Do you understand exactly where guns are stored in your house? Storing guns safely inside your house or apartment is extremely important. Guns must always be stored in a manner that limits unauthorized access. Guns that are left unsecured could be prime targets for theft or unauthorized "borrowing," and they could be hazardous if handled by someone who is not trained on gun safety concepts. You as the gun's owner have a responsibility to help keep them from the wrong hands. It is possible that you could be held responsible for bad items that happen as a result of neglecting to secure your gun. Because of this also to protect yourself from theft, this is a good idea to keep guns securely stored in your house. There are numerous approaches for effectively storing guns and keeping them out from the wrong hands. Several solutions are free-standing safes, mini gun safes, and built-in gun room/closet.
Free-standing gun safes are exactly what the name implies. They stand upright by themselves when placed on an even surface, and are completely enclosed on all sides except for one door, that can be opened by entering a secret combination. These safes, based on their size and dimensions, can take between six and several dozen guns, documents, and valuables. One of the advantages of a free-standing gun safe is that it is also used to store documents along with other valuables in addition to guns. The walls of the safes can also sometimes be insulated with a fire-resistant material, that may help protect your guns and valuables regarding a home fire. Fire resistance ratings for these safes are normally measured in the number of minutes that the safe can withstand the temperature of a fully-involved home fire. You will probably pay several hundred dollars for an entry-level safe which has no fire protection and thin walls. Larger safes and those with fire-resistant qualities can simply cost between $600 and $2,500 dollars, based on size and fire resistance rating.
Most devices used to store guns, are secured with a mix rather than key because keys can belong to the incorrect hands. Combinations cannot fall into the incorrect hands unless they are shared with others verbally or on paper. However, people might be able to watch over your shoulder and find out what your combination is if they're in exactly the same room and have the chance to see you open the safe. Safes could be equipped with mechanical combination locks (usually the lower-cost safes have these) or digital combination locks with a 10-digit keypad. It is normally possible to re-program these digital combination locks with a fresh combination. If possible, it is a good idea to improve the combination on a gun safe periodically (every 3 months or every time you imagine that someone may have seen you open it). There are also safes in the marketplace which have biometric scanning devices installed on the locking mechanism. These are programmed to read a finger or thumb print, which makes them potentially more secure than other types of locking mechanisms.
"Mini" gun safes are a choice for those who need quick-access to one of their smaller guns, or for many who own only one gun for home defense. These kind of safes typically cost between $150 and $300 with regards to the type of locking mechanism and degree of security (the ones that have Biometric scanners will typically cost more). They are typically large enough to hold one full-sized pistol like a Ruger GP100, Springfield XD9 or Glock 21. The benefit of this sort of safe is that it is cheaper when compared to a larger safe but nonetheless helps maintain one gun out of your wrong hands. These safes can be purchased in models that take a seat on a flat surface and in addition in models that may be installed on or recessed into a wall.
If you purchase a safe for the home, you should choose the location for it meticulously. You may not want to have it out on view, as this will advertise to all or any who see it that there is a gun inside; this might encourage break-ins, as thieves would rather steal things that are often re-sold such as for example guns and electronic equipment. You need to locate your gun safe in the area or area where you are probably to be during a break-in, or in the area or area what your location is most likely to visit first when something bad happens. For example, if there is a central hallway away from exterior doors that you'll most likely walk down in the event that you hear a noise in the center of the night, that may be a good place to mount a recessed mini wall safe (also you can mount this kind of safe in a wall, then hang an image in front of it if you do not want people to be familiar with it). Consult with your local law enforcement office and discover what forms of break-ins typically happen in your community. Especially ask questions in what period break-ins occur. You could be surprised to find in many cases that break-ins frequently happen throughout the day rather than in the center of the night time. That information, coupled with your understanding of what times of day you're normally in your house, will have a direct effect on where you decide to place a quick-access safe. If most break-ins in your area happen during the night, mounting a mini quick-access safe on your own bedside table could be a good idea. If you expect that someone might make an effort to break in when you are at work in your house office where you may spend most of your day, you then should probably keep the safe in that location.
For an additional degree of security, most safes have the ability to be bolted right down to either a floor or a wall so they can't be easily stolen or moved. This is especially important when contemplating the purchase of a "Mini" gun safe. Since a "Mini" safe could possibly be easily carried away to another location and broken open, you should bolt these types of safes securely to a table, wall, or in the drawer so they can't be stolen or moved as easily.
Another option for security would be to secure your guns within a locked closet or room. Closet doors and interior-room doors within a home are typically flimsy double-wall hollow construction and can not hold up to much abuse. If someone really wants to get through one of those doors, they will achieve this without much trouble. However, it is possible to replace a closet door or room door with a strong, solid wood or metal door to create it harder to break in. If this door is then equipped with an electronic push-button combination deadbolt lock (these cost between $100 and $200 and can be purchased from Lowe's or Home Depot), then you have just made yourself an integral safe. The advantage to this technique is that should you have a lot of guns and possess a downstairs basement room that has concrete walls, it is possible to save some money by converting a spare room to a secure "Gun Room" rather than spending $5,000 to $10,000 on multiple gun safes. The disadvantage to this technique is that you will spend about just as much money on a new door and door lock as you'll spend on a safe that could hold several dozen guns, so you really would need to have plenty of guns for this to create sense financially. There's another consideration - You MUST NOT secure the closet or room door with a keyed lock (keys could be misplaced or left unsecured) and you cannot consider going this route without installing a heavy-duty exterior-style door or commercial-grade steel door. You should not consider achieving this to any rooms with windows.
You may even see or hear of gun racks which might be locked or gun racks which have provisions for securing guns by attaching them with cable locks. These kinds of gun racks will be the least secure solution apart from leaving a gun lying around out on view. They can easily be removed from walls unless they are bolted directly into wall studs. Many of these racks are made of wood, which is an easy task to break or cut through. Most usually do not prevent a gun from being loaded or fired even when it is locked into the rack. There can be some people who feel that this is a secure enough solution for his or her particular situation, but in general it isn't safe to store guns in a rack, even one that can be locked.
Remember that when considering different solutions, you'll typically get what you pay for - this is also true when searching for secure gun storage. The least expensive gun safe can be going to be smaller, weaker and better to break into, and will offer the lowest degree of protection from fire damage. Choosing a good brand name can be important, because you desire to purchase a quality unit that's not going to malfunction or fail. A few examples of top quality manufacturers are (not in any particular order, which is not all-inclusive): Sentry, Remington, American Security, Liberty, Patriot Safes, Stack-On, Winchester, Browning, and Barska. Some safe manufacturers will offer you better versions of particular sizes or models than other manufacturers, plus some companies may offer certain features while others do not. For example, at the time of this article's writing, companies such as Remington, Browning and American Security are more centered on making larger safes with electronic keypad combination code access, while companies such as for example Barska offer products which are smaller (holding one to three pistols) and so are built with Biometric fingerprint scanner access control.
Hopefully this information can help you make an informed decision about how exactly and where you can store guns at home. Remember to talk to all family members concerning the need for gun safety and educate them on basic concepts. Everyone should always treat every gun as though it were loaded and keep the gun pointed in a safe direction; never point a gun at anybody or anything you do not desire to shoot; keep your finger off the trigger; and continue to keep and store guns unloaded and from ammunition if possible. Establish with https://cvgunandammo.com/ for what to do if they look for a gun that's not locked up securely, or should they observe that a gun safe isn't completely shut and locked. Normally the best steps to follow are to leave the area immediately and notify a parent or adult immediately so that they can take care of the problem.
You can get out more information, including schedules of course offerings and free training materials, at [http://www.aafirearmstraining.com]. We've trained a huge selection of men, women and children over the years through classroom and online instruction. Follow us on twitter @aafirearmstng and check us from Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/All-American-Firearms-Training-Group-of-Columbus-GA/183355874520. This short article was written by Patrick Sleem, owner of most American Firearms Training in Columbus GA. He could be a nationally ranked marksman on the Army Reserve Marksmanship Team and something of the "Presidents Hundred," an honor conferred and then the top 100 competitive target shooters in the United States at the National Rifle Association's National Championship Match.