As with so many things in life, carrying or owning a firearm forces you into some compromises: concealment vs size vs comfort for your carry piece; and access vs security for your home-defense firearm. When it comes to keeping a gun around for home defense, you’re going to have to balance the need to keep the firearm away from unauthorized users while also keeping it close enough that you can actually get to it and use it in an emergency.
I’m an empty-nester—it’s just me and my husband in the house, so we are free to leave loaded firearms sitting around as long as we aren’t having anyone over or leaving town. My carry gun is in the bedside table, loaded. My husband’s is on the dresser in its holster, with another (larger) one in a holster stuffed in his sock drawer. Most of the time, there’s another loaded handgun on the living room end table beside his spot on the couch. There’s a gun cabinet next to his side of the bed with two shotguns, an AR and a PCC in it, with loaded magazines and boxes of ammo next to them so they could be loaded in seconds. We don’t have cats or a large dog that could knock anything over, and everything gets put away when we’re having company. Everything else is locked in two different safes in different parts of the house. This is the extreme end of the access spectrum: We have no real need for securing our firearms from unauthorized users, so we can afford wide-open access by leaving them out in the open.
If you live with children or perhaps with an adult who has dementia or mental health concerns, however, you probably don’t want to be so free-wheeling with where you leave your guns. The opposite end of the access spectrum is to lock everything down in a gun safe, which certainly accomplishes the goal of keeping the guns secure, but it will take you a lot of time to get your gun out in an emergency—time you might not have.
Most people will seek a compromise, and options abound. Depending on what kind of firearm you’re dealing with, you can find a solution that keeps guns close at hand and easily accessible by only the people who should have them.
Wear Your Gun
First up, you can just wear your gun when you’re at home. I know people who do this; they put on their carry gun when they wake up in the morning and don’t take it off until it’s time to go to sleep, securing it next to their bed in a way they feel comfortable with. This definitely works, and it’s the fastest access option of all, but frankly, I don’t really want to curl up on the couch and watch Netflix while wearing yoga pants, a messy bun and a Glock.
Keep Your Guns Unloaded
This might work depending on the level of security you need, how old/capable your kids are, and other factors. You’ll have to decide what you’re comfortable with, but simply keeping your gun unloaded might be a level of security that works for you. Especially if the gun takes detachable magazines, it can be incredibly fast to slam one in and be ready to shoot. I’ll simply caution you that kids are smarter than you think, so don’t underestimate their ability to figure out how to load the thing out of curiosity. I didn’t use this plan when my child was young for that reason.
Fast-Open Safes
Fast-open safes are the next best thing, such as a small single-handgun safe or even a simple locked gun cabinet next to your bed that you can open quickly with a combination, biometrics or RFID. Consider the opening mechanism carefully, because each has its downsides. Will you immediately remember the combination if you’re awoken from a dead sleep to the sound of your door being kicked in? RFID works well most of the time, but you’ve got to have the chip on you, like worn around your wrist as you sleep. If you just sit it next to the safe, anyone can get into it, and hiding it somewhere will defeat the whole purpose of fast access. And being a mechanical device, it can certainly fail. Biometrics are great, but reliability is still a little spotty—think how often your phone doesn’t recognize your thumbprint on the first try.
You can stash a safe like this anywhere in the house that you like, although next to the bed is a logical place. Put one in the drawer of the coffee table if you want living-room access, or mount one on the wall for a long gun. Keep in mind that if these small, light safes are not bolted to something, they’re easily carried off by a thief.
Concealing in Plain Sight
There are also hiding-in-plain-sight options disguised as décor that let you hide a gun in a fake book, clock, wall hanging or the like. Some of these look much nicer and more realistic than others.
I own a wooden American flag shadowbox that hangs in my den. It suits the rustic décor, and I can wave an RFID chip over it and the top drops down to reveal six loaded handguns secured in custom-cut foam, ready to grab and go (yeah, six is a lot, but hey, there was room). It’s large enough to accommodate an AR-15 if desired. I custom-ordered this off of Etsy, and you can find loads of options for everything from drop-down shelves to fake tissue boxes and specialty furniture with built-in gun storage.
Some of these options lock, like my wooden flag shadowbox, and some do not—they’re simply concealment, not security. Keep that in mind when evaluating your home situation and what level of access and security are suitable for you.
We can’t tell you where to land on the access vs. security spectrum—that’s a personal decision you’ll have to make for yourself based on your household situation and your comfort level. But between full-sized gun safes, quick-open small safes, hiding-in-plain-sight options or just wearing your gun at home, you can find a compromise between full access and no access that works for you.
