[pax]

I have 2 toddlers at home, gun safety is my #1 concern. How do you guys keep your firearms accesible but childproof?

We have five sons in our home, currently ages 15, 13, 12, 11, and 10 (yes, yes, I know. They're all ours, all mixed from the same recipe, and yes, we do know what causes that.)

We've owned guns for most of their lives, but have only been concerned about accessible firearms for about 6 years. At that time, the youngest was 4 years old and all of them were (and are) very active, normal youngsters with predictable amounts of energy & curiousity. They weren't any more naughty than anyone else's kids, but weren't noticeably less naughty than other people's kids either.

I considered keeping a shotgun loaded for home defense, then realized that there was no real way to keep it secured enough to be safe from the kids but still accessible enough to be useful. One of our family members suggested storing it loaded on the top shelf of the closet, but I could easily envision one of them climbing up and pulling it down. A two year old on top of my fridge had long ago taught me that no place is truly inaccessible for a kid with enough energy & determination! And anyway, it seemed silly to put the gun in a bedroom when I might want it in a hurry at the front door some night.

Decided to get a handgun, plus one of those fingertip speed safes. Then got thinking, in which room would I put that fancy little safe? The living room? Didn't seem likely. My bedroom? Pretty far from the front door or anywhere else I might need to use it. I had nightmares about having to choose between racing for the safe -- or leaving my children in the same room as a Bad Man when I went for the gun. Shudder.

Of course, if we had more money, I might have bought three or four home defense guns, and three or four fast-access safes, to make sure there would always be one within easy reach. But that wasn't all there was to it.

Somewhere I read an article -- probably on the web somewhere, titled "Keeping the Piece" -- that talked about how determined kids armed with a hammer and a screwdriver could get into a lot of the fast-access safes. Obviously buying good quality could lower that risk, and the technology has improved since then ... but still~!

Did I mention mine are not any less naughty than anyone else's kids? A fast access safe the kids might be able to access without me simply wasn't good enough. And who knew what the other four little darlings were up to in the next room, while I dealt with whichever one needed my undivided attention just then? Hmmmm.

My solution was simply to get a small carry gun, a comfortable holster, and make a committment to carry the gun everywhere I went, every hour I'm awake -- especially at home.

When it's on my hip, I know the little hellions aren't getting into it. I know I can always get to it if I need it and I know it's ready to go and hasn't been left unloaded (or even disassembled) by some forgetful person who got interrupted in the middle of the cleaning job. I know I won't have to run upstairs while being chased by the bogeyman, only to fumble with locks, keys, combinations, or other complex fine-motor skills.

My defense gun is with me, all the time, and ready to go, all the time.

When I'm not awake, I lock my bedroom door and place the gun (in a fanny pack holster) inside a small safe next to my bed; the door to the safe is generally open but as I said the bedroom door is locked. If I get up in the middle of the night for any reason, I either lock the safe, or pull on the fanny pack at the same time I pull on my robe. Looks silly but it works.

Sorry this is such a long-winded answer. Obviously my solution won't work for everyone. But for me, with a lot of active children, a limited budget, a husband who worked late nights, and a house 30 minutes or more from even a fast police response, it seemed prudent to have a gun accessible to me but unaccessible to the little monsters ... and the only way I could figure out to do that was to put it on my hip.

Oh, yes:

Originally Posted by BobK

Do yourself a favor and teach them gun safety and how too shoot as soon as you feel that are old enough. Kids are naturally curious. The sooner you educate them the better.

This cannot be emphasized enough! Child proof locks are a temporary solution to a very permanent problem.

pax