Locking up guns around kids - security vs access

[CompVest]

+1 No warrant no entry unless I invited them to my home in the first place!

As CLint Smith has been known to say often, "If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If I have a gun, what do I have to be paranoid about?".

[03Lightningrocks]

In my mind, this is the most serious question you can ask yourself. Not everyone comes down the same way. Here is my experience. Before we had kids, I kept a loaded shotgun under the bed. When my daughter started walking, I unloaded it, put it away, except for hunting, and stored the ammunition separately. My fear of my kids getting into my guns was greater than my fear of a home invasion I might actually be able to do something about. That's just the way it was at my house. All my kids knew about guns, they all learned to shoot, they learned firearm safety, almost to an obsession, and we went hunting when we had the chance - and the guns were always unloaded and put away.

I have a brother in law who had three boys. They lived to hunt from when they could walk. All of them hunted, they all knew guns, gun safety, what a gun would do to a living animal. They all knew what a gun could do. How to handle a gun. If any kids in the world were ever 'gun safe' these guys were. Dad comes home from hunting, thinks his rifle is empty and he sets it against the wall and goes in to tell his wife he is home. He is going to put the gun up, but just goes back into the bedroom for a second. His 10 year old son picks the rifle up and without even thinking points it across the room and without realizing it, pulls the trigger. There was a round in the chamber Dad missed. Brother is sitting on the couch watching cartoons and takes a 30-06 in the gut and dies in his Dad's lap on the way to the hospital. Sweet Jesus, how do you ever live with that. It destroyed the family. It destroyed my brother in law.

See, here is what I think. Kid's minds are not fully formed. (My wife says men's brains are never fully formed either :) That's why they can't make a legal contract and can't do lots of stuff adults are allowed to do. You can tell a child 10,000 times not to do something. You can train them, make them practice and preach to them until you are hoarse. But their powers of reasoning are not fully formed. They are not held accountable for their actions under law because they do not have the full power to reason things out and always make the right decision. Kids watch their parents and imitate them.

So does having a loaded gun nearby in the house make you safe from a home invasion or robbery? Well, here is our experience. Cousin Mike is married to Gene. He makes good money and has lots of nice things. His house is robbed while they are out one day. They get an alarm system and Gene gets a gun and keeps it loaded, in the dresser. Almost a year later, two people, a man and a woman, well dressed, clean cut looking, knock on the door just about sunset. They flash a badge and say they are police officers investigating the burglary that occurred a while back. Mike lets them in. They pull pistols and say, this is a robbery, we want your jewelry and money. Gene is just coming down the hall and sees the two as he enters the living room. They see him. He turns and runs back to get his gun. They drop him in the hall before he ever has chance to fire. They leave. They did not come to murder, they had just come for the money and fled after the shooting. (They were caught and both got life without parole)

My thinking is this way. What are the odds? What are the odds that my home will be invaded - extremely small. If it is, what are the odds that I would be able to wake up from a sleep, find my pistol and be an effective opponent to someone already fully alert, high on adrenaline and God knows what else - again, the odds are not in my favor. I'm not advocating roll over and die, I will fight, but I am just being realistic that the odds of me making an effective defense in that situation are not good.

One more story. My nephew Chris walked up to the 7-11 one summer evening for a soda pop and a pack of smokes. On the way out, he was jumped from behind by some gang bangers that wanted his jacket. He never saw them coming, they hit him from behind and took him down. When he fought back, they shot and killed him. He was not armed, but even if he had been, he never would have had a chance to pull it. I sat with his mom at Parkland while they harvested his organs.

Protect my family - you betcha, or die in the effort, but here is a news flash - you know those guys that attack women. Well, they don't attack them when you are around. They wait until the woman is alone and defenseless because they are cowards. Yeah -I got some stories to back that up to.

On the other hand, what are the odds that one of my kids or grand-kids, those active inquisitive, nosey, snoopy, always active busy wonderful little minds is going to sooner or later get hold of Dad's or PaPa's firearm and start trying to imitate TV or Dad or Papa - and I'd say the odds are pretty good unless it is locked up tight.

So my shotguns and rifles stay locked up and the ammunition is in the garage. My new semi-auto is unloaded and locked up in a case and the ammunition is stored separately.

I have completed my CHL training and the application is in my desk drawer ready to be mailed and still, there it sits and I don't know why I don't mail it. I just keep running the calculus in my mind. What are the odds that even if I carried the rest of my life, 24/7, that I would ever find myself in a situation that I could not back away from, or de-escalate, or make an effective defense in some other way and where I would actually be able to draw and make effective use of even a loaded, cocked and ready to fire weapon. I'm no statistician but I expect I am much more likely to be struck by lightening or a falling meteor. Maybe if I lived a different life style, or in a different part of town, but not here, and not this life. I'm more likely to die from boredom.

I know that I will mail the form, because it gives me an option to choose. But I'm still keeping all the firearms locked up unless or until there is some compelling, immediate reason to do otherwise. Others will choose differently and I can respect that. May God give you wisdom to make your choice correctly.

Wow!!!!! You have had every bad situation imaginable happen.

[03Lightningrocks]

I raised a son and daughter. All of their lives they were exposed to guns, shooting, hunting. They never had any more curiosity about guns than they did about a pot of pinto beans. Familiarity disposes with curiosity. They knew the rules of proper gun handling. I was blessed with two very intelligent children, so I had no problems with them doing stupid things like allowing friends to enter private areas of my home. Maybe I just taught them respect for me. I had all my hunting rifles in my bedroom closet and a loaded pistol in the night stand beside the bed. Ammo was on the shelf in the closet. My children were smart enough to know that when not going hunting, there was no need for a deer rifle to be loaded. Holy smoley....I can't even imagine my kids ever being stupid enough to point a firearm at another human being and pulling the trigger. Unless of coarse their intention was to stop said human from attacking them. No kidding.....my daughter and son both were around firearms from birth.

Now there is a very different issue developing these days. Folks with no history of firearms or hunting are suddenly deciding to get into them. If you have children that have not been RAISED around firearms, you probably will have to be careful about the curiosity level. I grew up with guns and hunting as did both my offspring. There is NO "oh Cool" level for any of us when it comes to firearms. And there never was.

[A-R]

03Lightningrocks, you are a blessed man to have been raised in such a way and to have passed along this same upbringing to your own children. You should rightfully be proud of this heritage.

[03Lightningrocks]

03Lightningrocks, you are a blessed man to have been raised in such a way and to have passed along this same upbringing to your own children. You should rightfully be proud of this heritage.

Blessed...or just lucky???? I'll take either one. Thank you though...both my children make me proud. And both are full supporters of the RKBA. My daughter is about to marry a feller who has never been around firearms even though he grew up in a rural town. I couldn't understand this at first. I am getting him to the range on a regular bases now and he is speaking of wanting to get his CHL....hopefully my grand children will enjoy the same firearms freedoms I have been able to have.

[Beiruty]

I have 2 kids, 7yr old girl and 3 yr old boy.

I store my HG and some 100 rd, 2 mags, in small safe bolted-down very well. The safe has an electronic keypad and backup key, recommended by the CHL instructor. Paid just $50 at Academy.
My daughter does not talk about the g-u-n, she learned that at school I guess. Good Texan kid I think. She has no interest yet in guns but knows what they are for: PROTECTION from BGs. I offered her to buy her a pinky small 0.22 and was excited at his idea. Wife vetoed the idea and I yielded at this time.

My boy is just 3, barely can say few words, when holstering or storing my pistol in the safe, will point at it and say, "Taa,Taa,Taa" Amazing how come they figure the use of such tool at this age. Ah TV I guess.
I would teach kids about shooting and handling firearms under my immediate supervision at the right age.

However, Kids and unattended firearms do NOT mix. It is like having a loaded armed canon with match stick next to it. Kids are still in the learning phase of their life, they want to try anything any time, and see if it is fun to do so.

Safety first, this is why we have firearms, no?

[C-dub]

Good morning all.

I also grew up around guns, but did not get schooled in proper safety or use. My dad was a part time cop for a couple of years when I was a toddler back in the 60's, so his duty weapon was in the house. He also had a few other pistols (all revolvers), rifles, and shotguns. Dad wold take me out once every 2-3 years to shoot about 50 rounds total through whatever we took that day. As a kid I thought it was cool to get to do this, but was still scared of them. I still don't think he owns a semi-auto handgun to this day.

When I was 10y I had a friend who said he hunted with his dad all the time. Well, one day we were at my house, both parents worked more than 20 miles away, and we got the .357 magnum out and shot it across the field behind the house. No problem there, but as we went back inside the house there was one last round and my "friend" had his finger on the trigger. I worked on F-14's in the Navy and to this day I still think that .357 going off two feet from me without ear protection was the loudest sound I've ever heard. No one was hurt, but it must have missed blowing my hand off by inches.

Fast forward to 6.5 years ago. Wife does not want any guns in the house what-so-ever and we have an infant daughter. We do, however, have 4 Rottwieler's loose in the house with a dog door and an 8' wood fence. At this point I'm still not found of guns and as stated here many times, when seconds count the police are only minutes away. However, I've considered the possibilty of getting something. Then one day I go out in the backyard to see what's go the dogs all riled up and there's a guy trying to get my back gate open. Four Rotties trying to tear his fingures off did not deter him until he saw me. That was it for me. I'm getting something!

The wife still resisted saying we should get an alarm or just call the police. My response was to her was to make sure she got a good description of the guy that took her daughter for the police when they got here. I told her that if someone wanted in our yard bad enough to ignore four Rotties they would figure out something to get rid of them and come back for whatever they wanted. Glock 22 enters the house about a week later and CHL about 6 months later. All dogs get poison proofed. Before the plastic arrived a baby Glock found its way into the house.

My daughter has grown up seeing my little friend on my hip since she was 6 months old. Since she could speak in sentences we have talked about it and I've shown her how to clean it. She's been to the range with me to see me shoot. She knows that evey gun could be loaded and how to check. At 7y she's still not strong enough to operate the slide, but she knows where the safety on a glock is. She's begun to express an interest on her own in the last few months, so maybe for her next birthday a .22 rifle might be in order.

Just a little note, my dad's dad died before he was born and his mother raised him with the help of her two sisters. My dad did an outstanding job raising me without any frame of reference!!! My other biggest decision to get my CHL was that when my daughter was an infant there more and more child abductions from parking lots and homes in the news. I thought I would take it one step further and educate my daughter about how to defend herself and excersise her rights if she wants to. She's also learning martial arts and loving it.

House gun is on my nightstand, empty, with magazine next to it. Baby glock is in it's level two holster ready to rock on my hip. Three German Shepherds should give me at least a few seconds at night to get one of them on target.

[03Lightningrocks]

Reading the two posts above made me want to be clear about something. I never just left guns laying around the house as temptation for disaster. I hope my post didn't make anyone think this. My firearms were accessible if one of my kids had it in mind to play stupid, They just never saw firearms as a play toy to be shared with their friends. Like the poster above said about his daughter, mine was around firearms all her life. My son as well.

I did take every precaution humanly possible for me at the time. If I could have afforded one, I would have preferred to have owned a gun safe. Not everyone can afford luxuries like this when first having kids and starting out in life.

I also did not have the option of the small, quick opening, one gun safes available now days. If they were available when my kids were young, I would have owned one and locked it down somewhere around my night stand.

[C-dub]

I didn't think you intended it that way. I only mentioned my experience to emphasize my change in thought from the way I was raised to how I wanted to raise my daughter. It took less than a year before my wife was completely comfortable with the weapons in the house and me carrying with a CHL. She said it made her more comfortable. She's actually the one that bought the Henry for me for my birthday a few years ago. My daughter is also aware of when I'm carrying and when I'm not and knows that it is a private matter that no one else needs to know about it.

[03Lightningrocks]

Cool... . Congrats on the progress with your better half. It is quite a step to take a person from being fearful of firearms to actually enjoying shooting them.