Home Defense with Kids in House

[Heywood]

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

You are just plane wrong. Mostly.
First, if your kids do not listen to you and go rummiging around your room either they do not respect you as they should or you have not done your due diligence in fostering proper ideals of privacy or gun ownership. Probably both. I know kids look around where they aren't supposed to but I am not talking about putting it in a sock drawer or under a pillow.
Second, hiding a gun in a place they would never look along with number one is better than just a locked box.
Third, conveniently leaving out that I said use a locked door to the bedroom is very telling in your reaction.
I would contend, that a hidden gun in a locked room with a house that is all in with gun culture Is far superior to a metal box with a gun in it. I had one, when the kids first saw it they always asked what it was for, had they not respected me sufficiently they may have tried their hand at opening it and I know one of them would have been capable. Not to mention any number of "friends" they may have had over.

 

[Koda]

Being gun owners I imagine the families that have lost children were all in with gun culture superiority and perfectly disciplined children.

giving out advice to the public at large to hide guns without knowing the individual family personally is just really wrong.

 

[Pete F]

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

Just tried to use my smartphone, but the battery was dead - lol.

I have electronic locks on my gun safes and trust them. They are faster than manual locks and other than batteries wearing out or an EMP, I will not change. I couldn't imagine trying to open a dial lock with 4 digits in an emergency. Just remember to change the batteries before they go dead.

I am not sure that I am ready (trust) for the biometric lock yet. I don't have kids in the house other than the occasional grandchild - when every gun gets locked up.

I do keep a shotgun available at all times in a Chinese puzzle box arrangement. The ATF couldn't find it.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Keeping a firearm in a home is a very personal decision...and each of us who owns firearms must find a way to safely secure said firearms...
What works for one person or family may or may not work for you or yours...

Also there is no need for saying some is a bad parent for securing a gun one way over another...
You do however have as a parent , a responsibility to teach your kids firearm safety and keeping your guns secure...How you do that should be left up to the individual , as everyone is different and each home has different needs...

I grew up with open access to our guns , once I proved trustworthy...I did not want to lose that trust by messing around with our guns...
My girl grew up the same way...that may or may not work with your kids in your home and their friends...
The only "right way" , is the way that works safely for you.
Andy

 

[clearconscience]

Yeah I'll remember that when the govt tried to forces the "smart gun" tech on us. Jk

Maybe I watched too much Indiana Jones when I was a kid, but I snooped, I messed with stuff I shouldn't (cut my finger in half in 2nd grade playing with a razorblade from my mom's sewing kit)
And I found my stepdad's gun. Wouldn't have mattered where he hid it. But I never touched it. Maybe because he scared me And I knew I would be dead meat, but I never touched it. I was raised around guns and knew the rules, I knew how dangerous it was.

But there were times fighting with my brother I thought real hard about using it.

So I know they need locked up somehow. Hidden doesn't mean squat. My daughter is smart. At 2yo she grabbed my closet safe keys and had them in the door before I knew it.
Luckily I had already moved it all to a larger garage safe.

 

[Koda]

I find the subject fascinating with the various answers among gun owners, there are good easy ways to access a gun in an emergency and keep it secure from unauthorized use. We've mentioned them all here already except maybe just carry in the home. The battery powered boxes are reliable enough to gain fast access for bumps in the night... you should be doing other things to secure your home as well to give you advanced notice of burglary... why does that concern suddenly stop with just a loaded nightstand gun? If you need to access a gun to answer the door then secure a lock box near it, or just go get it first why hurry? if your that uncomfortable answering the door they why do it? If your children are disciplined, trained and/or old enough then you don't need to lock it up, thats fine too...

I don't mean to ruffle peoples feathers and put anyone on the spot, but after all the discussion on how to do this the right way with great product suggestions widely available, we still have gun owners telling folks they don't know and the public at large (this is a public forum available to the entire world...) ....
to just hide them with children around

If anyone is offended by my comments, I'm sorry its not my intention and I apologize. But the problem here that your not paying attention to is the tragedies of children getting access to guns and how gun owners can plan access around that, not how great your parenting is or how your family never needed to lock them up.

 

[kmk1012]

I find the subject fascinating with the various answers among gun owners, there are good easy ways to access a gun in an emergency and keep it secure from unauthorized use. We've mentioned them all here already except maybe just carry in the home. The battery powered boxes are reliable enough to gain fast access for bumps in the night... you should be doing other things to secure your home as well to give you advanced notice of burglary... why does that concern suddenly stop with just a loaded nightstand gun? If you need to access a gun to answer the door then secure a lock box near it, or just go get it first why hurry? if your that uncomfortable answering the door they why do it? If your children are disciplined, trained and/or old enough then you don't need to lock it up, thats fine too...

I don't mean to ruffle peoples feathers and put anyone on the spot, but after all the discussion on how to do this the right way with great product suggestions widely available, we still have gun owners telling folks they don't know and the public at large (this is a public forum available to the entire world...) ....
to just hide them with children around

If anyone is offended by my comments, I'm sorry its not my intention and I apologize. But the problem here that your not paying attention to is the tragedies of children getting access to guns and how gun owners can plan access around that, not how great your parenting is or how your family never needed to lock them up.

I totally agree, for now they will all be locked up until I can get around to playing with a few different options.

 

[Diamondback]

Too lazy to go back through all four pages, but Ayoob's book "Gun Proof Your Kids" might be helpful.

 

[toywin12]

Picked up a Hornady AR Gunlocker recently to mount in a vehicle to secure a long gun for extended outings, but decided it took up too much space. It now lives in the spare bedroom, so I have secure storage at the other end of the house. It's only been a few months, but it hasn't failed to open yet. It comes with an RFID bracelet, key fobs, stickers, back up barrel keys and a 4-digit keypad and all methods have worked on the first try. They have pistol versions as well, but I don't have any experience with those.

AR Gunlocker - Hornady Manufacturing, Inc

 

[Alexx1401]

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.

View attachment 414204

PERFECT!!!!!!

 

[Heywood]

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.

View attachment 414204

So this guy was crazy enough to not lock his car keys in a safe?

 

[RicInOR]

I have a Liberty Box - 4 button, electronic, 9v battery - I bought at Cabela's. I think the HD100.

Never works for me. Punch in the code, hear the motor whir, see the led, can't get lid open. Not with a screwdriver, not with my hands trying to pull it.

Every time I use the key, it works as expected.

 

[Joe13]

I have a Liberty Box - 4 button, electronic, 9v battery - I bought at Cabela's. I think the HD100.

Never works for me. Punch in the code, hear the motor whir, see the led, can't get lid open. Not with a screwdriver, not with my hands trying to pull it.

Every time I use the key, it works as expected.

I've worked with troubleshooting many kinds of systems all of my life and if there are electronical and mechanical parts, 90% of the time it's the electrical.

Often for no reason at all.

I wouldn't put an electric lock on my house or gun safes because it may work as expected for many years until Murphy's law comes in and buggers it all up.

 

[Pete F]

I find the subject fascinating with the various answers among gun owners, there are good easy ways to access a gun in an emergency and keep it secure from unauthorized use. We've mentioned them all here already except maybe just carry in the home. The battery powered boxes are reliable enough to gain fast access for bumps in the night... you should be doing other things to secure your home as well to give you advanced notice of burglary... why does that concern suddenly stop with just a loaded nightstand gun? If you need to access a gun to answer the door then secure a lock box near it, or just go get it first why hurry? if your that uncomfortable answering the door they why do it? If your children are disciplined, trained and/or old enough then you don't need to lock it up, thats fine too...

I don't mean to ruffle peoples feathers and put anyone on the spot, but after all the discussion on how to do this the right way with great product suggestions widely available, we still have gun owners telling folks they don't know and the public at large (this is a public forum available to the entire world...) ....
to just hide them with children around

If anyone is offended by my comments, I'm sorry its not my intention and I apologize. But the problem here that your not paying attention to is the tragedies of children getting access to guns and how gun owners can plan access around that, not how great your parenting is or how your family never needed to lock them up.

My Dad never owned a gun safe, was a gun enthusiast, Range Master and avid reloader. There are three of us kids that never, ever touched his guns without my Dad being present.
I don't know if children have changed, media report on child gun accidents more often, or the anti-gun lobby has gotten to us. Are there more gun related accidents with children than when we grew up (50+ years ago for me)?
I don't advocate leaving guns around for children to find, but it seems to be more of a problem today than in the past. My Dad kept them out of reach and out of sight for small children and when we grew we knew not to touch them.

 

[Diamondback]

@Pete F I suspect it's tied to the rise of Snowflakery and the death of personal responsibility: "it can't happen to me, it won't happen to me" on the parent side and "I'm a special snowflake and rules are for everyboy else" on kids'.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

I use a lock box that has a button combination and a key. I have it set up so I can work the combination by feel in the dark. I can be firing from a dead sleep in 5 seconds, but it is absolutely kid proof. When the batteries get low it flashes red. Since I'm putting my carry weapon in and out of it daily I always catch the low battery light.

 

[EPS]

Especially this time of year you know the little ones are looking all over the house to see what they got for Christmas just saying lock up your guns if there not in in your sight or on you

 

[Koda]

The only difference between years ago and today is that the news travels instantly and there are more gun owners. The percentage of children accidently shooting siblings etc. of households with guns is the same, so it "feels" like these kind of accidents are on the rise.
If you read that correctly youll see that back then virtually as many accidents happened as today and the culture of trusting all children not to touch didnt work back then either.

 

[Koda]

Especially this time of year you know the little ones are looking all over the house to see what they got for Christmas just saying lock up your guns if there not in in your sight or on you

Thats actually a really good point thanks for bringing that up....

 

[EPS]

Thats actually a really good point thanks for bringing that up....

I remember when we were little me and brother and sister looked all over the house when we got a chance too lol even flashlight in the attic and garage lol