Gun safety
Here’s a decent article on gun safety. Until you get to the end:
Guns of any type should be stored unloaded and locked. It is a good idea to not only lock your weapons, but also partially disassemble the weapon (i.e. remove the bolt from a rifle and store in separate location). This way if a child or intruder discovers the weapon, it is not only locked, but also inoperable.
Then you don’t have a gun that could save your life. You have a paperweight. There are ways to keep guns accessible to you and not children. Look into those ways.
October 7th, 2004 at 12:23 pm
And teach your kids to handle guns safely as soon as they are old enough to understand. Kids who’ve been taught properly don’t have gun accidents. Until then, you do need some sort of lock – tots have amazing abilities at climbing to high shelves and unearthing things you thought well hidden in the closet.
October 7th, 2004 at 3:58 pm
My friend’s father (now deceased) used to say that the safest way to store a gun was “locked, cocked, and loaded.” You can’t pull the trigger without unlocking it first, but you can unlock it very quickly if you need to, and then you’re 100% ready to fire.
A determined enough bad guy is going to get past whatever lock you put in place, so your lock should simply be there to prevent accidental firing and to prevent children (or the casual bad guy) from being able to fire it.
October 7th, 2004 at 8:01 pm
Are you sure that by “locked” he meant the same thing you are thinking?
Cocked and locked traditionally does NOT mean you have some kind of external device inside the trigger guard.
October 8th, 2004 at 11:38 am
I don’t think there’s one right way to store all of your guns. If you’re like many multiple gun owners, some of your guns are for self-defense and others aren’t. Store accordingly.
October 8th, 2004 at 2:47 pm
Good advice. One size does not fit all.