"Safest" Handgun In The Presence Of A Child?

I'm still upset with how kits can take apart & reassemble puzzles, rubik's cubes, etc. faster than me. 3 year olds manage to start-up & drive cars.

If anyone thinks that a kid can't figure out manual safeties on a firearm, they don't have enough respect for them. Kids are crafty and curious and want to emulate what they see grown ups do on TV. I was able to find and open anything in my parents' house when I was a kid, I loved the challenge.

Unless you trust enough in the discipline of your children to leave guns alone if they find them -I don't, then they should be locked in a safe always.
 
There is no such thing as a safe handgun left unattended in the presence of children.

There are, however, safe children left unattended in the presence of a gun.

You have to teach your kids early and properly about the safe use of fire arms.

The problem arises when your kids bring home a friend who is not properly trained.

When an accident happens, you will go to jail nowadays.

So the only unattended handgun that is safe in the presence of children is one that is in the safe.
 
Ala Dan, their are many good ideas listed here from members. One thing I'd like to add, that you might be interested in, when it became time to teach my children about firearms, I did the usual. I sat them down at the kitchen table at first and went over the safety aspects, operation and so on. And ofcourse, NEVER POINT THE GUN AT ANY THING YOU DON'T INTEND TO SHOOT. THE GUN IS ALWAYS LOADED TILL YOU CHECK IT YOURSELF. And I did one more thing, I told them, "Even with the clip removed from some firearms, they are still capable of being fired." To drive home the the point, after a few rounds at the local range, I removed the clip from the gun with a round still in the chamber, and I had them fire the gun down range. That really impressed them about the weapon's capability to fire. I know that wasn't the orginial question, but I thought it would be appropriare to add it here.:)
 
Colt 1911 or copy.

Uncocked, No Round Chambered, Safety On, No clip in the pistol.

To fire they would have to find a round, unlock the safety, rack the slide, and engage the grip safety.

Not impossible but there are 4 tasks to accomplish to make it fire. Not a problem for an adult with the clip on them, But how many kids can rack a .45 slide without help?
 
All moralizing aside, I figure it would be a S&W auto or Browning HP with the magazine safety intact and the magazine(s) in your pocket. I figure you are speaking of a situation where you would like the gun to be fairly readily accessible by you for what it's intended for but could conceivably be accessed by a child. (You just can't and don't want to watch them every second.) Even with a round in the chamber they should be safe as a slab of cheese, but when you shove the mag in, they're ready to go. The S&W's with the hammer flush with the rear of the frame would probably be about as safe as you could get since the only realistic way to cock the hammer is with the trigger and it's not going to do anything until the mag is in. A strong "child" could work the slide, cocking the hammer and extracting the one round in the chamber, then re-chamber the round, but still couldn't fire a shot. Of course this is all barring mechanical failure of some type.
 
I'll vote for those all blue Glocks we issue to supervisors.

Seriously, I've gun-proofed my kids. Youngest is 13, so they have the requisite mentality.

The problem is visiting kids.
All the "house guns" are in the master bedroom. It locks. The boys know to keep other kids out of there.
 
Thanks for the many replies; there is a lot
of useful information contained in this text.
Hopefully, some one will grasp something
from these post, and it may help to save a
life.:D:)

Best Wishes To All,
Ala Dan, Life Member N.R.A.
 
Sour grapes here, from one who is strongly anti AMA! I think the whole idea of childproofing guns is wrongheaded and plain moronic. Instead the child needs to be gunproofed by the same method they are stoveproofed, electricity proofed, catproofed et cetera, by aversive conditioning.

I taught my kids when they were babies that guns were loud and made bright angry looking flashes of light. Didn't have to spank them like you do when teaching them about the stove or electrical outlet by virtue of the fact the gun is its own aversive stimulus it was actually much easier. (Unlike catproofing gunproofing doesn't leave scars, just the memory that sudden thunder.)

Later when the conditioning started wearing thin we started discussing guns and they learned the principles of safety, just like they were taught to cook and plug in electric appliances (or to feed the cat without pulling its tail).

I think that regardless of the bullsh*t put out by various hoplophobic groups the primary cause of gun accidents isn't guns it is ineffective parenting skills, the same as is true with scalds, falls, cat scratches, electrical burns and a host of other childhood injuries. (Drowning is one of these but it should be prevented not with aversion but with early desensitization and skill training. Swimming is a basic motor skill which can be learned more easily by two year olds than by adults.)

Nowadays the hoplophobes are pushing a style of parenting whereby parents are encouraged to ask if all the guns are locked up. I would tend to reply to anyone asking such a question that they probably need to do some teaching for their child and the child was unwelcome in my home until they the parent could demonstrate proficiency in the skills needed to gunproof the brat.

Yes I lock up my guns to prevent theft, but that isn't the point here. The point is that parents and their whiny pediatricians are negligent if they think they can trust everyone ELSE in the world to always put THEIR own child's desires over all other considerations. They are the same ones who would go ballistic if you spanked their kid when you caught him rummaging through your underwear drawer stealing whatever he thought looked interesting and will be the same one picking him up at the morgue when he turns 16 and gets his license and new car.

I would try to approach it in a proactive way, not at all as grouchy as I present here but one must not allow fools to infect us with their foolishness. Instead we should try to teach them a bit wider view of life.
 
THERE IS NO SUCH THING!

The only safe gun of any type around a child is a multiplely checked, 100% sure, guaranteed unloaded gun with a responsible adult handling the gun!
 
Meeks got it down, its the conditions of the child, not the gun. I personally was adversly conditioned to stoves, dogs, drowning, cats, roosters, high places etc. I don't agree though that you need to spank a kid to stove-proof 'em, lay their hand on it and tell them hot at the same time, they'll get the idea. I also don't buy the scaring with the gun's noise, won't work on boys that like loud things, better the conditioning that comes when you screw with dad's stuff, coupled with education ASAP. I started shooting at 5, got the safety rules the hard way (usually a backhand) and was told that all I needed to do to shoot was to ask dad. Later as a teen I did surreptisiously play with dad's guns, but guess what? I observed all safety rules! If you have guns in the house you must trust your child and they must trust you, there are no safe guns, only safe people.
 
This is an easy one. HK P7M8. Sure they could depress the cocker between their body and some stationery object, but I would like to see them fire it without the firing pin! I would keep my P7M8 with a magazine in, round in chamber, and unsecure with a house with kids as long as I had the firing pin on me at all times. It's so easy to put the firing pin back in the weapon.
 
The one the child can not get to at all, but if we must a Steyr M or S series will lock and become inoperable even with ammo in the gun.
 
A 1911 colt with a full mag and a empty chamber is a chore for a small kid to do any damage with untill they are old enough to properly operate it. I do not advise doing it but it is still a chore for them. Sure beats a Glock with a round up the spout or a sixgun with a full load. After letting my daughter play with a empty 1911 when she was small just to see what they do with them the worse damage is to the gun or the toes. Seems one of the first things they do is turn it around and press the trigger with the thumbs. Some of the 9mm guns do tend to be a lot easer to get the slide back on vs the 1911 and very easy if they get the hammer back first.
 
This seems a no-brainer to me -- NO gun has intrinsic, 100% "child safety." My pistol stays in a locked safe (requires combo and key) unless I am where I can monitor access to and from were it is stored AT ALL TIMES!

My girlfriend's kids are plenty smart and well-behaved, but even the smartest kids (and adults!) make dumb mistakes. I sure did! No amount of "gun-proofing" can enshure a child will use their best judgement at all times -- to my way of thinking, it's better not to give them the chance to make a mistake. Of course, children should be given gun safety training as "insurance." You can't control the gun safety practices of your kid's friends' parents.

The hoplophobes drive me crazy, but many kids die each year in gun-related accedents that could have been prevented with a little bit of caution and planning. Each one of those deaths is a another nail in the coffin of pro-gun public opinion. As I see it, we all have the responsibility to protect kids and not give the anti-gunners any more fuel for the fire of anti-gun hysteria.

As David Gerrold said "Freedom is responsiblity, responsibility is freedom."

Integral keylocks on pistols may be nearly as "child-proof" as a safe, but I own a Glock . . .
 
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