I would not underestimate the ability of an eight-year-old to get access to any gun, however secured.
I believe that the best way to "kid-proof" your guns is to "gun-proof" your kids.
Children who understand the following will be much safer than those that don't:
1 - Guns make unpleasantly loud noises when fired.
2 - Guns make holes in objects, animals, or people that are sufficient to kill them, causing extreme pain in the process.
3 - Unless you know for a certainty that a gun is not loaded, then it has the potential to fire and many people, including children, have died for misunderstanding this point.
4 - Mom and Dad are more than willing to supervise safe use of guns whenever the children desire it.
5 - Reports of unsupervised gun use will result in severe punishment.
Both of my daughters were educated to this level at the age of FOUR.
Such devices by their very nature violate one of the key firearms safety rules; never touch the trigger until you are ready to fire.
If one should ever accidently install a trigger lock on a loaded gun, there may not be a safe way to remove it.
Cable locks through the action which prevent chambering of a round are probably fine for preventing a child who has no understanding of how to defeat the mechanism from being harmed.
Ditto that. That was the age my father first gave both me and my brother our introduction to firearms use/safety. Same for pretty much every kid in our rural area. In the entire time I lived there (Age 0-18), there were NO, I repeat ZERO, incidents of "kids with guns" of any sort whatsoever.
I don’t disagree with you at all. My kids learned about firearms at a very young age and all the rules you listed were in the frequent discussions. Nevertheless, there are frequently children in our house who may have never had any contact with a gun and I feel a lot better knowing that any child that wanders into my bedroom is not going to get access to my guns. While it is possible for them to open a gun safe, the odds are pretty slim.