Night Stand Gun, No More?

[cbzdel]

I keep my .45 in my night stand with a loaded magazine, but not chambered. My wife and I are the only ones in the house and we are both trained with weapons so we know how to handle it and I trust leaving it unlocked. The only reason I do not chamber it is because if I awaken in a daze I may not be 100% focused on whats going on when I grab the gun and I don't want an accidental discharge!

That changed, I just had a close friends home get broken into while he was away at work and they stole his night stand gun, and he even kept it in a gun vault that was bolted to the drawer of his night stand, the crooks just removed the whole drawer and took it. Last thing I want it my night stand gun stolen, it is one of the most expensive things inside our home and it also does not belong in the hands of any criminals.

Here is my new plan, so give me some input. I myself will buy a mini single gun vault, but BOLT it to the top of my large gun safe in my closet 7 feet away from my bed. That way I hear a bump in the night jump up, the wife will hear will, I get the gun from the gun vault, and sweep the house, while she does the combo on the full size gun safe and pulls out the loaded shotgun.

I figure my safe is bolted to the floor and the wall (interior wall) so its not going anywhere, then if I bolt the gun vault to the safe, it to is not going anywhere.

Thoughts?

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[cyclesarge]

Why don't you just lock up the gun when you leave? Opening your big safe every day will make you very proficient at getting it opened quickly if the SHTF.

 

[NK777]

Good idea! I myself keeps many of my weapons in my quick access safe loaded. No night stand gun for me. I have 4 kids and all are trained in safety and shooting to some degree, however as an extra safety I keep the guns locked up and only the oldest child (16) has the combination to the safe. I do this because I was a kid once to and dad didn't keep the guns locked up. He put them in his closet and one day when I was a kid I got his 357 down off the high shelf only for a moment. Nothing bad happened I put it back very quickly knowing he would kick my butt if he found out. As they say even good smart kids do dumb things sometimes and I'd hate for an accident to happen.

Status of the guns in my safe:

Handguns loaded mag, one in the pipe, safety on.
Shotgun and Saiga 308 loaded mag, empty chamber, safety off.
22lr, hunting rifle, etc. unloaded and safe.

 

[matt_w]

My night stand is also my carry gun...that way it's always with me!

 

[tallshipsgo]

I've actually done that myself. Our house was broken into while we were at work early last year (the straw that finally broke the camels back so to speak – the dirt bags broke through my four year old sons bedroom window and – on top of several other factors – we decided to finally get out of the PRC). Again, we weren't home so nobody was hurt but they did make off with several things. I had my .45 in a single pistol push button gun vault that, for some reason, they totally ignored. It was bolted to a shelf that could have easily been broken yet they did not. I saw the error of my thinking and bolted it to the top of the safe in the closet. I figure the extra few seconds it would take me to get to my pistol was worth the risk of having the pistol six feet away from me as opposed to a foot and half.

I am raising my boy with guns and gun safety but I still take no chances and I couldn't bear the thought of one of my guns in some goons hands doing terrible things with it because I wasn't responsible enough to make it at least extremely difficult for someone to steal them. I actually vacillate a little because I would like an easier to retrieve firearm but the balance is that (primarily) my boy can't hurt himself or others and nobody can easily steal what I have and use it to hurt another human being.

 

[willseeker]

My 1911 is always cocked and locked, one in the chamber, safety on. It's next to me on top of the night stand when I sleep and in my holster when I'm awake.

I've tested this and when I wake from a dead sleep, my auto reaction is to grab the gun with index finger raised onto the slide. I may not be fully prepared for action but I know where my trigger finger is. This is my trained position for grasping, awake or asleep. Do it enough time and it becomes instinct.

Will

 

[Member 5605]

Guns locked in safe when one leaves house.
Simple enough.

Night defense: within arms reach.

 

[OFADAN]

You asked for "thoughts" so here is a thought for you to seriously ponder ...why if you've got a high probability there are threat(s) present in your home would you go "sweep the house" while leaving your wife behind trying to get the shotgun out? The most dangerous thing in the world is clearing a building in a hostile environment. I'm not advocating it but it would be better for you and your wife to do this together as a tactical team rather than leaving her behind....there is a chance under stress she or you could become confused in the fog of battle and end up shooting one another also. She could hear a problem and try to come to your aid only complicating the situation or conversely the other way around...you come to her aid and walk into a bear trap.

One of the fundamental principles we teach at OFA is NEVER-EVER leave your wingman or flight leader in a building - even your own home. You stay together, fight together and survive together.

We teach clearing enclosed buildings/structures at OFA and have the Adjudicator "Shoot House" to run students through to get first hand experience...the first thing they say after going through is "I NEVER want to do this for real...this is really, really dangerous". We also teach team tactics so two people can learn to work together in stressful situations. We run the team of two through Airsoft "force-on-force" scenarios and the bad guys will try to separate the team...if they do the odds of survival drop considerably....so you might want to reconsider your primary and secondary plans to a defilate first leaving the clearing the building as a secondary or perhaps tertiary last resort plan.

Ah, but what do I know...

 

[Blitzkrieg]

OFA beat me to it with a better post than I could have produced. In our home we have separate bedrooms because I snore and she tosses, hers is right across the hall at the end of the hall, with a solid wood door that locks up and can only be opened with a key from outside. Upon invasion she is to lock the door and dial 911. She has an AR15 and two handguns at night

I may "sweep" the upper story of my home if they are attempting to enter via the front door or the back deck glass door, because I have cover in both spots, but no further than that.. and it will be with an 18 inch Mossberg 500 loaded with 6 rounds of 00 buckshot, tritium bead sight, and a light for ID

I would not want to find myself toe to toe with an armed intruder, me with only a mere handgun. I do have one hanging next to my bed, a BHP 40 cal with two reloads and my cellphone in a Blackhawk fanny pack which I can toss over my shoulders, crossdraw as a backup

But I just might stay put and use the entry to my master bedroom as cover, and whack 'em if they appear, while the wife calls 911

 

[spengo]

Would it be stupid to put the handgun under your pillow? No risk of it being stolen there without waking you up, it's right with you when you need it, and there's no fiddling with safes.

 

[gnarkill]

Would it be stupid to put the handgun under your pillow? No risk of it being stolen there without waking you up, it's right with you when you need it, and there's no fiddling with safes.

yikes,
How often are you in the exact same position when you wake up, and chances are the gun will shift quite a bit while sleeping and could end up pointing at your head, or your significant others head etc.. My buddy sleeps with his gun under his pillow and I still think he's crazy. Not to mention your gonna have to find that gun in the dark, when your groggy, and freaking out.


Maybe put it in between the matresses so you could just reach down and grab it.


I had one incident while living in San Diego, we used to make our dog sleep out in the living room and we had all the blinds closed except for our door in the kitchen, which had a large window in it. The door was on the side of our house that had a fence right in front of it, so it was shielded from view, a perfect spot to break in...
Middle of the night our dog starts going nuts, barking like mad, worse than ive ever heard. Normally I have a pistol loaded but it turned out that I had just gotten back from the range the previous weekend and had everything locked up, and nothing loaded per communist california rules. It took me like 5 minutes to get one loaded and to go out and check it out. By then they were gone and the dog had calmed down, but if it werent for the dog we would have been screwed. I always keep something in the drawer next to the bed now. I heard the next day that our neighbors house had been broken into not more than a month or so before and he got away, so I assume it was probably the same guy(s).

 

[Trlsmn]

Why don't you just lock up the gun when you leave? Opening your big safe every day will make you very proficient at getting it opened quickly if the SHTF.

Exactly!

 

[jdub75]

I put my bedside gun in the safe every day when I leave. I also practice opening the safe by touch w/ my eyes closed-in case power is totally out & pitch black in the room the safe is in, or I don't want to alert any intruder to my position w/ the light on.

 

[jordanvraptor]

My bedside gunsafe is a conventional safe that weighs about a hundred pounds. I plan on moving the rifle safe into the bedroom and eventually making it a secured "safe room." Doing it in steps with combo lock door knob, reinforced door frames, will bolt the safes to the floor and a steel gate over the patio doors. Its not Ft Knox but there are little things you can do to make a room more resistant to smash and grabs. If they have time, any defense can be defeated so it becomes a matter of diminishing returns of how much you spend versus the threat you are likely to face. Just my 4 cents, cause half of my wealth goes to the govt...

 

[Blitzkrieg]

My bedside gunsafe is a conventional safe that weighs about a hundred pounds. I plan on moving the rifle safe into the bedroom and eventually making it a secured "safe room." Doing it in steps with combo lock door knob, reinforced door frames, will bolt the safes to the floor and a steel gate over the patio doors. Its not Ft Knox but there are little things you can do to make a room more resistant to smash and grabs. If they have time, any defense can be defeated so it becomes a matter of diminishing returns of how much you spend versus the threat you are likely to face. Just my 4 cents, cause half of my wealth goes to the govt...

One tip is to make your steel or solid wood door open outwards along with a re-enforced frame and lock receiver, that will make it 10 x harder to bust though. This is how my wife's door is set up

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Would it be stupid to put the handgun under your pillow? No risk of it being stolen there without waking you up, it's right with you when you need it, and there's no fiddling with safes.

Imagine it ending up on the floor as you move around, and then a break and enter occurs while you fumble in the dark for your handgun

 

[Selftest]

OFA brought up an extra point, and I will go further than that: Un less you have children or other loved ones in the house who are unarmed and cannot protect themselves, why would you EVER leave a room in which there were only one easy way in and out?

I would absolutely hate clearing the house I am in right now. Narrow hallways, blind corners, 3 ways in and out... plus, it is darker than **** in this place at night.

As far as having the nighstand gun stolen when you're gone... Why don't you have it on you? Or, locked in your big safe?

 

[spengo]

yikes,
How often are you in the exact same position when you wake up, and chances are the gun will shift quite a bit while sleeping and could end up pointing at your head, or your significant others head etc.. My buddy sleeps with his gun under his pillow and I still think he's crazy. Not to mention your gonna have to find that gun in the dark, when your groggy, and freaking out.

Well, I always put it in a consistent place, on one side of the pillow pointing out at the door. I don't have a significant other so I don't have to worry about other people. It's a big heavy CZ-75 and I've never ever had it shift around. Under 2 pillows so I don't notice it either.

 

[OFADAN]

I wish I would have kept the photos of the NRA Instructor who advocated sleeping with his handgun under the pillow or near the bed. That is until this little episode changed his channel...I digress....

Long story short...in the middle of the night during deep REM sleep our NRA Instructor dreamt his alarm clock was sounding off...so in his dream status he pick up the alarm with his support hand and turned it off with his strong hand...but what he actually did was picked up his handgun pointed it at his support hand and shot himself at contact distance...he literally blew a finger off on his support hand between the Proximal Phalanges and the Metacarpals barely missing his wife's head just a few feet away from him.

I won't get into how graphic this was because it was extremely graphic for the weak stomach....the bottom line is sleeping with firearms in close proximity is a cocktail for catastrophe. I can hear it now..."oh, that will never happen to me." Yea, well this is exactly what this NRA Instructor was preaching to his students up until he lost a significant usage of his support hand for life. Dang I wish I could find the photos he sent me.

Anyway, the moral of this story is one must create a check and balance system between firearm "readiness" for home defense with reasonable "safety". Having a loaded firearm in close proximity to one's bed needs to be offset with the consideration that people can access them in their sleep, when extremely groggy/incoherent, or when startled abruptly before one gains full cognitive functionality.

It is generally recommended that firearms for home defense are at least one to two steps away after getting out of bed before being access so the individual has at least a little time to awaken enough to make better use of judgement and functionality.

If one is prone to sleepwalking or other sleep disorders then all this needs to be taken under consideration.

Home Defense must depend upon a layered defense with early warning systems such as yard perimeter alarms, driveway alerts, cameras, dogs, or other very early warning systems followed secondary by a home alarm system (cheap or expensive) as a secondary alert so the home owner has at least a few seconds to minutes to be alerted to danger long before the firearm is actually needed.

This leaves having a firearm as the last ditch solution instead of the primary solution. We has humans need time to be alerted early and time to wake up before we start to manipulate firearms. There should be at least one to two alerts prior to the front door being kicked in so we have time to awaken, prepare and put our tactics into action. There are several other even earlier layers but I won't bore you with them here.

 

[SSG]

Never sweep a house alone = Cop mentality/Training

They show up...people are getting killed in side...call backup, call swat, establish communications, chuck in gas, find the K9 unit......officer safety first....

So I guess if your kids are getting hacked up down the hall your going to hide behind the bed, clutching your cell phone talking on the phone to dispatch?

Sorry, but a one size fits all doesn't work... I might barracade, I might escape and evade, I might take the fight to them...I think and make decisions based on the info at hand.....

Besides...I own a gun because when seconds count, the cops are minutes away...