Is gun safety a catch 22 situation or what?

[BHG1978]

At some point can't many the extra gun safety practices get you killed if you ever need to actually use your gun for defense.

I understand keeping children from getting the gun by accident, though it seems so many safety practices will make a person too slow to react in a defensive situation, after someone already has the drop on you

Seems like if gun owners just used basic common sense, they would be good to go.


What I mean is if your go to gun is locked in a gun safe, with a trigger lock unloaded with ammo somewhere else are you just better off to have a brick laying on the dresser to throw at somebody.


It would be like an ambulance being kept in garage with an empty gas tank with gas stored in a closet somewhere else and the keys locked up in a drawer with a different key needed to open the drawer to get the ambulance keys and unlock the gas closet.

puts it in perspective

[m4a1mustang]

Having your defensive weapon locked in a safe, unloaded, with trigger lock is a little excessive.

For me, if it needed to be locked up, it would be with a loaded chamber and full mag. And I'd be sure I knew how to get the safe open quickly.

[skeeterss0]

its a fine line to walk. You have to keep it safe from the younger kids getting to it but yet have quick access. As the kids get older it is best to teach them about the guns and let them handle them. A curious kid is an accident waiting to happen.

[SHMIV]

I grew up in a house with guns. Those guns were never (and still aren't) locked. Neither was the ammo. (Still isn't)

I've been aware of those guns as long as I can remember. When my parents moved, they were in the house for a solid year before I ever visited them, and I knew exactly where in the house to find guns.

The fear of my fathers wrath is far greater than any lock. I suspect that most anyone over the age of 30 who was raised in the South knows what I'm talking about. I wasn't about to go mess with Daddy's guns; I knew better.

Plus, I was taught gun-safety protocol at about 4 years of age.

In my own life experience, the only children that I've known to be injured or killed by guns were not not trained properly in firearm safety, or were shot by someone without proper firearm safety. I can count them on one hand, and contrast that with the hundreds of kids that I went to school with, that also grew up in homes with unlocked and loaded firearms.

Basically, I believe that if you get your kids started on shooting while young, and teach them the proper safety protocols right off the bat, all this locking, double locking, and triple locking will be unnecessary.

[Jakeiscrazy]

Basically, I believe that if you get your kids started on shooting while young, and teach them the proper safety protocols right off the bat, all this locking, double locking, and triple locking will be unnecessary.

Agreed, and if your recently set on locking them up for whatever reason then there are a ton of options out there.

[Diomed]

It's another good reason not to have children, or allow them into your home. I know I don't.

[Sensai]

Oh, come on guys! You're spoiling everthing by actually thinking. Don't you know that we're supposed to be teaching our kids, right off the bat, that they're not responsible for their actions. Anything that's bad that happens is somebody else's fault, and has no consequences for them. Get with the program comrade, er.. I mean friend.

[zerodown1]

At some point can't many the extra gun safety practices get you killed if you ever need to actually use your gun for defense.

I understand keeping children from getting the gun by accident, though it seems so many safety practices will make a person too slow to react in a defensive situation, after someone already has the drop on you

Seems like if gun owners just used basic common sense, they would be good to go.


What I mean is if your go to gun is locked in a gun safe, with a trigger lock unloaded with ammo somewhere else are you just better off to have a brick laying on the dresser to throw at somebody.


It would be like an ambulance being kept in garage with an empty gas tank with gas stored in a closet somewhere else and the keys locked up in a drawer with a different key needed to open the drawer to get the ambulance keys and unlock the gas closet.

puts it in perspective

Your right,there is no substitute for good common sense IMHO. Like you already know everyones level of precaution in the home is dictated by their particular circumstances. It is taught to the general populace by a blanket method but there are so many variables it has to be customized on an individual basis. Keeping your firearm out in a ready state with young children in the home can be done relatively safely( I say it that way because nothing is 100%) There are a variety of degrees of accesessable From on your person under your direct control,to locked in a gun safe. Just to put things in perspective leading the way is motor vehicle accidents that account for about for 35% of fatalities involving children. next is poisioning,then falls,suffocation,drowning,fire,other land transport,natural/environmental,pedestrian,other transport,struct by or against,machinery,and then firearms at about 1/2 of one % only followed by pedal cyclist,cut/pierce,and overexertion. So much emphises is put on firearms because it is such a controversial issue and makes good press. With the parents taking resonable precautions with their firearms there are far more dangerous situations that don't get the attention that firearms get. Just a thought.