Did you buy a gun for home defense but aren’t sure where to keep it? Are you worried that your firearms are unsafe in your home? Do you want to learn more about how to store a gun for home defense?
In the first half of 2020, there was a massive surge of gun ownership in the US. Around 2.4 million background checks for gun sales got conducted early this year. This surge in gun sales is a sign of how unsafe and risky current events in the country are.
However, being a gun owner also comes with responsibilities. Those include keeping your gun secure and safe from unauthorized and unlicensed people. In this guide, we’ll show you how to store your gun at home.
Assess Your Home
Before you look for proper gun storage spots, turn your gaze to your home. What are its weakest areas when it comes to security? Is there a basement or back window that’s easy to pry open from the outside, no matter how you secure it?
If you hear intruders come in from the kitchen, can you reach your gun in seconds? Where should you store guns that are quick and easy to access? What areas in the house are the most secure and give you a tactical advantage?
Stop and consider the household members as well. Do you have a family member who seems very interested in your firearm but isn’t a licensed user? Is there a housemate that you have doubts about and don’t trust?
You also have to ask yourself if there are kids in the house. Children are curious about firearms, and they can find ways to access them if they want to. Later, we’ll discuss what you can do to secure your gun and avoid accidents.
How to Pick a Place to Store Your Firearms
Here’s a checklist for picking an area in your home that works best as firearms storage:
- Quick and easy to access
- Secure from kids and non-authorized housemates
- Secure from intruders and gun thieves
- Strategic spot
Pick a spot in your home that’s easy for you to access no matter where you are in the house. A single room in the home is no longer a good spot. Once gun thieves find the firearms locker where you store all your guns, you’ll be defenseless.
Decentralize your gun storage space. Pick places where you or other family members spend the most time in. For example, the master bedroom is often the first target of burglars, but it’s also where you sleep.
Choosing Where to Store Your Firearms
Owning self defense firearms gives the message that you are ready to protect yourself and your home. Yet, this can also mean that you have something valuable in your home that you’ll fight tooth and nail for. No matter what reasons you have for owning a gun, most thieves will take the risk.
The smart ones try to plan out how they’ll make a sweep of your entire home. Most gun thieves begin their sweep from the master bedroom to the home office, living room, and dining room. They may go to the basement if they know that there is a safe in the basement.
Tactical Places in the Home to Store Firearms
An important concern in learning how to store a gun is the place where you’ll store it.
You want to avoid storing your firearms in these areas of the house, except for the master bedroom. Another good spot to store a gun is in the kitchen pantry. Most gun thieves won’t bother looking into the kitchen.
Other spots to consider storing your gun include a closet near the front door and a guest bedroom. Thieves ignore guest bedrooms since they’re often sparse in valuables. Use the closet in a guest bedroom as extra gun storage.
Gun thieves often ignore closets. Keeping a gun near the door is good for easy and quick access in case someone is insistent about entering the home. You can reach your gun within seconds once they start kicking the door in.
Unexpected Firearm Hiding Spots
We mentioned some places in the home where you can store your firearms. Yet, there are many hiding spots that a typical person will never think twice to have a firearm in it. Even in storing your gun for home defense, creativity is the key.
Here, we’ll discuss more specific hiding spots rather than rooms or areas in the home.
Let’s begin with a Hollywood classic: hiding a gun in a book. Everyone may know of a movie scene where a movie character is pretending to read a hollowed-out book. This works well because it’s well-known but seldom done in reality.
Take a book large and wide enough to fit your gun. Carve out the center parts of the pages. Insert the fake book on a shelf with other books.
Who in the world will think to look through another person’s dirty clothes for guns? Nobody. If you’re the messy type, use your dirty clothes as an on-hand hiding spot for your gun.
Is there a loose floorboard in your home that you haven’t gotten around to fixing? Why not convert it into a hiding spot for your gun instead? You can also use an air vent or a fake air vent.
Other creative hiding spots include:
- Couch
- Fake electrical outlet
- Picture frame
- Empty food or cereal box
- Pottery
Those are a handful of non-obvious hiding spots for your gun. Remember to always consider the people who live in the same house as you. Make sure that the hiding spots you choose are out of the reach of children.
Firearm Storage and Security Choices
This guide to how to store a gun for home defense isn’t complete without gun storage options. Now, let’s talk about some common gun-specific storage picks. If keeping your gun secure is more important than hiding your gun, consider the following.
Buying a gun safe is the typical choice for firearms owners who want to keep firearms secure. It’s the most secure option for an average gun owner. Safes don’t only function as deterrents for thieves, but they also protect the items within them.
Quality gun safes can protect your gun from floods, fires, and other disasters. A gun safe costs between $500 and over $2,500. The prices will depend on the features you want in a safe.
The next option is the regular safe. This suits the gun owner, who also plans to store money or other valuable objects in the safe. Larger safes can also hold accessories, related gun gear, and ammunition.
If you have a smaller budget, the different company supplies essential equipment for building your own 80 lower with jig and bits, or consider locking steel gun cabinets. They have enough storage capacity and security. However, they have thinner walls, and a simpler locking mechanism, and aren’t fireproof.
They have the advantage of being lighter than safes. They fit gun owners who live in apartments or want to store their guns in second-floor rooms. Make sure to find gun cabinets that have a good security system and decent storage.
Other Options
Gun safes and gun cabinets are good options. However, there are other items that you can consider as well. These items are more suited to keeping your gun from functioning for the safety of others.
The trigger shoe has two parts and they go at the open sides of the trigger. They clamp onto each other. One side holds a keyhole for unlocking the trigger shoe and giving you access to the trigger.
Note that a trigger shoe isn’t safe when used on loaded guns. The mechanism that connects the two parts comes into direct contact with the trigger. If it pushes the trigger, the gun can still go off and hurt somebody.
The other option is the cable lock. It blocks the action of the forearm and keeps it open. It prevents anybody from loading a magazine into the grip of a semi-automatic pistol. The cylinder in the revolvers won’t close because the cable lock goes through the barrel.
Create a Plan for Home Invasions
The states with the highest rates of burglary are New Mexico and Arkansas. Even if you don’t live in any of these states, remember that preparedness is the key to survival. Always create an escape plan for your family.
The best way to be ready for a robbery or home invasion is to have a plan. Always make sure that everyone in the home knows to run when they have a chance. Pick a place outside the home where everyone will meet up.
This place can be at a police station, a trusted family friend’s home, or any other safe place. Every member of the household must know the quickest and safest route to this meeting place. Doing this also lets you know if anybody got left behind.
If you can’t get out of the house, assign a room that every member of the family will go to during emergencies. This room needs to have a way out, a secure lock on the door, and a weapon for self-defense. A secondary bedroom or guest room is the best choice.
Now You Know How to Store a Gun for Home Defense
That ends our guide on how to store a gun for home defense. We hope this guide informed you of some smart ways to keep your firearm secure. We also hope you enjoyed reading about the various ways how to store a gun in the home.
Don’t stop here when there is so much more to discover when it comes to properly handling and using your gun. Do you want to learn more about how to store guns? Read our other firearm guides for more.
