Home Defense with Kids in House

[Fishonshawn]

Just a cabinet for rifles at the moment but got a vaultek safe for bedside. Keep my daily carry in there. From what I've read the fingerprint scanner on it is quite good and I've had mine for...jeez...close to a year? I duno, but I've had minimal issues with it. It has done some weird things but for how many times it's been opened it gets a pass on the occasion weird thing once every few months.

 

[tkdguy]

I educated my children at a very young age, taught them to shoot and never had a problem. Kept a 9 mm very high in a closet and rifles in a locked room. No problems. They had BB guns at a very young and learned safe gun handling.

 

[Alexx1401]

This is a simple topic but can get exspesive if you want a gun in every room of your house you have to buy a safe for every room OR keep a gun on you at all times witch is annoying let's all be honest when I get to my sister's house or come home to my house I take my gun out and put it on a shelf high at my sister's and on top of the safe at my house or it's in the side of my recliner lol BUT I LIVE IN A LOW CRIME AREA if I still lived in Tacoma I would think differently

We keep several around the home here. Of course kids are gone. The hidden ones are in places that the "smash & Grab doper is not likely to find. It's VERY easy to do this. When one youngster got married her and her's were living in an apartment. I noticed on the way to the head which was off the bedroom he had his hand gun on the night stand and long gun in the corner. I talked to SIL about it and we walked around the place and even in a little one bed apartment I showed him some ways to hide both. Where he had them was the very first place the smash in guy would look.

 

[Alexx1401]

I have been thinking about this for months.
My daughter is now 5, son os 2 and they are getting to that age.
My firearms are out of reach but I know that will only last so long and my kids are pretty smart.

I need to figure something out quick.

For you and anyone else looking Amazon is a great place to start. They have stuff that will work starting at like $20. For very little ones anything with a lock. Any of them can even be mounted to something.

 

[clearconscience]

After reading reviews I always worry about the safe not opening or having to fumble with it to open it.

I had an incident the other night where I was awoken by the dog and had to grab my pistol from the closet, it ended ok, but I can't imagine if someone had actually entered the home or was rushing upstairs that I would have to get into a safe. Luckily the dog buys you some small time, and hopefully makes the BGs pause.

 

[Alexx1401]

After reading reviews I always worry about the safe not opening or having to fumble with it to open it.

I had an incident the other night where I was awoken by the dog and had to grab my pistol from the closet, it ended ok, but I can't imagine if someone had actually entered the home or was rushing upstairs that I would have to get into a safe. Luckily the dog buys you some small time, and hopefully makes the BGs pause.

This is why I was always leery of electronics. They have come a hell of a long way since they hit but still. When I bought the Simplex ones I had the Wife practice in the dark a lot till she was real comfortable with them for just this reason. They are a little more expensive than some of the cheaper stuff. Also we always had some guns out when we retired for the night. The lock boxes were only for when all were up and about.

 

[Koda]

After reading reviews I always worry about the safe not opening or having to fumble with it to open it.

I had an incident the other night where I was awoken by the dog and had to grab my pistol from the closet, it ended ok, but I can't imagine if someone had actually entered the home or was rushing upstairs that I would have to get into a safe. Luckily the dog buys you some small time, and hopefully makes the BGs pause.

its a valid concern but I think its over rated. Ive never heard of any of these quick access safes failing when needed? The Gun-Vault I have has been working for years. A lot of people are leery of electronics but the technology is not complicated and even the cheap ones are working, worst case is if you use it daily as planned you will find out well in advance if its a lemon and replace it with another brand.

 

[cigars]

Attach a very strong magnate to the back of your nightstand and stick your pistol to that. I use the magnates from pc hard drives. One will hold a fully loaded full size XDm9. I use two. Kids never even know it's there. Couple that with a good door lock for other peoples kids.
Many times concealment is actually better than cover..
I usually only lock my guns away from bad people like politicians and thieves.

Harbor freight sells a large magnet that works great. I have a couple mounted around the house. They're usually on sale.
As far as kids, train, train, train. Yes of course, my guns are always locked up. However, introduce them to guns at an early age. Drill the hard safety lessons into their heads, let them handle them so that the curiosity factor
is removed and replaced with respect. Never once have my kids ever asked for toy guns.
Gun Vault makes a good four button with finger guides. Has a key back up. I've never had a problem with them.

 

[Koda]

ttach a very strong magnate to the back of your nightstand and stick your pistol to that. I use the magnates from pc hard drives. One will hold a fully loaded full size XDm9. I use two. Kids never even know it's there.

worst advice ever. Sorry... I bit my tongue as long as I could over this advice and usually ignore anything I disagree with to save any argument but every year 100s of kids are killed by parents leaving their guns out where kids have access to them, anyone who thinks they can "hide" a gun from their children isn't paying attention.

7-Year-Old Accidentally Shoots 2-Year-Old In Hermiston: Police

 

[Alexx1401]

worst advice ever. Sorry... I bit my tongue as long as I could over this advice and usually ignore anything I disagree with to save any argument but every year 100s of kids are killed by parents leaving their guns out where kids have access to them, anyone who thinks they can "hide" a gun from their children isn't paying attention.

7-Year-Old Accidentally Shoots 2-Year-Old In Hermiston: Police

This is always a "sensitive" subject and it is a "to each his own" but, it is a large risk trusting kids being taught or hiding stuff. If someone chooses this route I am not saying they are "wrong". More they are deceiving themselves on just how well this works. When I was a kid if my Dad had caught me playing with his loaded gun? He would have beat my butt good. It did not stop me and almost every kid I knew did the same. All of us who had parents who owned guns would get them out to show each other. We were SUPER careful as we were super scared. We were still kids though.

 

[Koda]

This is always a "sensitive" subject and it is a "to each his own" but, it is a large risk trusting kids being taught or hiding stuff. If someone chooses this route I am not saying they are "wrong". More they are deceiving themselves on just how well this works. When I was a kid if my Dad had caught me playing with his loaded gun? He would have beat my butt good. It did not stop me and almost every kid I knew did the same. All of us who had parents who owned guns would get them out to show each other. We were SUPER careful as we were super scared. We were still kids though.

If someone has trained or educated their kids on guns I don't have a problem with whatever they decide but blanket statements suggesting ways to hide a gun from children because "Kids never even know it's there." is not sound advice and hurting our cause by encouraging unsecured access resulting in deaths. I have news for all parents, kids know where they hide anything their not supposed to play with.

 

[Letus]

Put it in a drawer next to your bed with custom latch that easy for you but hard for other to guess, or hide somewhere that only you know where it is

 

[bbbass]

Hell yeah, when I was a little guy over to a friends house, we found his dad's porn mags. Kids get into everything.

I wasn't raised with guns but nevertheless taught my 3 youngins all about them from an early age. Took them out and stood them real close to a watermelon and had them fire my handgun into it. They saw what a gun could do. We hunted too... so the kids did know that you could kill with them. However, kids will be kids, so I never had loaded guns in the house. Guns were kept in a rifle cabinet in my bedroom and ammo in it's locked drawer. They could probably break into it but at least sneaky lil neighbor kids wouldn't.

I'm all for the pushbutton pistol vaults. So glad I don't have to worry about it cuz I'm too damn old now.

 

[clearconscience]

I'll just make a box out of brussel sprouts and my kids will stay long clear

 

[Joe13]

My kid is 20.5 and a I still keep my gun in a vault. No electronics for me because they might fail and no leaving guns out for the .001% chance my kid or her friends want to touch a gun. Yes, technically she can go buy a shotgun and ammo without me but then I won't have it on my concience and know I did everything I could to prevent a ND.


I found one of these years ago on CL for like $60 and have it mounted so I can get to it and out the door quickly. I opened it multiple times a day until it was second nature and in the dark doesn't matter. I highly recommend them.



Your kids are smarter and prone to do dumber things then you think. Just my 2¢.

 

[albin25]

Q- How do you get your car in the neighbor's pool without anyone touching it?

A- Tell your kids and their friends never to touch It, and hide the keys.

 

[Ruger Rich]

This is a great subject to discuss and banter around. We raised two daughters and placed the home defense pistol on the top shelve of a 7' bookcase next to our bed. It was the only gun in the house not in the safe. They never knew it was up there. And perhaps we were fortunate that they didn't place a chair next to the bookcase and reach up there. I took both of them out shooting often from about 6 or 7 years old on. They knew what a gun could do and any curiosity was satisfied because they had been out shooting so many times. It's never easy because you can "what if" all kinds of scenarios. They are grown and on their own now and both have multiple guns in their homes. Perhaps I was fortunate as nothing bad ever happened and perhaps I did the correct thing. We are older now and I and my wife are less physically able to engage than we used to be. We do have now multiple pistols through out the home.

 

[L84Cabo]

There are times when the latest wiz bang technology is simply overkill. A good strong lockbox with a mechanical simplex lock works incredibly well. No batteries or electronics to die, no thumbprint scanners to fail, just quick reliable entry when you need it.

 

[Koda]

every day we log onto the internet, post on this forum here... often from our "smart" phones. Watch TV with a remote control piped in from a tiny box. Turn on our car and drive somewhere reliably. The list of electronic things and many with high tech circuitry is endless and virtually never fail us.

We have battery powered optics, lights and lasers on half our guns we trust our lives to....

An electronic lock box is pretty simple technology in comparison, and has a far far much greater chance of saving a child's life than anyone here ever needing their gun for real.

Just saying

 

[Joe13]

every day we log onto the internet, post on this forum here... often from our "smart" phones. Watch TV with a remote control piped in from a tiny box. Turn on our car and drive somewhere reliably. The list of electronic things and many with high tech circuitry is endless and virtually never fail us.

We have battery powered optics, lights and lasers on half our guns we trust our lives to....

An electronic lock box is pretty simple technology in comparison, and has a far far much greater chance of saving a child's life than anyone here ever needing their gun for real.

Just saying

I get what your saying but I've answered the door late at night more then a few times with a pistol in the other hand.

I don't exclusively grab my gun for break in's.