How do I keep my home and family safe?

How do I keep a handgun readily available and usable to defend my home and property from invasion? If somebody crashes through my front door, I don't have time to find my gun and load it.
How do I keep my home safe and at the same time keep my children and their friends safe with a gun or guns in the house? I can train my own kids when they old enough, but I can't really train all of their friends and classmates.

 

Sounds like you can't so don't. I can so I will and I do.

 

His questions are legit.. Do you wear your gun around the house when you are running the vacuum or loading the dishwasher? Do you have children? Do they have friends?

 

yes, yes and yes

 

The gun is only a useful defensive tool if it's accessible and able to be quickly loaded (or loaded already). I know a lot of folks that carry the gun on their person while in the home, then at night they'll secure it in some kind of quick access safe. Out of sight and out of reach goes a long way.
Solid locks, doors & windows are always a good start.

 

I don't even keep it in a quick access safe at night.....neither does my wife.

 

Home defense and home safety where there are children requires compromises.

IMO, you can never leave a firearm in a place where a child can get to it when you are asleep or not home. You also don't want it stolen by a burglar when you're not home.

If you're not taking it with you when you're not home, it should be locked in something that's hard to steal, like a heavy gun safe. It's not impossible to steal the safe, but it's a lot harder than just finding the gun under the mattress or in a drawer and walking away with it. And a safe like that will keep the guns safe from children. I would much rather have my safe stolen by a burglar than to have my kids or their friends gain access to my guns.

If there are kids in the household, a nighttime solution might be a quick access gun box in your bedroom. These are operated by a key pad on the front of it. You punch in a four digit code, and it opens. But this is only a solution for when you are home at night. You cannot leave a firearm in a box like that when you're gone because it's small and light and can be picked up by your kids, their friends, or a thief. So, if you're not taking it with you when you leave home, put it in the safe.

However you resolve this for you, remember this: You are responsible. You are 100% responsible. If your child, or one their friends, gets their hands on your gun, this is your fault. There is no assigning blame somewhere else, and you would have to live with that. This is the nightmare scenario that you never want to face ... ever. You cannot "forget", you cannot grow complacent, you cannot not be sure, you can never just hope. Err on the side of safety over defense is my advice, and use your locks and other common sense security measures.

My two cents, from a gun owner who has raised kids.

 

If you are strictly thinking about home defense and not CCW, there are a number of considerations. If you've kids about, you need to consider what to do to train them if guns are in the house and NRA five steps is a good place to start with that and how you will keep guns from their access to begin with, I.e., quick release gun safe, always having a gun in your possession, etc. If you have children, how you will absolutely manage their safety is your number one concern over all others. The objective, remember, is keeping your family safe.

Over penetration potential of rounds is also a consideration as some rounds like .357, .40, 9mm, 00, shotgun slugs, and virtually all center fire rifles can go through a bad guy, and through walls inadvertently potentially hitting an innocent behind. So, caliber and type of round is an important consideration.

How well you train and the caliber of gun you can handle are also considerations. That may be different for men and women. Many women, some men as well, may not be able to handle larger calibers. Many may have trouble with semi autos pulling back a slide, using a safety, etc. Revolvers are simple and reliable but trade off capacity and some may have difficulty with heavy double action triggers. A good revolver though, say, .38, .44. or a .45 with six round capacity (for home use) with a 4" or longer barrel, and a proper selection of ammo that balances take down power against minimizing over penetration is a good option that requires little fumbling is often a good choice for both men and women when woken in the early hours of the morning.

I personally use a .45 semi for home defense with HP ammo, not generally over penatative and works well for putting down two legged threats, but many people may find it difficult to handle.

One gun I often recommend is a pump shotgun, either 12ga if both adults can shoot it, or a 20ga if something lighter is needed. I usually suggest a 18" barrel with 5 round or more capacity. Any longer is difficult to swing in a home. For ammo, I usually recommend shot size of 2 or 4 to minimize over penetration, it will still work well in a very close range situation. Nothing like racking a round in a shotgun, the sound is distinctive and often deterrent enough.

One thing I do recommend, is if you are going to get a pistol or revolver and are unsure of what to get, go to a local range that rents guns and see what works for you. Then, discuss your application with the store owner who will be happy to help you select a good home defense round for what you decide to get.

One thing I cannot over stress is something I learned when I was young, never shoot when you don't know where your round is potentially going to land, even beyond your target. And, as importantly, never shoot without absolute identification of your target...too many people shoot at shadows in a what seems to be a home invasion, not identifying their target, to find they just shot a family member.

 

Sounds like you cant, so it looks like you will be what we call ...a victim. Those of us that can get to our firearms will most likely not be victims.

 

We're in the same boat.

 

The problem with kids is that they don't know anything about firearms. You know that saying about curiosity right? I taught my son how to shoot at 3, he's had a little .22 since then. My girls followed suit. My job is quite literally around firearms, so they have been around them quite a lot. There is no mystery about them anymore. They don't pay any attention to mine. They also know what they can do when a bad guy wields one, and when someone is careless with one. I've shared all stories with them since they were able to shoot. Shock and awe works. Actually, in Colorado a couple weeks ago, one of their friends got shot in the head because their friend got ahold of a gun left in the car... My kids don't utter a word about my guns because they know other kids are ignorant and stupid. They also know the stories and have seen the news about it and what can happen. That's what you do with your kids if you have a firearm. Involve them in it. Make it so a gun isn't anything that gets their attention. Take away the curiosity. Share what happens to other people who don't properly take the time to involve their kids.

I keep many firearms in my house. There is always one within a few steps, and my kids know where they are also, and... know how to use them. I have those that are sitting around, sitting with a full mag unchambered with the slide locked back. Again, my kids have been around firearms since a very young age, and we go shooting all the time. My case is very different than yours. I'm just saying how it could be.

For you... get a gun, learn how to use it properly, take your kids out shooting, share ALL stories of what happens. Have them clean it with you. Tear it apart and let them see the insides. Seriously, take all curiosity away from the firearm. Talk about how it works, the cartridges, parts to the cartridge, everything. Make the gun just another boring ol' thing.

For home defense, I recommend a 300 blk rifle with 220gr subsonic cartridges in a very simple light configuration. You don't need anything fancy, and shotguns are not what people think they are (point and shoot). In the confines of an indoor house, you don't get spread, meaning you still have to aim. Might as well have a good rifle that packs a punch with 30 rounds. Also, shotgun pellets (birdshot # go through more drywall than most big and slow rounds (meant for suppression). So, it is no safer for penetration to have a shotgun either.

 

let's just start with your first sentence and I am not bagging on you, Just adding my 2 cents. If your home safety requires you to compromise your family safety....then it's not safety. Protecting my family is first and foremost, inaccessibility of an equalizer is not a compromise, it's a death sentence for those I cherish and love. Education, training, and common sense go a long ways to negate risks. Much the same for bikes, cars, pools and knives.

 

Understood. Two questions:

(1)

Do you agree with this, or disagree?

(2) Do you leave loaded guns around your house accessible to young children?

 

Biometric safe.

 

agree and no but with a caveat, I will not lock up personal protection firearms ever at the expense of family protection. I accept the risks you are implying!

 

They now sell pepper spray that shoots as far as 35 feet. You might want to consider using that instead. It's pretty potent and can do a lot of damage, so there would still be safety concerns, but it would be easier to teach kids about that than about guns, which are inherently more intriguing.

 

No, you do not leave loaded guns accessible to children, but you will not lock them up ever. How do you accomplish that? This is what the OP is asking.

 

You don't, that was the point.....The OP seemed to imply that at some point his weapons would not be accessible immediately hence he has no plan for immediate need of self defense. I responded that I do so I will. You can't have it both ways. Either the weapon is immediately available or it is not, I choose immediately available and rely on education, containment and immediate control, something the OP did not seem to express in his comment. I negate the risks to the extent I can and remain prepared to defend the lives of my immediate family in an instant. I am not as rigid as the OP seemed to express.

 

I totally understand your willingness to defend your home and family. My defensive pistol went with me everywhere, so the only time it was around in the house was when I was home. As I raised my kids, my choice was to make it inaccessible to them, whether I was awake or asleep. I am comfortable with that decision. They're grown and gone now. As I'm typing, my defensive pistol is about 5 feet away from me in a holster, and the only other person here is my wife. So the manner in which I have it in the home has evolved as circumstances changed. My choice when I was raising children was that I would leave nothing to chance.

 

This is absolute insanity.

We should all enjoy the freedom of walking in our homes without carrying a gun. I guess the next level of paranoia is having a gun surgically attached to ones body so that they're never "defenseless".

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=gun...C#safe=off&tbm=isch&q=gun+hide+in+plain+sight

 

It's not insanity if the potential for break-ins exists.

And the potential for break-ins exist.

So write your representatives and tell them to stop break-ins or have a target surgically grafted to you forehead. #freedom

 

gun accidents and armed home invasions aren't common place in australia.

It would be interesting to see whether:-
- armed invasions (only defendable via a gun)
are a higher likelihood then
- child gun accidents.

my question is more hypothetical then anything, but it is a very valid point that Seth brings up, you can't have your cake and eat it, but if you are going to try at least do it with the upmost diligence and foresight.

 

Garrison duty; what military is immune from being "overrun"?

 

Ignorant posts like yours pissed me off. I am a firearms instructor and have taught more people than I care to count. The vast majority of folks will NEVER need to use their guns in self defense (which is a good thing, don't you agree??). BUT, unfortunately, there have been a few folks that have had to use their guns to defend themselves & their family, both from before and after training.

One problem is when people enter their home they believe they are entering a safe haven, a sanctuary if you will. I have clients that unlocked their door, entered the house with both hands full of grocery bags; only to be confronted by armed robbers. I have clients that were cooking when their home was broken into. They generally kept their gun in the bedroom(on the far side of the perpetrator), but had recently returned from shopping and decided to keep it on them instead of locking it up.

So, in the spirit of "if it saves just one life"; I'm right, you're wrong, so p!$$ off.