Breaking down the basics of gun safety

I read a report a while back that concluded that storing your unloaded personal firearms and ammunition separately in your home under lock and key could reduce firearms accidents by 70 percent. First, you have a nearly impossible task trying to convince me there is such a thing as a “firearms accident.” The gun cannot load or fire itself. The only way either of those two things can happen is by the hand of man.

No one would ever be injured in a firearms accident if the person handling the gun practiced the rules of safe firearms handling. Lacking that knowledge, they simply do not handle the firearm period!

Isn’t this just common sense?

You’d think so!

Unsupervised and/or untrained children and adults are the ones most likely to shoot themselves or someone else if they find a loaded firearm or an accessible firearm and ammunition. We’ve heard recent media reports of just this type of tragic happening.

Second, you teach your children about firearms safety and, third, you don’t leave firearms lying around for the unknowing to find and handle.

Before I break into a sermon about safe gun handling, my intent here is to suggest some ways you can store your firearms and ammunition safely.

At various times over the last several decades, I have kept my guns in a closet corner, displayed on wall-mounted gun racks and in an open and unlocked cabinet. During most of that time, I was single with no one else in the house. After I got married, my wife was already well versed in safe gun handling from her father — I saw no need to change my gun storage habits. We were also living in remote locations then, so a burglary or an unwanted visitor was virtually nonexistent. I kept my ammunition neatly organized but near the guns and it wasn’t locked up either.

I did keep a couple of the guns loaded and placed where I could quickly and easily retrieve them if the need arose. Where I was living at the time, the need for a firearm was to chase off a bear, protect the hatchery fish from a predator or for protecting myself or my wife in the very unlikely event a “visitor” to our remote location decided he didn’t like Fish and Game while drinking aboard his boat tied to our dock. That last situation never arose but the animal control concerns happened more than once.

After we moved back onto the road system, I became more conscious of two things which could rob me of my firearms — burglary and fire. With that in mind, I purchased a safe specifically designed for storing firearms.

There are several types of “safes” available, ranging from a lockable metal cabinet to a thousand-pound, fire-rated, steel-walled miniature bank vault. I bought a safe along the lines of the latter.

The price was a little staggering until I realized that trying to replace just two or three of my rifles with scopes, scope mounts and accessories would cost more than the safe did. I further realized that in dealing with my concerns about the security of my guns, I had also dealt with the safety concerns about having firearms in the house.

Not to be overlooked was the ammo storage situation. For that, I purchased a locking metal cabinet with interior shelving. Now I can keep my ammunition organized and securely locked up.

OK, how can you keep a loaded firearm available for personal protection in your home? You can buy a small, lockable metal cabinet sized to hold a handgun. You can mount this cabinet on the nightstand next to your bed, for instance, and have quick access to a loaded handgun. Several of these safes operate electronically and can be programmed to open when a combination code is entered on a touchpad designed to work by feel, even in the dark. This approach provides quick access while maintaining secure storage.

In this litigious society, in order to protect yourself from others, you must be responsible in storing your personal firearms. If someone is hurt or killed with a firearm in your home, even if they were present without your consent, they or their family will find an ambulance-chasing lawyer and file a suit against you. This nasty legal problem will be happening while you’re still struggling with the emotions of the tragedy.

Be safe and smart. Look into buying a gun safe for your home.

You’ll be happier in the long run!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This column is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications. You can leave Delo a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.