When I had a child, I stored a .38 revolver in a holster attached to my headboard. I had a speed loader in my nightstand, and a rip strip of twelve rounds behind the night stand. I could load a revolver in a second or less, loading from loose rounds a little longer.
When I switched to a 9, I kept it in the same holster, unloaded, slide back, and the magazine in my drawer. similar situation.
Yes, this was risky. I weighed my risks. First, I asked myself how likely it was that my child would gain access to the firearm, load it, and choose to mess around with it. NOT VERY LIKELY. She was not interested in guns. She was actually a little afraid of them. She was NEVER in the house alone, period. So, I felt that the risk of her causing harm was minimal, and she made it through her entire childhood without issues. Now, I keep fully loaded handguns or long guns in every conceivable room. I use glock and revolvers, a rifle, and a shotgun in the areas that they might be useful.
Why did I take the minuscule risk that my child would find the gun and use it? because I was almost certain that in a home invasion, I would fail. A lock of any sort would have stymied me if I was dragged to wakefulness. Just inserting a magazine or speed loader would have been stretching it at times. The real answer would be to wake up with a clear head, but having a firearm available immediately is still important.
There is no generic answer. One must weigh all of the risks, at all levels, and come up with the conditiion that is most comfortable to the firearm owner. the obvious part, at least it's obvious to me, is that you have only one real consideration. The chances that you will actually be involved in a life or death struggle in your own home are far slimmer than the chance that your kid may find your firearm and engage in risky behavior.
Here's a story. an old friend from high school was given a holster for christmas. He took his handgun out of the safe, and left it on his piano when he was distracted. His daugter had kids coming over for a sleepover.
The gun was never locked back up. the kids were, in any case, forbidden to enter that room.
The group wound up going into the room. One of the girls saw the revolver on the piano, ran to it, put it to her head, and fired it. There is no need to go into any further details, other than to say that my friend had a neighbor's child die in his home with his own pistol.
there was an incident in my home. My daughter had been out of the home for several years, and I had been keeping my .38 on the mantle hidden behind a clock. My niece, eighteen or so years old, came by to visit. some minutes later, she did the same thing. She spotted the pistol up on the mantle, squealed, and jumped at it. I ruptured her eardrums yelling "NO!"
My niece as always been a bit unpredictable, and goofy. I learned that childhood never ends for some people. When anyone under thirty is coming to my home, the firearms are put in a much higher level of safety. Empty, in a locked room.Even at the time of this event, it was already habit to do so, concealing and locking away all firearms. sometimes I have felt that it was necessary to hide medications as well, even though we have a two story house, and the second story is off limits.
So even I am incapable of being absolutely certain of my safety. A kid who was maybe even twenty years old was too immature to keep her hands off of my defense weapon. That was quite unexpected.
