How do you store your bedside gun?

[Who Dares Wins]

I vote for Gun Vault Deluxe model. This is slightly bigger than the original/standard model and you can take the shelf out for easier access.

 

[Racechase1]

No kids at home, so it is within easy reach. Farthest it is, is one foot away.

 

[bigaltes]

no kids at home for myself also, as my son is away on duty. We keep it under the mattress in a gun pouch, loaded, but not chambered. Made sure to check if the wife can rack my .45, see can do it, so I don't see a problem not having a round in the chamber.....JUST IN CASE I guess

 

[LarryC]

Since I am older than dirt, I have no children in the house. Grandchildren have their own firearm collections, and Great Grandchildren visit but don't stay overnight now. Keep my 45 ACP in my headboard with empty chamber, (children cannot rack slide). Also have handguns in drawer of End table next to my recliner. I also keep one in my workshop loaded with empty chamber. Wife sleeps very light, doubt a door could open without her waking, and we keep all doors locked at night.

Youngest son, over 21 at time was staying with us a few years ago. He tried to sneak in late one evening to avoid waking us. When he heard me rack the 45, he was immediately, quite loudly letting me know who it was, said it was not a good sound!

 

[Meena]

One is in a gun box mounted to my bed. Another is in another box in the closet. I figure I should be able to get to one while the wife is getting the other. Alarm system should wake us first if not the wife will hear any strange noise and wake me. She normally then goes back to sleep while I am wide awake for awhile.

 

[bingley]

My underwear holster. I just hope when the time comes I don't pull out the wrong gun!

 

[AA&E]

I leave a few home defense weapons loaded inside a key locked gun cabinet inside my bedroom walk in closet. I have two 75+lbs pit bulls, at the very least they are going to slow someone down well enough to let me get to the closet.

 

[rlw9337]

At night, key in lock of safe. Mag loaded w empty chamber.

 

[churchmouse]

Since I am older than dirt, I have no children in the house. Grandchildren have their own firearm collections, and Great Grandchildren visit but don't stay overnight now. Keep my 45 ACP in my headboard with empty chamber, (children cannot rack slide). Also have handguns in drawer of End table next to my recliner. I also keep one in my workshop loaded with empty chamber. Wife sleeps very light, doubt a door could open without her waking, and we keep all doors locked at night.

Youngest son, over 21 at time was staying with us a few years ago. He tried to sneak in late one evening to avoid waking us. When he heard me rack the 45, he was immediately, quite loudly letting me know who it was, said it was not a good sound!

Met my son in the hallway a few times that way.....as I keep the .45 chambered it was the light that startled him.

 

[chipbennett]

I know a lot of you are all and won't share, but those that are willing to help I appreciate it. My 10 month old is starting to get into everything, and we need a solution for our bedside guns. We both have a pistol on our end table next to the bed, but up until now there is no form of security. I have seen those biometric safes and have considered them, but would really like something that I could get to even quicker. We have a small house, and it wouldn't take long to get to our bedroom from any of the entry doors.

So do any of you have a more creative way of storing your bedside guns? Or am I just over-thinking this, and I need to get a little biometric safe and be done with it?

My bedside gun is also my EDC/home-carry gun. It only goes in the nightstand when I go to bed (and at a time at which my children are also already in bed. I store it in the holster, one in the chamber, safety engaged. When I'm up and dressed, it goes right back on my belt.

IIRC, when our girls were 10 months, we had safety covers on their door handles. If we closed their bedroom doors, they couldn't turn the knobs to get out on their own. Of course, when they were that age, I didn't yet have a gun in the house. But as soon as I did, I made a habit of showing them each one I get, show them where I store them, and where I keep my EDC. They know not ever to get into our nightstands (as a general rule), and also know that the nightstand is where I keep my carry gun.

Essentially: we have taught our girls to obey our instructions, and I've done everything I could to remove the taboo/mystery of the guns in the house. If they want to see them, they know that all they have to do is ask. My youngest is still too young (at my discretion) to begin handling guns, but shows interest in why I carry, and understands their inherent danger. My oldest has a rifle of her own, and knows the Four Cardinal Rules.

All of those things play into the degree of safety/risk we have in our house.

If I were doing it all over again, and had a gun in the house with a 10-month-old (especially a precocious boy), I would give serious consideration to my current arrangement. I've got a small, mountable handgun safe, that I might have used for my bedside gun.

 

[BCMPatriot]

No kids, just dogs. I keep my Shield on top of my night stand and a G17 in the drawer.

 

[NavyVet]

I have a 'noisy' dog and a teenager in the house. Any weapon not holstered is locked-up somewhere.

We regularly have visitors (other kids, friends, etc) in the house (sometimes for sleepovers) so I choose to inconvenience myself a little bit to insure weapons are not accessible to anyone else. Stored, locked in a headboard lock box with a pushbutton combination. Someone would have to crawl over me to get to it...

Tried the biometric (fingerprint) lock boxes and was not impressed. My son walked up and opened the box. Apparently our fingerprints are 'close enough'...

 

[Informed Decision]

My underwear holster. I just hope when the time comes I don't pull out the wrong gun!

LOL . Just grab the big one that works!!!

 

[flylow86]

Given the fact that there are no babies, children, or teenagers in our house, ours is rarely locked up. At night, we keep it on the floor just next to the bedside: same position & orientation every time.

 

[AA&E]

Tried the biometric (fingerprint) lock boxes and was not impressed. My son walked up and opened the box. Apparently our fingerprints are 'close enough'...

That is ridiculous. The technology exists for this to perform flawlessly, the manufacturer decided to sacrifice operational integrity for affordable construction is my guess.

 

[Jeremy1066]

With one in the chamber.

 

[Methane Herder]

Nobody here but a 100lb Borzoi & a Beretta SD45. Any intruder trips over the Borzoi, she yips and wags her tail. That would wake me and if the sound of a slide being racked isn't enough to make said trespasser retreat, too bad for him.
MH

 

[TECKS]

With one in the chamber.

The first rule is all guns are always loaded!