Our children soak up everything like sponges, watching our every move keenly. I’m sure you remember back to when you emulated certain things that your parents did.
So it is when we are handling firearms. We have to be 100% perfect when handling our firearms because our children are watching and they will do what we do. If we do something dangerous or get lazy with safety measures, our kids will then try to do the same thing. Taking shortcuts with safety can cost a life.
Annually, we see tragedies unfold in which children get ahold of firearms and wind up wounded or worse. If you have firearms in your home, here are a few tips that might keep things a bit safer around your house.
Before we get into anything, let’s go over the four cardinal rules of gun safety.
What Are The Four Cardinal Rules Of Gun Safety?
- Treat every gun as if it were loaded.
- Never point a gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you’ve made the decision to shoot.
- Be certain of your target and what is behind it.
These should be a mantra for all of us and taught early to children. Continuously preach safety, and be specific about these steps. Repeat those Four Cardinal Rules of Gun Safety over and over.
Do you need a gun safe with children in the house?
That’s a good question. Some states have laws that mandate firearms be locked in an inaccessible area away from children. So in some areas, the answer is yes. Or you’d need to at least have an area to lock them up in.
But what about if there are no laws demanding that your firearms be locked up? Should you still have a gun safe?
It’s probably a good idea to have a safe or other area or device with which to keep guns secured away from children. When my kids were growing up, it was a concern of mine that they’d find one of my firearms and hurt themselves with it. So I did have a gun safe and kept the weapons secured. Yes, it meant it would take a bit longer in the event that someone was invading our home, but I subscribed to the “better safe than sorry” viewpoint and leaned toward the side of caution.
Can kids get into a gun safe?
Take a look at today’s kids. They’re extremely intelligent, for the most part. When I had computer questions or questions about other electronics, I’d often ask my kids how to fix the issue.
Do you think your kids might be able to find a way into your gun safe? You’d better believe it! They’re crafty little rascals, don’t doubt it for a minute!
Gun Safe Locks
There are a few different locking mechanisms now for safes. We have the old dial with the tumblers like we see safe crackers going after in the movies.
There are locks that simply open with a key.
And then we have keypads to open safes.
It’s possible that a child might foil any one of these security measures. Not necessarily likely, but possible. Do you leave your keys lying around? Do you write the combination to the safe and leave it in a “safe” place? How about the number combo for the keypad on your safe?
If you’re like me, you have a hard time remembering what you ate for breakfast this morning, much less what the safe combo is. So it’s likely you have it written down or stored somewhere. If so, it’s possible they could find it.
What sort of safe do I recommend? Take your pick. Personally, I like a safe that’s operated with keys, as it just feels like there’s less to go wrong with the mechanism. No, they’re not foolproof, but then they don’t operate with batteries and electronics.
Do your research and come up with something that works for you.
Is a safe required?
Not necessarily. I know a few people who have turned a closet into a “gun safe.” Simply get a locking door on there and guard the key as if your children’s lives depend on it.
Closets offer quite a bit of room and you can also store ammo and magazines there as well. And if you happen to have a closet, that means you won’t have to lug a safe weighing several hundred pounds into your home. Getting one up a flight or two of stairs is always an exciting experience!
On the flip side, a good safe will be fire resistant, so they protect firearms far better than a closet in the event of a fire.
If you have only handguns, there are smaller safes that lock and are quite compact and lightweight. The GunMag Snapsafe Lock Box is an inexpensive, secure option to consider. They are also very portable, which can be a huge advantage.
Other Options
Most guns are now sold with locks of some sort. Whether it’s a unit that fits over the trigger, or a cable lock, there are ways to make a firearm secure without necessarily putting it into a safe.
Whether it’s a shotgun, rifle, handgun, or whatever, most can be locked using an external lock and made safe. Again, you’ll have to keep very close tabs on the keys to the locks, but it’s an option if you don’t have a safe or other secure area.
What to do?
As such, the safe or secure area becomes a first line of safety defense, but it is not the only line.
Teach Firearms Safety
I believe one of the most important things we can do is to teach and educate our children about firearms safety. Kids are curious, and if they find a firearm, they’re likely to want to explore it. If they know nothing about gun safety, their exploration will be uninformed and dangerous.
The NRA Eddie Eagle Program is a good way to introduce children to what they should do if they find a firearm: “Stop! Don’t Touch! Leave the area! Tell an adult!”
I remember how my dad handled gun safety. He told me any time that I wanted to handle a firearm to come and tell him, and we could get the gun out of the cabinet and handle it as much as I wanted.
The first thing that did was take away the “Forbidden Taboo” that some kids see firearms as. It wasn’t a mystery to me any longer, because I took Dad up on his offer many, many times.
He taught me first how to ensure that a firearm was unloaded, and how to safely unload it if it were not. I believe that’s a huge key in child gun safety. Because what do you do if your child goes to a friend’s house and they find a gun there?
Sure, you gun-proofed your entire house, but did the friend’s family do the same? So you’re back to square one — your child is being exposed to an unknown firearm despite your household’s best efforts to keep them safe. Consequently, your child needs to know what to do in the event they find a firearm, whether or not you even have them in your own home.
As a result, I learned from a young age to unload all manner of firearms: semi-autos, bolt actions, pistols, rifles, shotguns. You name it, dad taught me how to unload it and make it safe. But if they were at other peoples’ houses, I was told that I should not touch them at all.
Take Away the Mystery
Being permitted to handle firearms from an early age took away that forbidden mystery for me. I was never tempted to sneak into the gun cabinet and touch the guns without supervision because I knew it would be granted to me, should I ask.
All of the kids of my friends and family who owned firearms were taught similarly. I’d go over to their house and we all knew they had guns, but to us, they were no big deal. To us, guns were about as unusual and mystical as the car parked out in the driveway.
Kids Will Be Kids
Some folks don’t condone giving kids toy guns and letting them do what kids will do, such as playing “War” or “Cowboys And Indians.” They reason that it teaches kids to pretend they’re shooting each other.
But rest assured, this is what kids do. They emulate TV and movies. So even if you don’t give them toy guns, they will, at some point, pretend anyway. They may use an extended finger or a stick that they found to take the place of a “real” toy gun.
When is it time?
Assuming you want your children to enjoy shooting as you do, when is it time to let them actually fire a gun?
Let’s rewind a bit. Before my dad started me shooting firearms, he had me shoot a BB gun. It’s the perfect ice-breaker. Safety and marksmanship can certainly be learned on BB guns and air rifles, and with far less risk.
My dad started me out shooting with his Marlin bolt action .22 Long Rifle when I was five years old. By the age of seven, I had my own bolt action .22. Mind you, I was brought up in a strict household and I treated weapons as the dangerous things that they are. My dad explained to me what bullets do when they hit flesh, and that scared me. Some healthy fear is certainly a good thing.
Additional Training
Training and safety courses exist outside the home, and I certainly encourage people to take advantage of those. For some reason, an adult other than a parent can sometimes make more of an impression on a child.
When I was involved in Boy Scouts, one of our favorite components of summer camp was the marksmanship program. It was a safe, structured environment where we were taught safety and marksmanship on a formal level. I already knew the safety aspect because I was taught that, but it never hurt to get more safety training. And some of the kids had never shot a gun before, so this was their first exposure to firearms. The formal, structured environment added to the safety aspect. For many, it was the only safety training with firearms that they ever received. Plus it taught me how a firing line was typically run.
In Conclusion
We’ve covered quite a bit here, and honestly, there’s more information out there. I caution you to not rely solely on this article for your safety needs. Do a bit of research on gun safety and reach out to your local resources.
Figure out a safe storage plan for your household. What works for your neighbor or friends might not fit your needs. Brainstorm about worst-case scenarios in your home because if you fail to properly plan, that could be your reality. You truly cannot be too cautious when dealing with firearms and children.
Not everyone will agree with the views I’ve expressed here. When I researched “Firearms Safety” to get some additional ideas for this article, most liberal organizations and agencies had one specific view on guns in the house (with or without children): “Don’t have them! Guns are dangerous and houses with guns in them are far too dangerous!” Well, that’s just not realistic and does not reflect the real America that we live in.
The more thought you put into your household gun safety protocol, and the more research you do, the safer you will make your house.
