes a HELL of a lot of noise.

(1x2's or similar thin boards ALSO work great for keeping sliding windows shut. Those can usually be pried open without much effort.)

 

[Trent]

Also, easy thought exercise - if you were locked out of your house and HAD to get in, what would you do to gain access (including the use of sledgehammer). Where would you do it?

Walk around and put yourself in the position of the "bad guy". Do it again at night; things might look or feel different.

EDIT:
Lastly; you won't be able to STOP someone from getting in your house. Nothing is 100% secure. But you CAN make it a royal pain in the ass, and make it as noisy as possible.

 

[mdauben]

I do tend to sleep a little wild, so I at least keep it in a holster or something like this rigged to the frame:

That's a very cool idea Forumsurfer! Did you make that yourself or are they a commercial product?