gun-safety, home, childrenI have a young child in my house, and he’s VERY curious. I want to make sure I have good safety procedures so my son wont injure himself with it.
The steps I will be taking is to not keep it loaded, and have a trigger guard and weapon vault.
What other setups are recommended? I also plan on using my weapons for home defense, so I want ammo and ability to load my weapon easily and fast if I need to protect my home/child.
This is a fantastic article: http://corneredcat.com/Disarming_Kids_Curiosity/
The best thing to do with a curious kid is to make them no longer curious. Instill in them that, if they ever want to touch your firearm, they can ask you and you, as soon as you are able, will supervise them as they do so (assuming the gun is cleared and the kid is pointing it toward a good backstop). I’m not saying don’t lock it up, but behavioral modification is better than any lock.
Aside from the steps you’ve already outlined, you make sure the child is educated about firearms in general. Do not make it a forbidden mystery object. Once the child is old enough, take them to the firing range and have them fire an appropriate weapon.
Also, be careful about using locking devices that have numeric codes that can be guessed or inferred. For example, do not use the same code on a gun safe as you do for your home’s security alarm.
If you use a locking device that requires a key, make sure those are kept in a secure location (not hidden in a dresser drawer).
My opinion here is education, with physical limitations. I store my rifles and hand guns in a gun safe in the house. My kids don’t know the combination, and never go near it. NO ammunition is stored in that safe, the ammunition is stored in a completely different safe in the garage (a small handgun safe) that requires a KEY AND 4 digit electronic lock/combo. The key is hidden, so the possibility of them getting their hands on a firearm, and ammunition together while technically possible is highly unlikely.
The second part education, is to show them the firearms in a controlled environment, teach them how to determine if they’re loaded, etc. The biggest thing is to teach them that guns can KILL, and they’re always to be pointed and handled in a safe manner despite the fact if they’re loaded or not. I try to teach them to pretend that the gun could just go off at any time and to assume they’re loaded.
When I was 12, I took a hunter’s safety education course in Washington state. They brought a bunch of us kids up there (our parents were there too) and passed a loaded mousetrap with us. Every kid… including me was very careful to pass it to the next, etc. Then… they passed us a German Luger. There were some stupid ass kids there, pointing it at people, etc. etc. I was the only one to point it in a safe direction. But I think you see the point they were trying to make… later my Dad told me that they had told all the parents about the ‘drill’ and of course the weapon was not loaded with ammunition.
If it is a handgun, get a Gunvault Microvault.
Use the included cable to lock it to something secure and then you or whoever has the code can get to the firearm quickly while keeping it away from curious hands.
Education is the most important aspect of safety. You can’t keeps kids away from everything dangerous in life all the time, some exposure is needed at some point to something as common as a gun (that is if you want them to be comfortable with them). Educate them as early as possible whenever they hit an age that you feel they are capable of absorbing safety information and realizing just how dangerous guns can be when handled improperly. Some kids should never be around guns regardless of education, but most kids I’ve ever been around have enough mental and emotional stability that they would have no problem with them as long as they have the proper education and supervision. Lack of education is the single greatest contributor to firearm accidents with children (and a lot of adults!).
That said, a quick-access safe like a GunVault (or something similar with a better reputation) would be your best option for storing a home-defense handgun. It can be accessed easily and quickly while at the same time is secure enough to keep younger or less creative/mischievous children out. Just make sure whatever you choose opens reliably on demand and doesn’t have a lot of points of failure (something the GunVault brand has been prone to historically, though I’m not sure about their current quality).
Arguably, the safest place for a handgun is in a holster on your side. It’s not possible for someone to touch my handgun without me knowing it. This is NOT a valid storage method for night time, but during the day, it’s safe and the most easily accessible. Most needs for a firearm occur in the home, anyway.
For night, I also recommend a GunVault. I’ve got one and have the beep turned off meaning it will open up in seconds with no noise for an intruder to hear.
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