Gun safety and storage

With the millions of first-time gun owners over the past couple of years, the need for proper training in safe gun handling has never been greater. These new owners also need to learn safe gun and ammunition storage procedures as well. Unsupervised children and untrained adults are the ones most likely to shoot themselves or someone else if they find a loaded firearm or an accessible firearm and ammunition.

First, you have an 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 practices the rules of safe firearms handling. Lacking that knowledge, they simply do not handle the firearm.

Second, you instruct your children about firearms safety, and 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 years, I have kept my guns in a closet corner, displayed on gun racks on the wall and in an open and unlocked cabinet. During that time, I was single with no one else in the home. 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 living in remote locations, so a burglary or theft was virtually nonexistent. I kept my ammunition organized but near the guns and it wasn’t locked up.

I kept a couple of the guns loaded and placed where I could quickly and easily retrieve them if needed. 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. That last situation never arose but the first two “excuses” 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 those thoughts in mind, I purchased a safe specifically designed for storing firearms.

There are several types of safes on the market, ranging from a lockable metal cabinet to a thousand-pound, fire-rated, thick 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 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 half of the safety concerns about having firearms in the house.

The other half of those concerns was ammo storage. For that, I purchased a locking metal cabinet with interior shelving. Now I could keep my ammunition organized and securely locked up.

Okay, what about those of you who keep a loaded firearm for personal protection in your home? How can you keep a gun unloaded and locked in a safe, the ammo locked up someplace else in the house and still have rapid access to a firearm for protection? You can’t!

However, you can buy a small, lockable metal cabinet sized to hold a handgun. You can mount this “safe” 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, 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 illegally present, they or their family will find a “shady” lawyer and file a suit against you. This legal problem would occur in addition to your struggles 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!