Keeping Your Pistol Safe, Secure, and Accessible at Home

Why Is It Important to Keep Your Gun Hidden?

There are many reasons to keep your gun hidden. If you chose to store your gun at home, it’s important that you know where and how to store the weapon. Safe gun storage can make your family safer and more protected. It’s important that gun owners hide any firearms that they have in the house and avoid leaving guns out in the open. If you’re unsure why you should keep your guns hidden, we’ve collected data and studies to help clarify why it is important to use gun safes instead of a nightstand drawer.

Hiding Guns Will Protect Your Children

According to gun safety specialist, Amy W. Anzilotti, MD, guns should be locked up in gun safes, gun vaults, or locked storage cases. The bullets to the gun should be hidden in a different location or in a portable gun safe. By splitting the firearm and ammunition, you make it less likely that a child will find the weapon and use it unsafely. Children are curious and will often open drawers and look into cabinets out of curiosity. If they see a gun, they’re likely to become curious about it. The child might pick up the gun and play with it. If the gun is loaded and left in the open, children can seriously harm themselves or others.

Additionally, teens in the home may be experiencing depression, anxiety, or other mental concerns that may lead them to act rashly. If a troubled teen is able to access the gun in your home, they could use it to harm themselves or others. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the third leading cause of death for teenagers. And, nearly 60% of teen suicides are done using a gun. Since teenagers cannot buy guns on their own, most gun-related deaths are done using a gun owned by a family member in the home. When the weapon is within reach, a troubled teen may use it to end their life. To prevent accidental or suicidal death, please lock your guns in secure gun safes.

Protect Yourself From Home Intruders

Often, when it comes to home intruders, homeowners want easy and quick access to their firearms. They want to be able to reach under the pillow and pull out their gun. However, this can be incredibly dangerous. If a home intruder is in your home, they might find your gun before you are able to get to it. If the home intruder finds your firearms first, it could put you and your entire family in danger.

Intruders will enter a home and begin looking in drawers and cabinets. Studies have shown that burglars move straight for the bedroom (which is where a majority of guns are kept). If a burglar finds a gun in the home and has access to the bullets, the lives of you and your family will be put in danger. Since guns are not loyal to one person, they can be easily turned against you if you do not keep them in a secure location. Instead, you want to place your guns in a vault that a burglar cannot pry open or gain access to.

Protect Others From Accessing the Gun

When you have a gun in the home but leave the gun out in the open, you could be putting others in danger. When your children invite their friends over, you expose them to possible harm. Children often find odd ways to impress their friends. Because the mind of a child is not yet developed, children are not able to rationally think through a series of decisions.

When a teenager sees a gun or knows how to access the gun in the house, they may be tempted to show it off to their friends. This can lead to obvious danger because the children are not trained in gun safety. They might load the gun and attempt to shoot it in the backyard, injuring or killing someone in the process. Guns should never be made readily available to teenagers or children. Guns should be locked in gun safes to prevent teens and children from gaining access to the firearm for any reason.

Where are the Best Locations to Hide a Gun?

Hiding a gun may be stressful because you don’t want to put it somewhere visible, yet you still want quick access to it in the case of an emergency. Placing the gun somewhere safe, yet accessible can improve the security of your home and help you to feel safer. Here are the best locations to hide your gun.

In Gun Safes

The first and best place to hide your gun is in a gun safe. Gun safes are specially built to hold weapons and are created to be secure. There are several types of gun safes, each with their benefits and disadvantages. Later in this article, we will discuss examples of gun safes in more detail; however, first, let’s find out why gun safes are the best way to store a gun at home.

If you need to store your home in your home, it needs to be safe. The best way to keep a gun safe is by locking it up when it is not being used. This applies to guns used for hunting, target practice, and security. Most gun safes are made from solid steel to prevent tampering. The steel vault will have a thickness of either 10 gauge or 12 gauge steel, though some safes will be made even thicker. The heavy-duty steel prevents anyone from getting inside the vault without the key or passcode, making the safe the best place to store a gun. A gun safe can come in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit the needs of anyone looking to hide a handgun, pistol, or shotgun. Gun safes are created for firearms, meaning that they are able to keep moisture and dampness from entering the vault. Most cases have foam padding meant to cradle the gun and keep the metal shining. Gun safes are not only the best place for locking guns away; they are the best place to keep firearms in their best condition.

In a Lock Box

If you’re unable to buy a safe, consider using a lockbox. The most important feature that is needed when locking away a gun is the lock. A lockbox can be efficient as long as the box isn’t left out in the open. Since the lockbox won’t have the same gauge steel as a gun safe, it will need to be hidden well. The compact size of a lockbox makes it ideal for storing and hiding and works perfectly as a pistol safe. You can hide the pistol box in the closet, in the wall, or in a suitcase to keep the box safe from curious hands. This gives you quick access to your gun while also protecting it from those who shouldn’t have access to it. Pistol safes are the most common type of handgun vault because of their small size and versatility.

Behind the Air Vent

Before we talk about hiding the gun in the air vent, it’s important to note that, even when hidden, guns should still be held in a lockbox or small steel case. When hiding a firearm, the weapon itself should be kept encased in steel to prevent the gun from oxidizing and growing old. The bullets should also be hidden separately from the gun.

When hiding a portable gun vault, you want to hide it in places where people won’t usually look. Often, one of the best places to hide the weapon is in an air vent. Air vents are found in every home, but they are rarely noticed, making it an ideal place to hide the gun in plain sight. When trying to decide where to hide your gun box, ensure that you’re placing it in a location where it will be overlooked.

Where are the Worst Places to Hide a Gun?

Now that we know the three best places to hide a gun, let’s talk about the worst places you can hide a firearm. The worst areas are in plain sight where people can easily recognize the gun. Here are the worst places to hide a gun:

Bedside Nightstand

Sadly, this is one of the most common places where homeowners will “hide” their weapons. They think that by placing it out of sight, people won't think to look in the bedside nightstand. However, since this is the most common place for people to hide guns, this is also the first place an intruder will look for a weapon. Additionally, most people will put the bullets in the drawer next to the gun, making this one of the most dangerous and ill-thought-out locations to hide a weapon. A bedside gun is dangerous so homeowners should keep their hand gun in a safer location. Firearm safety is important to keep in mind, especially when living in a home with others who may accidentally harm themselves if they found the gun.

Under Your Pillow

For those who don’t place the gun in the nightstand, they will place it under the pillow. Whether the firearm is unloaded or it has the safety on, placing a gun under your pillow at night is not only dangerous, but it can be lethal. On February 10th, 2020, a three-year-old child was killed when a shotgun went off under her father’s pillow at night. According to the news report, “Pritchard told police he kept the gun under his pillow because people were out to get him.” The man believed that keeping the loaded gun under his pillow would help to protect him and his children. However, by keeping his gun under the pillow, his child was tragically killed.

Guns are dangerous and should not be stored out in the open. Storing a gun under a pillow can be one of the worst decisions you ever make. Instead, store your gun in a safe location where it will not endanger the lives of those you love.

In Your Closet

Again, many people chose to store their guns in obvious locations, hoping that this will help them access the gun faster. However, this simply makes the gun dangerous to the family. One of the obvious places where people might choose to store the gun is in the closet. The closet is an obvious place to store a gun because it is in your bedroom. If a teenager is looking in your room for a gun, one of the first places they will look is in the bedroom closet.

Mounted on the Wall

For many people, guns are more than a tool used for security. Guns can be prized possessions passed down from one generation to another. They can be relics from the past. However, no matter how prized your gun is, do not mount it on your wall. By mounting the gun on the wall with mounting hardware, you put the gun in plain sight. Your children and their friends will have easy access to the gun, putting your children in danger. Instead, store the gun safely in a steel gun safe to protect your family and friends.

This isn’t to say that guns shouldn’t be passed down from one generation to another as a family relic. Instead, we are simply warning against mounting the gun in plain sight. Your gun should be kept safe from those who may want to use it for ill purposes.

In a Glass Container

Another bad place to hide a gun is in a glass container. Many homeowners place their guns behind glass containers and leave the container in the open. Although this may look aesthetic, it’s not the safest location to hide a gun. A person can easily break the glass of the container and grab the gun. Even if your glass container uses break-proof glass, it’s still not the best idea to show off the gun in the glass container.