Status of Loaded Guns in your home....

AlexanderA said:
Every gun in my house is unloaded. Not only that, but whenever I pick one up, the first thing I do is make sure it is unloaded.

If one ever needed to be used, it's a simple matter to load it.

The few seconds saved by having loaded guns are more than offset by the diminished safety factor.
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Makes sense if the guns aren't locked up in a safe and you're not the only one that lives there.
 
Berserker said:
Not a fan of this, unless every single gun you own is this way. But I like them ready. Which is why I am revolver guy, in chamber, no safety.
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I only have one long gun out at a time, and through the years, as my ready weapon changed, they were all in this condition... so it's a no-brainer, pick the weapon up, chamber a round, safety off. A pistol is a pistol... if it's out of the safe, it's loaded and chambered regardless.

Everyone has their level of safety tolerance and training.
 
All my Defense guns are loaded with safeties applied if they have them . They are locked behind steel if not under my direct supervision , the ones near bed which have electronic locking safes are opened when I retire .
 
It is just my wife and me. We both carry from the time we get dressed until they go on the nightstands when we go to bed. Our other guns are in the safe with an electronic lock. Most guns in the safe are unloaded, but some are loaded for quick access. Other loaded long guns come out at night when we go to bed.
 
About 16 out of 24 hours a day (everyday) I keep a loaded gun pointed at my groin (AIWB) at home and everywhere else.
Do I think I "need" to carry at home? No, but the same could be said for everywhere else. ;)
 
Hokkmike said:
Had a friend in a very rural county who had various rifles leaning in the corners of several rooms in his home. They were all loaded and ready to fire. I don't even know if he engaged the safeties. His view was that if they weren't ready for immediate use then there was no point in having them.

My loaded ready to fire weapons are either in a finger tripped pistol safe or an electronic press lock combination stand up safe.

Who is excessive, me or my friend?

(BTW - I speak of him in the past tense as he has died of natural causes)
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Loaded rifle with a round in the chamber propped up in a corner would make me nervous if it's a bolt action. That's a lot of power to be unleashed by the dog knocking it over and stepping on the trigger. Not crazy about keeping shotguns ready to fire, either.

I will sometimes keep a pump shotgun with a magazine loaded, and I'm careful to leave it so that the action can't be manipulated. For example, if I have a pump shotgun in a vehicle with the magazine loaded, I have it in a case or a rack. Lying in the trunk, back seat, or behind the seat of your truck, it can rack itself with a hard right and hard left turn.
 
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A long time ago, I visited folks in the country who kept loaded guns in the barn and other places so they would be handy if needed. When one is working in the tractor shed and someone comes to the door of the house, the guns there are of little use.

In my house, one gun is loaded and secured in a biometric safe that is checked monthly. Others are considered loaded, but are checked before entering the home to ensure that they are not.
 
All my SD and HD g
Hokkmike said:
Had a friend in a very rural county who had various rifles leaning in the corners of several rooms in his home. They were all loaded and ready to fire. I don't even know if he engaged the safeties. His view was that if they weren't ready for immediate use then there was no point in having them.

My loaded ready to fire weapons are either in a finger tripped pistol safe or an electronic press lock combination stand up safe.

Who is excessive, me or my friend?

(BTW - I speak of him in the past tense as he has died of natural causes)
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I would say both of you are. But each person has to do what they're comfortable with. If your friend had small children frequent his house, he was irresponsible in my book. If you have a family to protect and you need to access a safe and/or load your weapon before you can defend yourself, you may as well just carry a knife instead.
Since I've got other layers of home security, I'm less concerned with home invaders accessing my guns and more concerned with unfamiliar children/visitors. Guns that are locked in my safe are likely loaded but not chambered.
Guns in other parts of my home that I want quick access to are loaded and chambered, but out of reach of small children.
It also helps that all of my children and grandchildren are exposed to shooting and gun safety as soon as they are old enough to hold one. I satisfy thier curiousity before they decide to do it on thier own. I don't worry about them touching one of my guns, but I do mitigate the possibility as much as I can.
Should I ever become worried about a disobedient child or teen, I may have to change my methods, but for now, they have all experienced arse woopins from me and know what to expect if they dis obey my rules.
Here are a couple ways I mitigate access by children/visitors. First pic is one of my exterior doors. No child under 5' tall is reaching it, but I can access it just as quickly as leaning it in the corner. 2nd pic is a gun rack placed high on a back wall that has a locking bar on the left side. The bar slides into a slot behind the drawer so the drawer captures it when closed. I lock the drawer whenever unfamiliar children/visitors are present.

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Chambered? Only the one in my pocket.

Most of the secured semi-autos have loaded magazines. And a pump shotgun. The revolvers and levers are unloaded.
 
I'm not certain there is a One Right Way for this.
To my thinking, the answer is going to be as varied as individuals are.
And, like the way individuals can be coarsely grouped, dark hair, or left-handed, or by hair length--those discriminations are generic, not specific.

Live in an apartment, where the maintenance or bug control person can come in anytime you are not 'home"? You will need more secure (and more discrete) storage.
Live more than a mile from the nearest neighbor? Probably less so.
Have a house full of kids and/or pets that might knock over (or move) things Then, maybe a bit more security.
 
We only have 4 loaded (chambered) and ready.
Hers and my bedside guns.
Hers and my EDC .
We do have other loaded but not chambered guns available in our safe.
 
I was always taught to treat all guns as they are loaded and that’s the same thing I teach others around me. Probably because they actually are loaded…
 
Styx said:
I keep only EDC loaded and ready. It's put on my hip when I get dresses for the day and then taken off and sat by me at night. Most rifles and shotguns aren't drop safe anyway, so I wouldn't have them chambered sitting in the corner in the first place.

I do keep a Mossberg Shockwave with a full tube and an empty chamber in the trunk of my car however as I am in my car several hours a day daily.

To answer your question, unless someone is a drug dealer or the like, it's my opinion that hiding several fully loaded handguns, rifles, and/or shotguns throughout one's home does border on the excessive and a little paranoid. That said, I don't care what people do in their homes with their firearms as long as they're not hurting or putting others at risk.
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Don't know if it's been mentioned, but a loaded Shotgun going down a public road will get ya in trouble in a lot of places....might wanna consider a pcc or lever or something similar.
 
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Three. EDC on my hip, never unloaded except for cleaning or use. One rifle and one revolver at back door for woodchuck and other pest control.
 
Well the guns I keep for self defense purposes are loaded and ready for use otherwise they don't readily serve their purpose. We are ancient empty nesters so no concern about kids.
 
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