Home Protection and Kids

[surflvr911sc]

Sammy’s scary experience and the thread on how much time it would take to get armed has me thinking a lot about my own security and time it would take to be able to defend my home.

I currently leave the spoons in a locked case and the ammo in a separate ammo can. It would take at least a full minute to be locked and loaded. I might as well grab the family, hide in the closet, and wait for the cops to show up. Every door and window is alarmed, so I would get a little advanced warning, but I probably would not even hear somebody busting in the front door until it went off.

I want to hear what guys w/ kids are doing to be prepared and keeping the kids safe. I know that it’s important to teach them about gun safety, but they still need to be inaccessible and my daughter isn’t old enough yet, which does make it easier to keep it inaccessible, for now. What kind of safes do use? Where do you use them? Where is the ammo? What else do I need to think about?

[Joe Bob]

Loaded shot gun with 2 rock salt loads, double ought after that....get a locking rack that uses a thumb print or a sast acting button code. NOTHING freezes yer bllod like the sound of a racking shotgun in the dark quiet....

[Chocaholic]

Dogs.

[id10t]

Kids are taught that there are no toy guns. Period. If they want to hold the guns, all they have to do is ask, and they can w/ supervision. At least 1 range trip per month with 'em too.

[Head416]

Re: fingerprint readers... I would never trust an electronic device to be between me and my means of defense.

Originally Posted by id10t

Kids are taught that there are no toy guns. Period. If they want to hold the guns, all they have to do is ask, and they can w/ supervision. At least 1 range trip per month with 'em too.

This is great. But what about toddlers that aren't ready for that yet?

[Chocaholic]

Guns and kids don't mix. Period. I don't care if you really are Rambo. Tragic mistakes happen. Probably more often than the actual use of a firearm for self defense.

Dogs and 911. Common sense.

[Burnin' oil]

If guns are out of the question, I prefer an aluminum baseball bat by the bed. A panic button hooked up to a siren or alarm can be effective, as can flood lights. Lights, noise, yelling, 911, etc.

[HardDrive]

I have a small gun safe on a high shelf in my closet. Its just steps from the bed. 3 loaded pistols inside. Other guns are kept in locked cases, and typically disasembled with the important parts in another part of the house. When I go out of town, I take my pistols and the rifle bits to a safe deposit box.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Guns and kids don't mix. Period. I don't care if you really are Rambo. Tragic mistakes happen. Probably more often than the actual use of a firearm for self defense.

Dogs and 911. Common sense.

I've used guns since I was very young. I was shooting a 22 (under supervision) when I was 5 or 6.
I didn't get my own real gun until I was 12 but that's because my parents made me do chores until I saved enough to pay for half of it.
Before that I always had a BB gun.

same thing with my 3 brothers. We learned a a very young age to respect guns, to understand guns, and to know the rules.

If kids are taught correctly, it isn't an issue.

It's when kids find guns and they haven't been taught all about them and are not familiar with them and don't know the rules when bad things happen.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Guns and kids don't mix. Period.

If you feel that way you are doing the absolute right thing by choosing to not bring a gun into the house. No worries.

But to the OP's questions, what did I do when my kids were little to keep them safe?

The physical parts was easy. All pistols were keep in cases that had mechanical push button combo locks. The cases had excellent ergonomics and opening them was a snap. The pistols were loaded, nothing in the chamber.

All rifles and shotguns were kept unload and the ammo stored in my gun safe.

Both my children were taught gun safety and respect from an early age...remove the forbidden fruit aspect as well.

The mental part is a bit more troublesome, has evidenced by Sammy's post. Just having a gun is never enough unless you've really thought about the consequences and are convinced you can overcome, as Jeff said, the "pucker factor" that Sam did and behave in a controlled manner.

Life is not without risk...in my area, 911 is simply not a viable risk management tool. I do, to use a Rambo term, "layer" my defenses: dogs, alarms, lights, etc.

[jyl]

Your kid can be as trained as you like. What about their playmates? Bummer when they find the gun and shoot your kid.

Pistol safe, electronic keypad and/or fingerprint. Sure, the electronics could fail but so could the electronics on the next plane you take.

[vash]

sorry. as a kid, i found every hidden firearm my dad thought was "out of my reach". my sister even found a can of mace and tested it on me. thank goodness it wasnt a .38 police special. still ended up in the emergency room.

i think with kids, you need to build a safe room, to buy time. exterior door at the masterbedroom. deadbolt lock.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Burnin' oil

If guns are out of the question, I prefer an aluminum baseball bat by the bed. A panic button hooked up to a siren or alarm can be effective, as can flood lights. Lights, noise, yelling, 911, etc.

Just think what could happen if junior hits his little sissy over the head with that baseball bat. I would pull that comment in case the internet police see it and come after you for being so careless in respect to the safety of children.

[Burnin' oil]

I said "aluminum," but i meant "nerf." I thought about "wiffle," but a wiffle bat can leave a mark. Thanks for the heads up.

[JavaBrewer]

Agreed with jyl - you can train your own kids but not their friends.

[GG Allin]

I keep a 1911 in the top drawer of my dresser unloaded but the magazines are right there with it. There's an AK47 with loaded magazines upstairs hidden in a crawl space also. That one is interchanged with an AR15, just depends on which one I'm fiddling with. Everything else is locked in a Knaack box. My daughter is only two so this needs to be thought about in the coming years. I'll probably go with a gun safe in the closet and just lock it very morning when I leave.

[madmmac]

Over 20+ years and have always had at least one Bouvier present.

Smart, stable, loveable, protecting, big but agile, 2x the biting power of a shepard or doberman and I know, without a doubt or hesitation would give up her life protecting "her" family.

Sleeps at the beginning of the hallway which leads to the kids rooms. There is only one way in and that is where she sleeps. She will not sleep in one of their rooms unless the other child is not home.

My guns are locked up. Bat in my room, entry closet, 16 year old sons room(multi), and garage(multi).

Hokey music--shows the dog potential though.

[Jeff Higgins]

Why do so many folks treat firearms in their homes so differently from other hazardous items? A toddler with a kitchen knife could sure carve up his siblings. A todler finding a set of car keys could sure raise some hell. Don't even get me started on what one could do if he made his way into the average garage, with its tools, chemicals, and whatnot. The list goes on and on. Yet a gun is somehow "different" to a lot of people.

Well, they were never "different" in my house. Same rules applied to them as to any other potentially hazardous household item. They were just never a big deal, either when I was little or when my boys were little. I well remember going through, say, a kitchen drawer looking for a ball of string, or some batteries, or a tape measure, or whatever, and having to get the gun that was in it out of the way, just laying it on the kitchen counter. None of my brothers or sister or mom or dad would even look twice.

When my boys started shooting with me, I still had to bring a diaper bag along. Both were well versed in firearms by the time they recieved their first .22's (the old Oregon Arms "Chipmunk") on their sixth Christmas. Both got their first centerfire rifles at age 12 (the legal minimum to hunt in Washington) and killed game with them that year. Firearms have just never been any kind of mystery, or "forbidden fruit" in my family.

I think we have a mindset of trust and responsibility that many are lacking today. This same mindset dominates our relationships to this day. Both sons were 911 owners at the ripe old age of 17, having bought "fixer uppers" that the three of us pitched in on to fix up. Many friends and acquaintances cried out in much the same way they had about the guns - "how irresponsible! A kid that age shouldn't have a car like that, he'll kill himself! Yadda yadda yadda..."

Well, they are both still with us. Both are exceedingly responsible, well adjusted kids. Neither one has wrecked his car out racing with friends, neither one has shot anyone, the oldest graduated from the University of Washington with honors, and the other is carrying a 3.9 GPA into his second year of college.

Everyone's dire predicitions of their early demise or injury were just so much hand-wringing nonsense. Their exposure to some rather serious equipment, serious responsibility, and serious expectations have left them none the worse for wear. As a matter of fact, being exposed to such "risks" and trusted with them has undoubtedly made them better men. So, to the rest of you that insist on sheltering your children and minimizing the risks and responsibilities in their lives - please keep up the good work. My boys will always need folks to ask them if they "want fries with that..."

[nostatic]

Some of you guys just aren't reading the responses. I would have no issues having unlocked firearms around the house with my son (though the state would - that is another discussion). He is well trained and understands the risks. However I cannot say the same thing about any of his friends that might come over. The reality is that most kids are *not* well trained, and boys will be boys. While I think he's pretty good at policing his own behavior, not so sure about others. And as any parent knows, you can't watch them every second to see what they're doing.

As it stands my weapons are locked up (firearms in a pushbutton safe, long arms in a locked cabinet per state law. There is a loaded magazine in the closet so if need be I can be ready to rock in about 20 seconds. But frankly I think the odds of having to do that are incredibly remote.

[scottmandue]

I have a couple home protection kids... the important thing is to get them to ninja school at an early age.