I heard his acceptance speech at the convention. He had the story of his grandmother having 16 loaded firearms around her house. It was a funny story if you are not triggered by guns. My father recently passed. He lived in North Idaho out in the woods. When my boys were young and we would visit, the first thing I would do when we went into his house was pick up all the loaded firearms - revolvers mostly. To him unloaded sort of defeated the purpose. Also he used some of them as decorations. Several around a table lamp with barrels pointing inward. Hanging on walls. Kind of everywhere. Once I counted over 30 guns just in his living room. He had a rack of 50 pistols in his bedroom - not all loaded but most. So I could relate to our future VP’s story.
I can’t remember his name, he’s out there somewhere on YouTube, he makes a product for gun storage. I can’t remember the specific product. It’s one of those a gun safe is not the best thing to spend your money on type of product. Too much money for too little protection.
In any event, he preaches storing multiple firearms in different places around the house, although with some discretion and security. He brings up what happens if you’re in the kitchen and something bad happens and your gun is locked in a gun safe in the bedroom, perhaps even on a different floor of the house. So, have a little firearm cabinet somewhere near the front door, somewhere near the side or back door, somewhere near the kitchen, etc etc etc.
Kind of made sense to me when I first heard it. In my first house, if we were sitting in the kitchen or living room watching TV and someone broke in the front door, they would be between me and the firearm I have beside the bed in the bedroom.
There are a ton of firearms storage and handling practices that our elders were just plain idiots about that will rightfully get you kicked off of ranges etc nowadays. Keeping every single firearm loaded and unaccounted for outside of a safe is one of those practices.
Well my father was not an idiot. He lived alone but also had taught my brother and I gun safety from a very early age. It is a wonder we did not shoot anyone growing up. I am not saying I behave the same way obviously but my sons also grew up with guns and so far so good. I watch them teaching gun safety to my grandsons. Saw it today as uncle explained how they do not touch guns without an adult and ran through the rules. These are 3 preschool boys. Each one of us owns it in the family - not just the parents.
My father knew more about guns than most on this forum will ever know. Most of what I know I learned from him and I was still learning from him even in his last years I wish I had taken better notes. His gun range was his property but I don’t know of gun ranges that inspect your home for guns storage.
I will also add that I was far more worried about guns stolen from me than I was of my children misbehaving or handling firearms incorrectly. Again - I lived in a house with children and took appropriate measures. My father lived alone.
If you absolutely have to have a firearm within reach at all times to feel safe there’s a simple solution for that - use a holster and carry one around with you. Scattering guns around the house is one of those practices that’s been abandoned for good reason; while they might not have been idiots, they were human beings with biases and blindspots just like the rest of us, and there have been a lot of safety practices and controls put into place exactly because people didn’t realize they were bad ideas at the time (and a lot of people ended up dead because of crap like this, and not only due to firearms, just look at the Fuddlore around seatbelts for example).
I do not need a firearm always available. I was simply telling a story about my recently deceased father. I certainly was not looking to be preached at about gun safety in my 55 th year of using guns (if you do not count the few years of bb guns - I got my first 30-30 single shot when 10. Gun safes in the 60’s were extremely expensive and we certainly could not afford them. Other instant open boxes did. not exist. wood gun cases with glass doors were the norm or hanging on the wall on a deer leg rack. 6 kids in the house. zero gun accidents. I would say if anyone are idiots it would be now since it is implied one cannot be safe with guns without a fancy type of safe.
Speaking only for my experience:
My dad had loaded guns in his bedroom of our 800sqft house (easy to get to) and kept his door open/unlocked. I never touched the guns. I knew if I did I would catch a beating of all beatings. I think most kids from my generation respected our boundaries better than the current one, not becuase we were better than they are now or more respectful. Rather because we knew would would catch a beating that parents today would lose their kids over. Like Ross, my folks could not afford a gun safe, so they made sure I would never touch a gun unless my dad put it in my hands.
Today, all my guns stay locked up unless they are going to the range or to the hunt.
Similar situation here. They were around, accessible but no one really did anything bad. Heck, back in my high school days you could actually put a gun in the gun rack in the back of your truck where every one of their brother could see it and drive it to school and park it there and no one would raise an eyebrow. Try that nowadays!
Over the last 100 years the rate of gun-related accidents has dropped by some absurd number like 95%, most of that occurring since the late 70’s or 80’s. I think that there’s less “kids these days are so much less responsible” and more that there was a major shift in culture and education around safe practices (and not just in firearms!).
My wife and I live alone. However, our grandsons and granddaughter were frequent visitors several times each year. I have one rifle near the back door within easy reach of the living room and the kitchen. Handgun is in a shoe drawer by the front drawer and one next to my recliner in the living room. ALL LOADED. An unloaded gun is nothing but a paperweight and a good way to get shot and killed by an armed intruder.
Not one single grandchild, not one single time has ever touched any of my weapons. Proper training and respect for the property of others is the best safety insurance. Every single firearm should be kept loaded with the exception of those in storage in a gun safe. If someone. manages to break into my gun safe they’re going to have a heck of a time getting out of my house alive.
Respect for the property of others is the beginning of gun safety.
I think you’re conflating “you shouldn’t keep 16 loaded guns all over the house” with “you should keep every single firearm always locked up”, which isn’t the point here at all.
I’d also add that if you’re truly surprised by an armed intruder, a loaded gun that’s 10 feet away in a box might as well be locked up in the safe for all the good its going to do for you, making carrying a gun on your person literally the only sane option if you’re in at serious risk of that happening.
William, You’re probably right. Maybe just a knee-jerk reaction to combining the two. I feel any gun that you do not have secured (from robbery) and have it “out” for protection should be loaded and anyone who has access to it should be properly trained in the use of it or in respect of grandpa’s stuff (in my case).
I was raised in a time when our doors were seldom locked, even at night (in Houston if you can believe it) and during the day the only door that was closed was the screen door (in the days before air conditioning). We certainly live in different times as our doors are almost NEVER unlocked and even though we are in a suburban neighborhood, only the occasionally drunk tries to get in at 2 in the morning.
All that to say that each of us should take the precautions they deem necessary to protect themselves and theirs.