How do you keep your guns secure?

T

thaddeus

New member
I think that we should all think about this, so that we don't ever become accessory to a crime like this. I don't know anyone capable of a mass killing, but just in case, I try to keep my guns secure because I could never live with myself if I were part of such a thing inadvertantly.

I have found a good, simple, slightly expensive way to keep my guns secure. I have a huge 500 pound, five foot tall vault. It cost me only $800 a year ago at Costco. My method is simple: when I am home, I have my weapons out and ready for use. As soon as I leave the house, I take only my PDW on my person, and lock up any other guns. As soon as I return home, I take my PDW on my person, go straight to my vault and open it up for access to anything else I need. I would never want to come home and find my guns stolen, my guns used in a crime, or possibly worst: come into my home facing my own guns! Someone could break in, take my own guns, wait till I got home and do who-knows-what. I prevent all these situations by taking 30 seconds before I leave the home to throw my few guns into my vault, except the one(s) I am carrying with me out of the house.

This works well for me, and gives me great peace of mind. When I am at home, my guns are immediatly within reach (no kids in my house yet, things will change a bit when that happens), but when I am gone, they are completely unaccessable to be used against myself or anyone else.

Any other ideas?

thaddeus
 
A safe is probably best, but unfortunatly I've never been able to afford one. I did scrape together a couple hundred bucks and bought a good steel gun locker. Not one of the cheap K-mart ones. The locker is bolted to the floor and wall. The key is stored in a place safley behind two more locks. The BGs may get my guns, but they'll have to work for them!
 
I hesiate to post this,,,,bt the item has been out for a couple of decades and it is probably well known att,,,there is a company I believe the name is mag na lock,,,they will install a locking device inside the frame of a quality revolver (at one time this was only s/w), to activate the pistol so it will fire you must be wearing a ring that will using magnatism release the lock...with out the ring the pistol dosent work.---the down sides are, its expensive, and there is something about gadgets that play on my basic kiss belief.........I also think Ive read somewhere recently were they have managed to incorporate a design for some semi autos......the concept appears sound as far as allowing only a wearer of the rings to shoot the firearm....but I still hesitate partly because of the expense, or I would probably try the system to see how reliable it is....fubsy.
 
My firearms are pretty secure at present... in the pawnshop since Compaq terminated my contract with no notice :(.

Seriously, I can't afford a safe, and I doubt that the floors of my cottage can support 500 pounds. I normally keep my long guns unloaded in locked cases stashed behind the water heater when I'm not home, and my revolver on me or close to hand at all times, whether I'm home or not.

My 12ga comes out of the case when I'm at home.

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"Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."
(The sword does not kill; it is a tool in the hands of the killer.)
--Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD)
 
A false wall. However, nothing is really secure here out in the country. No neighbors within sight or hearing distance so locked doors won't stop a determined thief...door is locked, bust out a window, no one will see or hear. Gun safe? tear up the floor or wall, or go to the shop for tools to break it open. Hell, hitch up the tractor to it with chains and yank it through the wall ;)

Of course the gov't would still blame me hehehe

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
 
Some of us have "occasional use" guns, such as bolt action rifles. If you can't afford a large gunsafe, buy or build a small one, and keep the bolt(s) in it. If you have several bolt guns, and the floor-plates are hinged, take out the followers and run a padded chain or braided steel cable through and lock them to an eye bolt in the back of the closet.

The majority of home burglaries are hit-and-run. Time is what the burglars don't have, in most cases. Incomplete guns, or "awkward", time-consuming situations can be a deterrent.

Back in my renting days, I would run lag-bolts through the door frame into the studs. I would add a 3/4" plywood panel inside the closet door with lag bolts. I added pins to the hinge-side of the door, which fit into sockets in the door-frame. All this was quite unobtrusive. I then secured the door with a hasp and padlock as made by the American Lock Co. They have a padlock design which cups over the ring, and fits snugly so that no sawblade can be used. And, everything is tempered to about Rockwell OmiGawd. The lock is a six-pin tumbler and the keys have more grooves than is common.

Heck, build a couch-appearing box, of 2X4s which are epoxied and screwed together, using lag bolts. Round the heads so they can't be unscrewed. Use heavy barn-hinges mounted inside. With a slip-over cover and cushions, it's "hidden in plain sight", just like Poe's Purloined Letter...And you have a place to sleep when the Boss Lady gets too hot about how many guns you bought with grocery money.

No system is perfect, but you can up the odds in your favor. Something is better than nothing.
 
There is a modular safe made by Zanotti that can be assembled in place for those places a safe can't be taken easily. They have several sizes. I will provide address if anyone interested.
 
Thanks in part to a healthy tax refund this year, I just purchased a quality gun safe. It's 60"x30"x27", weighs about 700 lbs., and is fire resistant. I've been wanting one for years. This year I just bit the bullet, so to speak. :)


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Kelly

Deo Vindice
 
I was fortunate enough to have purchased a safe about three years ago. Since then I have added a small room next to my garage for a home office and gun/reloading/game(mounts) room. When building the room I planned where to put the safe and added 4x6 beams in the floor and wall near the safe. There are lag bolts through the safe and into all of the headers for added security.

The BGs would really have to want to get in to get through all of this ;)
 
I use one of the cheap Wally World steel boxes, bolted to the wall in the closet. I know it won't stop a determined burgler but it keeps my kids friends away from them. It is always locked and all my guns are in it. I don't really worry about needing a gun in a hurry, but if I do the key is close by and a loaded semi-auto is hanging on the door. I am concerned about a co-worker who has a really nice collection of bench rest rifles, AR-15's and various "assult" rifles and keeps them unsecured in racks on the wall for display.
 
DC;

You have the same problem I have. My only saving grace (seeing they would by pass the alarm system)is that if they yank it out with a tractor there is only one road into my place (it dead ends) and at the other end .5 mile away lives Doogle. I even stay on the good side of Doogle. He would take exception to my safe being drug down the road and I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that. :)

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Schmit, GySgt, USMC(Ret)
NRA Life, Lodge 1201-UOSSS
"Si vis Pacem Para Bellum"
 
Several years ago, I pulled into my own driveway behind a running vehicle. I then saw two BG's run through my foyer (large glass panes) and out the back door. A third BG kicked out my kitchen window and fled that way. House full of guns, lots of ammo, and I had their car captured. Add to that the isolated location and I knew I was in a pickle (and unarmed).

I split. BG's came back for the car. I go home and call the cops. One pistol unaccounted for, dozen rifles on couch rolled up in a blanket. BG's assumed armed. All turns out well and pistol shows up when the snow melts in the spring.

Now all my guns are in a cheap steel safe. You would be amazed how tough they are. Also, I keep a pistol on my hip just in case.
 
thaddeus, After you have been in this game long enough you will either become a "keeper" or an "upgrader". If you become a "keeper" you will have to design or have designed a home with a vault built in. If you go to the bother and expense of doing that you might as well consider building your vault large enough to hold more than you anticipated! Build a 16' square room and you can house your collection, reloading area and computer in one secure location! My only problem is that you "always!" fill up whatever space you have!
Good shooting and have fun!
Hank
 
Fifteen dogs.
When the gas company guys came to install the tank, my wife was home and the dogs were out in the lot. The Lab stood on his hind legs and tried to chew his way through the fence to the workmen. They finished the job in record time!
Burglars tend to be opportunists. They will shy away from less convenient houses, such as those containing the sound of an uncountable number of irate dogs, and find a less immediately threatening target, such as my neighbor's house.
It's not perfect, of course. A truly deranged person might smash a window hoping for the pups to flee the house with out dismembering him, or something like that, I suppose. But I think it's as likely as getting hit with a piece of Skylab, something I actually did worry about when I was 10.
If I had kids, I'm sure I would use more hardened strategies, like a safe, and lots of education!

-boing
 
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