While I may be a bit over the top with my home defense gun storage, I would rather be way overprepared than underprepared.
I’ve put a lot of thought into where weapons should be placed throughout my house. Each one is in a very specific location, and serves its own distinct purpose. The way that I have placed my weapons was based on a few different threat levels that I assessed. All total, I store weapons in five rooms.
Level One Home Defense Gun Storage
The first threat level that I considered was an immediate threat. To me, an immediate threat constitutes someone actively breaking into my house. In this situation, I would like a firearm easily accessible and ready to rock.
The weapon that is best in an immediate threat is a shotgun in the bedroom. I view the most dangerous situation to be someone breaking into my house in the middle of the night. I generally still have my daily carry weapon in my nightstand, so it’s easy to grab on the way out the door. A shotgun permanently lives on the wall above my nightstand in a custom concealed weapon case. The reason that I decided to go with a shotgun in the bedroom is that I’m a pretty heavy sleeper, and in the event that someone is actively breaking into my house, I like the point-and-shoot ease-of-use of a shotgun.
The next weapons that I considered for use against an immediate threat are handguns. Handguns are kept in the rooms that I am most frequently in. I have a revolver tucked away in my living room and in my kitchen. Similar to my shotgun, these are all concealed in some type of box or case that is easy to open.
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Level Two Home Defense Gun Storage
To me, a secondary threat constitutes someone lingering suspiciously around my house or poking around my vehicles too much. It’s a situation where I’m not planning on immediately engaging a threat, but I’m getting the feeling that something is wrong and I want to be ready in the event the unpredictable happens. For a secondary threat, I want a handgun with a higher ammunition capacity near the back door and the garage door of my house, so that I can easily grab it and throw it in a sweatshirt pocket or the waist of my pants to see what’s going on. I conceal these in boxes on shelves.
Level Three Home Defense Gun Storage
The last threat level that I considered is the unlikely chance that I’m engaged in some type of firefight or a gunfight that moves out of the house. To me, these are the kind of weapons that can be tucked away in a closet or in a safe. It is not necessary for me to have them immediately accessible. In my situation, I have my AR-15 with three loaded magazines in my closet.
Safety First
Lastly, I will touch on safety. A headline we see all too frequently involves young children getting a parent’s weapon and accidentally harming or killing someone – perhaps themselves. Since I don’t have any children, I have absolutely no qualms leaving my weapons completely ready to go. Every single weapon in my house has a round in the chamber, with the exception of the AR. However, as soon as I do have kids, things will be different. I’ll still keep the magazines loaded, but I will refrain from keeping a round in the chamber. A habit that I will have to break is simply leaving my daily carry weapon on my nightstand. Weapons should be up high and even locked away where a young child can’t reach.
Like I said, I am probably over the top on home defense. I feel that being overprepared is far superior to being underprepared. My biggest concern when it comes to home defense is being adequately prepared to engage any threat that may face me or my family.
Where do you keep your guns in your home? And if you have children, how do you keep your weapons out of reach? Share your home-defense tips in the section below: