There are many reasons why someone might own a gun and store it within their home. Whether they work for the police force, are an avid hunter, feel the need personal protection, or something else entirely, the most important thing to do when storing a firearm within your home is to ensure that it’s safely put away from anyone who might misuse or mishandle it, especially if you have children.
To help you in doing this, here are three tips for safely storing guns at home.
Keep Everything Hidden
Arguably the best thing you can do when storing firearms and their accessories is to store them in an area that isn’t readily visible to others.
According to FoxNews and NewsCore, the reason for this is two-fold. First of all, you don’t want your firearms to be obvious to anyone who might enter your home with the intent to take advantage of you or cause you harm. Secondly, you don’t want your kids or others within your home to know exactly where your guns are and how to access them so that they have the opportunity to use them without permission or supervision. Knowing these things, it makes sense to store your guns or your safes in a place that’s out of clear vision from others.
Know Your Storage And Safety Options
When it comes to actually storing and keeping your weapons safe under lock and key, there are quite a few options that you have to choose from.
Some of the locks, safes, or locking mechanisms you might want to consider, according to Maureen P. Sangiorgio, a contributor to NRAFamily.org, are trigger locks, cable locks, gun cases, strong boxes, gun cabinets, or gun safes. Each of these options has different pros and cons, so the ones you choose to go with will depend on what type of security you’re looking for and what your storage capabilities are.
Separate Certain Items
Just having your guns and ammunition locked away isn’t always enough to keep yourself and others safe from improper handling of firearms. To really be as safe as possible, Thomas Germain, a contributor to Consumer Reports, shares that you’ll want to keep your firearms and their ammunition safely stored in separate areas.
By taking this safety measure, you’ll ensure that even if someone gains access to one of your storage areas, they won’t have what they need to use the weapon in its entirety. Only by getting both the gun and the ammunition from the different locations will the firearm actually be usable, which just gives you an added layer of security.
If you have guns stored in your home, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you store these items safely.
