Sleeping With or Near a Gun

[BerettaNut92]

I know some guys sleep with a pistol in arm's reach...aren't you afraid you're gonna grab it, or the shotgun, in your sleep?

I've set an alarm clock back a few hours in my sleep before which takes a decent amount of work....don't wanna know what I'm gonna do with the gun.

 

[atk]

Yeah, waking up to deal with an intruder is an obvious concern - gun or no gun.

There's a few solutions I know of to this.

1) get an alarm system (ala "Woof!"),
2) organize the entrances your room such that an intruder MUST make noise to enter
3) store the firearm in an easily and quickly accessable safe
4) store the firearm out of plain view

 

[KMKeller]

I keep a pistol close, but far enough away that I actually have to get up and out of bed, and take a couple steps to get to it. I have a woofy alarm that will ensure I have the time to get to it before the bad guy gets to me.

 

[voilsb]

Under my pillow in my IWB holster, loaded and chambered, safety-off, hammer down (DA).

I'm a pretty light sleeper (just about any weird noises wake me up, like my roommate downstairs getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night), and generally wake up pretty darn coherant.

 

[Nippy]

I tried to see what would happen if i put it under the pillow. Well I ended up knocking the gun behind the bed stand, I guess I move around a lot. I woke up just as I hit it so I figured putting the gun on the bed was a bad idea cuz when I woke up and needed it I wouldnt know where it went. If i didn't knock it off the bed i would put it there I keep it right next to my bed within arms reach.

I don't think I've ever grabbed anything in my sleep, just knocked things down so I don't worry about grabbing a gun in my sleep.

 

[Sven]

The .45 sleeps on the bed with me when my girlfriend isn't around. I'm not worried about grabbing it in my sleep... its usually kept loaded, but with an empty chamber.

Boy, do I sleep well.

 

[Chupacabra]

I keep my 1911 on the night stand cocked and locked. I don't have a tendancy to sleep walk or do weird things in my sleep and I'm pretty coherent when I wake up so I don't worry about it.

 

[CWL]

If you can't reach it, it isn't going to do you much good.

However, one must choose the compromise they are comfortable with.

I am reminded of the "darwin awards" winner who shot himself in the head when he answered his pistol instead of the phone late one night.

 

[444]

I don't always have a loaded gun next to my bed, maybe 1/2 the time. A Colt 1911, cocked and locked. I am not worried in the least about it. I work as a firefighter and get up from bed several times a night. I can wake up, get dressed, get the printout, look up where I am going on a map, and be driving away in less than two minutes.

 

[MJRW]

I've had a very very very similar concern. My solution was to lock it up nexto the bed. This has actually worked out better than not locking it up for me. I don't have to do anything when I leave the house (I always lock up all guns when no one is home). Don't have to make the house safe for when the niece and nephew visit. I don't worry about grabbing it in the middle of the night. It takes me a few seconds to unlock it. I intend the 80 pound weimaraner to get me those seconds. It is also easier for me to lock up my carry piece, which is different than my home piece, at the end of the day. I got one of those mini-vaults with the 4-button operation.

 

[BerettaNut92]

That's like when I grabbed my cactus instead of the flashlight during the 1994 earthquake....

 

[Cosmoline]

I typically keep either a DA revolver or the AK with nothing in the chamber but a mag clipped on within arm's reach. No kids, and I have no tendency to pick up objects and squeeze them. A SA revolver might be somewhat more safe if that was an issue. I also keep a tactical light either on the AK or near the revolver.

The idea of trying to get a firearm out of a safe at three AM is, for me, very unrealistic.

 

[JeepDriver]

I have an alarm system, in the form of a 95 lb ill tempered Black Lab. If she barks it will wake you up.

I think her bark is the scarriest thing an intruder can hear.

After that all I have to do is roll over and open the night stand.

In it is a GP100, 2 speed loaders and a mag light.

 

[Logistar]

FWIW (as posted elsewhere here) even a gun on the nightstand might not be as certain a thing as you might think. When I noticed what appeared to be a very bright flashlight in my living room late the other night, I struggled to get a hold on my "home defense revolver" that was on the nightstand NEXT to my bed!

It "appeared" for a second that "whoever" was coming down the hall toward the bedroom. I tried to keep my eyes on the hall and grab for the gun (thinking I knew exactly where it was) but ended up fumbling around for it and pushing it across the nightstand.

Everyone here seems to think they will have TIME to locate a weapon that has been placed in a variety of locations.... I am not so sure anymore. I guess I need to re-evaluate my situation. Practice??? Hmmmm.

BTW, Cosmoline, how did you attach a flashlight on your AK? That is something I am trying to do myself. Thanks!

Logistar

 

[Peter Gun]

My sig is chambered and decocked on my dresser next to me. The dresser is lower than my bed and onthe side opposite the door so an intruder wont see it. I am a very light sleeper and I always awake instantly. When I use an alarm clock radio, i wake to the "click" before the actual radio comes on. This situation is another good reason for night sights. I see them as soon as my eyes are open. I also have a dog.
When I lived w/ my old girlfriend, she was a sleepwalker/talker. I kept my pistol in a drawer and made her keep her gun in the case under the bed. I never came close to pulling a gun on her, but she sure freaked me out a couple times, walking the halls and basically speaking in toungues.

 

[sanchezero]

I keep my gun, holstered, right next the bed. Same place all the time; surefire, same thing.

For awhile I had a, uh, well, errr...kinda smaller than normal doubled 12ga that hung in a sock on my bedpost . I'm reformed now and no longer have that. I had a crappy old bed after that that I just screwed a crappy old holster to the siderail for my pistol.

Now, I'm not allowed to screw random junk to the bed; my lady thinks it's kinda tacky, so I just keep my carry weapon right close.

 

[sm]

There was a loaded gun near my crib along with boxing gloves and fishing lures on the wall. Never spent much time with gloves -even tho' they did get signed by a noted boxer. I stayed with guns and outdoor stuff like fishing/hunting.

I guess I've always had a loaded gun in or near my sleeping arrangements.
I still do, at least one. Just how I was raised with 4 rules and all. I may forget to set the alarm, not know how the darn light works in a hotel--anywhere away from home, but sleeping with a gun is natural. I can and have slept w/o beds, pillow, sleeping bags...always a gun except when I was in a hospital...and in the old days before...well...

 

[clubsoda22]

loaded pistol (condition 3) in a locked drawer next to the bed. Key to it is on my keychain with the car/house keys. The lock is the type that won't release the key in the unlocked position, so I keep it unlocked at night, with the key in it, when i wake up in the morning, i have to lock it to get my keys out. I also have a winchester defender kept unloaded in my closet. If i hear lots of noise downstairs, that gets loaded very quick. Since i don't like keeping ammo in the shotgun, i think i want to get some of those shotgun speedloades for it.

 

[Moparmike]

Condition 3? What is that?

 

[444]

Loaded mag in the gun, chamber empty.

Condition 1: Cocked and Locked: there is a round in the chamber the hammer is cocked and the safety is on.
Condition 2: hammer down with a round in the chamber
Condition 3: loaded mag, no round in the chamber
Condition 4: empty chamber, no mag in the gun (you carry the mag in your pocket such as with young children in the house, have gun lying there with a loaded mag on your person).

CONDITION ZERO: round in the chamber, hammer cocked, safety OFF (weapon hot and ready to fire with a press of the trigger).

 

[P95Carry]

I sleep quite heavy and am not ''agent wideawake'' in mornings! but .......

If awoken thru something strange find an adrenaline surge gets me to a state of quick alertness. My gun however will NEVER be on nightstand or under pillow .... it is always on the floor .... all but under the bed and hidden from view for most part by the ''frilly thing'' my wife likes round the base!!

I strongly recommend this position ..... you cannot fumble it off the nightstand ..... rather, when you reach down with right arm until fingers touch floor ..... there it is. I always leave it such that it falls into my grip with no adjustments. Probably be hard for a BG to see it ... or my arm drop to floor either.

 

[stevelyn]

BHP and Pelican Black Knight M-6 eyeball cooker on floor next to bed. Duty gear hanging on hook w/G-22 next to BR door. 12ga shotgun leaning against wall and small bookshelf next to same BR door. Others too numerous to list here within reach if needed.

 

[HBK]

When I was single I slept with a gun underneath the pillow next to me. I don't sleep with a pillow, so it was underneath the one on the other side of the bed away from the door. It was loaded, bullet in chamber, safety on hammer down. I like that system, but when I got married, my wife objected to the gun under HER pillow. Now it is either in the nightstand or hanging in a holster between the headboard and the mattress.

 

[cool45auto]

My headboard has shelves made into it. I keep my alarm clock, phone and Vertec on it behind the two pillows.

 

[chaoslord]

I keep a condition 2, Ruger P94 under the extra pillow. Seemed the most logical place to keep it out of sight from casual friends and parents who might stop in unexpectedly at night, and the fastest place to get to it should anyone else stop by unexpectedly at night.

A quick flip of the safety underneath the pillow before the weapon is ever produced and then it is just a DA squeeze to neutralize a threat.