Posted on 06/03/2008 10:05:18 PM PDT by fred4prez
Have a question for all you personal protection experts...I live in Texas, and am trying to increase my handgun knowledge; I don't yet have a concealed license. Have a Ruger .22, and recently acquired a Sig P6 9mm, and have been doing a fair amount of target practice. I'm starting to feel comfortable enough to want to keep the Sig easily accessible at night (especially after a theft next door recently), and want to follow best practices.
Do I keep it under a pillow, or in the nightstand?
Stored inside manufacturer's plastic case?
Keep it loaded?
Bullet chambered?
Cocked?
Also, is it ok to leave the gun in that same state during the day, when no one is at home, or must it be secured/unloaded? Legal aspects?
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Or like most dogs would jump up on the intruder and want to play.
Not even that. She’d be hiding behind me! The big chicken. :~/ She does make people nervous though cause she looks kinda like a wolf. She’s part Shiba Inu.
Then keep one by each entry door, one in the garage, and one each in the bathroom. Don't want to be surprised while sitting on the can.
I keep my carry weapon on my nightstand when I go to bed. Full magazine (plus two more in the nightstand), round in the chamber. This gun doesn’t have an external hammer or manual safety so I don’t have those considerations, but I’d keep it “cocked and locked” if it did. If it were only a home defense weapon I might keep it cocked with the safety off, but if I were carrying it (go get your permit!) I’d probably leave the safety on to prevent the chance of forgetting to put the safety on when I holstered it.
I live alone and never have children here, and I stay aware of my weapons and my guests when I have them. If your situation is different, you should probably consider other options like the safes others have posted.
Would y’all mind discussing why you don’t keep a round chambered? I can’t think of any good reason not to (unless you’re talking about a SA revolver) and a lot of good reasons why you should, so your posts had me curious.
For me, it’s because if it gets knocked or dropped I don’t want the possibility that it could fire accidentally. If I need to use it, it’s quick to chamber one. I don’t have small children around the house anymore so that’s not a concern.
+1 on that. Its just the way I was brought up, and there is no safety on my Sig. My finger IS the safety.
As I said in my post, its just my preference and not for everyone. I've practiced drawing and chambering and presenting a lot and it feels right.
It’s just simply not possible for a handgun with a manual safety to fire by knocking it or dropping it. The safety mechanically blocks the weapon from being fired.
For a DAO or a DA/SA handgun that has been decocked, the amount of force required to cause the trigger to be depressed can’t be generated by any kind of regular knock or drop. First of all, you’d have to drop the weapon from a consideral height (just to generate enough force to cause the trigger to travel the required distance). Second, the direction of the force would have to be in line with direction that the trigger needs to travel in order to cause the weapon to fire. The chances of that happen are virtually nill.
I’ve personally dropped my SIG P226 (while cocked in SA mode) at a firing range. I dropped it while standing up and pointing it down range (I’m 6 feet 2 inches). It landed on the ground and that’s it. It did not fire.
My personal opinion is that anyone who keeps the chamber empty is allowing an irrational fear of their firearm to creep into their brain. There is rationally no reason to short yourself 1 round, delay your time to being armed by precious seconds, and necessitate the generation of a loud sound when racking the slide. It would be far better to give yourself +1 round, be in an armed state faster, and not have to make any noise.
Additionally, you are much more likely to have a failure to feed when manually racking the slide (short racking it for example) compared to when the weapon racks the slide full-force after firing off a round.
You said no kids but here is my belief. In todays society the idea is if kids are around and you want to keep it loaded then in the day time lock it up but keep the key on your person or remember the combo. Very young kids I can see doing such.
I was raised around guns. As a young teen maybe even as early as 11 I had a 20 gauge and several rifles in my bedroom and ammo close by nothing was locked up. Trigger locks were unheard of and gun safes were for collectors with very expensive weapons. Most of my friends and other family members {cousins} were raised the same way.
It's better to teach kids gun safety early on than to try and keep the guns away. That goes against the thinking of many people these days though. Start with a BB gun {not an air rifle} and make them treat it as a weapon. The kids too may be in a situation of life and death and you may be the perps first victim. Teach them right and a gun in the home will be second nature to them. I always treated every weapon as always being loaded PERIOD.
I don’t keep the safety on here by myself.
Is the weapon cocked or uncocked then? If the safety is off, but the weapon is uncocked, I don’t see any reason to keep the chamber empty.
Let’s put it this way. I am a relatively new gun owner. I have limited experience handling it and firing it. Have only used it at a gun range twice. Ranges seem to be few and far between here in WA. I have just felt safer not having to worry about a round being in the chamber... and having to remove it if necessary...don’t feel comfortable with that yet.
My daughter is assigned to security aboard the Lincoln when in port and has to wear a sidearm. Checking with her about her experience and comfort zone so she can practice with me when she gets home! lol
Good luck with your weapon. You might want to spend more time understanding how it works and handling it and operating it in a safe environment. Even if someone explains something to you, you won’t build confidence in how your weapon operates unless you touch it, feel it, and handle it with your own two hands.
But, still, I can assure you that it’s nearly impossible for your weapon to fire without something squeezing back on the trigger. Dropping or knocking won’t generate enough force to cause the trigger to travel the distance required for the weapon to fire.
No, I'm definitely a hands-on person when it comes to learning a new skill. I'm a pretty good shot at the range. I just need to get more comfortable loading and unloading it. I wasn't brought up around guns. I don't know of anyone in my family who owned one when I was growing up. :~( Never even saw one up close and personal until I was married and my ex bought a Glock - and even then he never taught me how to handle it.
Keep your weapon loaded, with a round chambered, and keep it where you can grab it and aim it within five seconds. Try some kind of a setup where you can have it holstered to the back of a nearby nightstand or bureau, or behind the bed’s headboard. Maybe velcro would work. Practice grabbing the weapon in the dark a few times (practice with the weapon unloaded and clear) just to familiarize yourself with the distances and motions used.
personally i think you are nuts if you keep a loaded gun out. mine are all in the gun safe.
been broken into twice, both times the cops were there in under a minute and arrested the guys.
the risk to accidentally shooting someone, or the gun being stolen is too high to keep it out and loaded, in my opinion.
also, depending on where you live, just cause a guy breaks into the house doesn't mean you can shoot him. if you do, your problems just begin. might not be right but thats the way it is.
my vote: keep it locked up, or at the very least unloaded.
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