Do you home carry?

[Theohazard]

Surely you can understand that the risk of a home invasion is far outweighed by what could happen if my curious 5-year old gained uncontrolled access to my firearms.

That's why I carry the gun on my body instead of stashing guns around my house. There is zero chance of my child taking my firearm from me while it's holstered on my body, whereas there's a chance they'll find it if I stash it somewhere in my house.

I'm really at a loss here. How in the world is your 5-year-old going to gain "uncontrolled access to your firearm" when it's holstered on your body? Is your child going to wrestle it away from you? And at that point how is the child "uncontrolled"? Are you then going to sit back and just watch your child play with your gun? I simply don't understand your logic here.

Guns stashed around the house can be found. And kids are smart; given enough time (and tips from the internet) they could manage to get into many of the small gun safes on the market. These are some of the reasons I carry my primary home-defense gun on my body; I don't want children to be able to gain uncontrolled access to my firearm.

 

[Guv]

The logic here is, it's Skadoosh's home and family! I think he may know his particular situation better than the rest of us do.

 

[Skadoosh]

Thanks, Guv.

I do not want nor do I need to carry all the time...and certainly not in my home. All of my guns are securely locked up. In more than one place in my home. Of course, in the event of a home invasion, I would likely be screwed. But I am willing to take that risk.

I am not, however, willing to take the risk of my inquisitive child finding a unsecured gun if I chose to stash one at the ready...despite my educating her at every opportunity on the dangers of a unsecured gun. My child seems very understanding of the danger of firearms, but I remember just how inquisitive I was as a child. And despite the being exposed to guns my whole life and knowing the risks, my curiosity more often than not got the better of me on a great many things...including guns. Heck, I have even had a negligent discharge in my own home due to inattentiveness and lax safety precautions as an adult with a lot of firearms training and experience. More than once. And smart kids do stupid things all the time.

I will never admonish anyonefor choosing to carry while in their home if they feel that they should. But I don't feel that it is necessary or appropriate for me to carry in my home. Just like I don't carry a fire extinguisher around with me wherever I go.

 

[Theohazard]

The logic here is, it's Skadoosh's home and family! I think he may know his particular situation better than the rest of us do.

That doesn't mean his logic makes any sense. My argument is that carrying a firearm on your body prevents children from finding it in your house and gaining access to it. However, his argument is that he doesn't carry at home because he doesn't want to give his five-year-old uncontrolled access to his firearm, which makes absolutely no sense.

I am not, however, willing to take the risk of my inquisitive child finding a unsecured gun if I chose to stash one at the ready...despite my educating her at every opportunity on the dangers of a unsecured gun. My child seems very understanding of the danger of firearms, but I remember just how inquisitive I was as a child. And despite the being exposed to guns my whole life and knowing the risks, my curiosity more often than not got the better of me on a great many things...including guns.

Exactly! This is the reason I'm arguing for carrying in your home: Stashed guns can be found. Safes can be left open. Lock boxes can be broken into. But the gun on your body is in your control at all times.

It's your choice to not carry inside your home, and that's completely fine. It's not for everybody. But if someone wants to be prepared for a home invasion while also keeping their gun away from their kids, I think carrying at home is the best way to do both.

 

[JLL]

If I'm understanding him, Skadoosh doesn't carry in his house because he doesn't WANT To carry in his house. It has nothing to do with his child taking it from his person. He was just saying he locks them up, even if it means difficult access in an emergency, because of his child potentially accessing it.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I have one pistol out for home defense and I carry it to the room I'm in all the time. Not on my belt but that pistol is always in reach.

Similar, but only when in my PJs. If I'm wearing a belt, I'm wearing the gun.

 

[Theohazard]

If I'm understanding him, Skadoosh doesn't carry in his house because he doesn't WANT To carry in his house. It has nothing to do with his child taking it from his person.

If he doesn't want to carry in his house, thats completely fine. But he argued that he doesn't carry in his house because he doesn't want his five-year-old to gain uncontrolled access to his firearm. Here's his original answer to the OP's question, "Do you home carry?"

Nope. I have a very curious and smart 5-year old.

Then when I pointed out that carrying on your body is a good way to keep children away from your gun, he said:

Surely you can understand that the risk of a home invasion is far outweighed by what could happen if my curious 5-year old gained uncontrolled access to my firearms.

It's completely fine if someone doesn't want to carry in their home: It's not always convenient and many people don't see the need. But I find it hard to understand how a five-year-old is going to gain "uncontrolled access" to the firearm he's carrying holstered on his body.

 

[JLL]

I didn't really go back and read all the posts. Yeah I can see your confusion on his initial response. I do agree that carrying is the best way to prevent a child from accessing that particular weapon. However, unless you just have the one gun, you surely can't (or don't) carry all of them on you, do you? So in terms of keeping firearms from your children, you're really only keeping one of them safe from them. But...maybe you just have the one gun, I don't know.

Which, I know, the others you likely aren't storing loaded, but I'm just playing devil's advocate.

 

[Theohazard]

However, unless you just have the one gun, you surely can't (or don't) carry all of them on you, do you? So in terms of keeping firearms from your children, you're really only keeping one of them safe from them.

That's a very good point. I keep all my other guns locked up in a gun safe in my bedroom. There's always a chance I'll accidentally leave my safe unlocked (probably a bigger chance than a kid taking my carry gun away from me), but guns kept unloaded in a true gun safe are a lot more secure than guns that are loaded and stashed around the house, even if those guns are locked up in various ways.

Stashing guns around the house is a bad idea in my opinion, even if you have them in small safes or lock-boxes. When I was a kid, I figured out that it usually only took a few hundred tries before I could get the combination right on a trigger-lock or a lock-box. And some of those small digital gun safes are ridiculously easy to break into if you know how to do it, and the internet makes it easy to find that information. Or you can just find the back-up key.

My point is that many of the ways people stash guns "securely" around the house are actually pretty easy for a smart kid to figure out how to defeat. Unless every gun is in a good, solid gun safe, they're probably not as inaccessible as many people think. And, with enough guns stashed in various places around the house, it's a good possibility you'll eventually forget to lock one of them up.

But the gun on my body is under my control at all times. I don't need to worry that my kid has been trying different combinations on the various lock-boxes or trigger-locks. I don't need to worry that my kid will find the extra key to my digital GunVault. I don't need to worry that I forgot to lock up one of the various guns I have stashed around the house. I just need to make sure I keep my bedroom gun safe locked and that my kid doesn't somehow manage to wrestle my carry gun away me.

 

[Sabrewolfe]

Ah, the old fire extinguisher analogy Sooo many holes in that chestnut: I'm amazed people still use it. But, sure, why not. I'll bite.

For starters, a fire extinguisher is not typically capable of lethal injury if mishandled. They aren't particularly desirable targets for thieves, either. Therefor the need to control access is entirely different from a firearm.

Second, while you obviously would not want to body carry a fire extinguisher, a prudent person will absolutely keep them readily accessible in fire risk areas of the home (kitchen, fireplace, backyard grill, etc) and mitigate that risk by not leaving heat sources unattended. Because you have no control over where you will be in your home if a break in occurs, nor any way to control when one may occur, you cannot mitigate your risk of a break in a similar manner to a fire.

These things being true, the analogy fails to hold water. Body carrying a firearm in your home gives you reliable access to a weapon and provides you with direct control over who has access.

Since the core reason for keeping a SD weapon is the same inside the home as it is outside, if you carry outside then it logically follows to carry inside as well. Yes, the risk of an attack inside your home is low. So is your risk of attack outside. So is the risk of a fire, for that matter. But the smart man still keeps that extinguisher handy. Just in case Murphy comes calling.

 

[JLL]

Yeah, I don't think leaving loaded weapons stashed in various locations is a good idea, so I can go with the idea that if you're going to keep a loaded gun, keep it on your person. For that reason, my one gun that I would have readily accessible is not kept loaded, nor is it stored in the same location as the loaded magazine. One might call that unsafe, but at this stage in my childrens' lives, it would be 100% impossible for any of them to gain access to both the gun and the loaded magazine. Hypothetically, if they did, it would be 100% impossible for any of them to chamber a round. In other words, my kids are very young and weak. Now, at later stages in their lives, I might have to reconsider my stashing of the firearm.

Like I said, I simply have no desire to keep a gun on me in my home. I do realize, if I needed the gun, it's going to take me...from doing dishes in the kitchen sink to retrieving and chambering a round...10-12 seconds, but that's just a risk I choose to assume.

 

[Grant D]

My LCP is always in my back pocket, from the time I get up, till the time I go to bed.
During the day away from home I carry a snub on my belt, or an automatic IWB. When I get home, I may, or may not leave the one on my hip, but the LCP stays where it is.

Oh... and no kids in the house.

 

[Theohazard]

Like I said, I simply have no desire to keep a gun on me in my home. I do realize, if I needed the gun, it's going to take me...from doing dishes in the kitchen sink to retrieving and chambering a round...10-12 seconds, but that's just a risk I choose to assume.

That's completely understandable. Carrying a gun in the home is definitely not always comfortable or convenient. And depending on their house setup and their neighborhood, many people don't feel the need.

I decided to start carrying a gun in my home specifically for accessibility and convenience (at the time my wife was only pregnant so kids weren't an issue yet): We moved into a rental home that would be very easy to break into (heck, both my front and back doors are mostly glass). My two large dogs would definitely alert me if someone broke in, but I can't rely on them to do anything more than slow down a determined attacker. So I originally kept a few guns located in various places around my house.

But I got tired of having to constantly think about where the closest gun was and the fastest way to get to it. I got tired of trying to figure out the "perfect" place to keep a gun near the front door in case a casual knock on the door turned out to be a home invasion. I have a bad memory, so it always helps when I simplify things; so I just figured I'd greatly simplify things and just carry my gun on my body at all times. It just makes things a lot easier for me.

 

[manta49]

I would not carry a firearm around the house. If I was concerned keeping easily available would be good enough. I would see the house as somewhere to put your feet up and relax not sit armed . If I could not feel safe in my own house without being armed I would be looking for a new house in a different area.

 

[Guv]

^^This is how I feel about it but it is a fact that not everyone can live in an area that they feel this secure. Also things happen and the more ready you are the better you may respond to the situation. I don't carry my Beretta around my house but it's not too far for me to access either, besides I have 2 attack cats in the house. Any one remember the days when people could have a nice gun case as a piece of furniture? Seems almost fictional any more.

 

[Jim243]

Yes, all the time.

Jim

 

[Theohazard]

I would not carry a firearm around the house. If I was concerned keeping easily available would be good enough. I would see the house as somewhere to put your feet up and relax not sit armed . If I could not feel safe in my own house without being armed I would be looking for a new house in a different area.

So you might be concerned enough to keep a gun nearby, but you draw the line at having it on your body? I can understand that, but I don't see how it's relaxing to have an unsecured and uncontrolled gun stashed nearby, but it's not relaxing if the gun is secured on your body. I carry a gun in my house specifically so I can relax; I don't want to have to worry so much about what I'm going to do if my home is invaded, so I just have a gun on me at all times. Trust me, I still manage to relax just fine. If you don't want to carry inside your house that's fine, but don't act as though it's paranoid for us to want to be prepared to defend ourselves inside our homes.

I won't criticize anyone for deciding not to carry in their home. But those of us who do aren't strange or paranoid, we just like to be prepared. I primarily own guns for defensive purposes, and what's more important to defend than your home? But stashing guns around the house can be irresponsible and complicated, so I like to simplify things and carry all the time, inside and outside of my home. It's convenient, comfortable, and it doesn't hurt at all.

 

[45_auto]

But those of us who do aren't strange or paranoid, we just like to be prepared.

Do you also wear a helmet in your car?

About 10,000 Americans die every year from traumatic brain injuries received in automobile crashes, which is coincidentally the same amount that are killed by firearm violence (suicides account for the other 20,000 annual firearm deaths in the US).

The vast majority of firearm violence is crime-on-crime. If your lifestyle does not involve drugs or other criminal activities, then the probability of you needing a gun in your home is very small. Of course, the chances of winning one of the big lotteries is also very small, yet someone wins them almost every week!

If you don't have a risky life style and have taken suitable precautions to minimize all of the more likely causes of death and injury in your life (IE, traumatic brain injury from auto accidents), then I would say that if you carry a gun in your home that you're just extremely more cautious than the majority of US citizens.

On the other hand, if you're preparing for the extremely low-probability situations (home invasions, invaders from outer space, vampires and werewolves, etc) while ignoring higher-probability situations, then there is a good chance that compared to the average US citizen you will be classified as strange or paranoid.

 

[Guv]

Theohazard,
So I live with my wife and my 22 year old son visits on the weekends. I leave my gun in it's case were I can get to it if needed (most of the time). We don't typically have many visitors so does this make me irresponsible? I say worry more about your buisness and not mine, just because it's right for you does not make it right for others.

 

[Skadoosh]

On the other hand, if you're preparing for the extremely low-probability situations (home invasions, invaders from outer space, vampires and werewolves, etc) while ignoring higher-probability situations, then there is a good chance that compared to the average US citizen you will be classified as strange or paranoid.

Bingo!