Storing your firearm in a safe location is as important as knowing how to use your firearm. Generally speaking, your firearms and ammunition should be securely stored in separate locations (eg. rifles, shotguns and pistols in a gun safe and ammo stored in a foot locker with a padlock). This method of storage follows an important rule of firearm safety that your firearms be kept unloaded until ready to use. The obvious problem with this course of action is that when the crap hits the fan an you need that pistol, its safely locked up, unloaded in the gun safe across the house. The purpose of this post is to highlight several options for safe, concealed and accessible home firearm storage.
There are three general principles to consider when selecting how to store your home protection firearm. Each principle is equally important and, as you will see, no single storage device can perfectly accommodate all three principles.
A big concern with storing a firearm at home is how well you can conceal the firearm. As with concealed carry, keeping your firearm concealed is a major principle of firearm safety. Should the home intruder have easy access to your firearm, that firearm now gives them the tactical advantage. Concealability is also closely related to safety as the more concealed a firearm is, the less likely the intruder will be able to gain access to your firearm.
One of the biggest concerns with storing a firearm at home is safety. As a firearm owner, you have a responsibility to prevent unauthorized access to your firearm. A significant challenge with home firearm safety is that the safest firearms are also generally the least accessible. The challenge then is to maximize safety and not detrimentally sacrifice accessibility.
You need to be able to get to your firearm as fast as possible when someone breaks into your home. While some are certain to sleep with a gun under their pillow, there are safer ways to have near instantaneous access to your firearm when a bad guy breaks into your home.
Let’s take a look at a few different systems available for the responsible firearm owner:
Night stand/under the pillow
Simply placing your handgun on the nightstand or underneath your pillow is by far the simplest, cheapest and easiest way to access your pistol. Particularly concerning is that this method is so accessible that it is also the most dangerous of all the methods discussed here. As mentioned above, you severely sacrifice safety in the name of accessibility. This method does not follow a keystone rule of firearm safety that you must keep your firearm from all unauthorized persons.
Closet mount
This method is primarily designed to allow quick access to a home defense shotgun. While this section is not specifically designed to address the different types of home defense shotguns, both the Remington 870 and the Mossberg 500 provide exceptional reliability for an inexpensive price tag. By placing the shotgun in a closet, just above the entryway, you are able to make the shotgun slightly more inaccessible to children. Under this method of storage, it is crucial that you make it to the shotgun first. As an added layer of protection, you would load the magazine full of your favorite self-defense load and then leave the chamber empty. This way, you are able to load the shotgun giving an audible sound that you intend to use the shotgun – this should give you a preemptive escalation should the “home intruder” be a family member who’s up getting a midnight snack.
This method scores fair in the three-factor analysis from above. In terms of concealability, this method receives an acceptable score as someone will have to know to look in the closet to find the firearm. The greatest downfall is that an unauthorized person may still gain access to the firearm, as the firearm is readily visible
Gun Safe
Your everyday, run of the mill gun safe is an excellent choice for storing those firearms that you don’t need to have immediate access to. As mentioned before, it is best to store firearms and ammunition separate. The locking gun safe scores excellent marks in terms of safety – it is probably the safest way for you to store your firearms. The biggest down fall to the gun safe is its accessibility and concealiblity. The large size and heavy frame make the traditional gun safe a poor choice for accessibility and concealibility. Don’t get me wrong, I have a full size gun safe and store almost all of my firearms there. The traditional gun safe is great for hard-core storage and security.
Gun Vault
The gun vault is an adequate means of storing your pistol. The Gun Vault is easily mounted in several different locations, which makes it a nice choice for accessibility. The locking mechanism is easily opened and the construction appears to be adequate. One of my biggest concerns about the Gun Vault is the battery-powered system. Assuming you are regularly using your Gun Vault, you should be able to know when the batteries are going out. You can still access the Gun Vault without batteries using the supplied key. If your batteries are dead, you might as well have been using a cable lock on the handgun.
Shot Lock
I also have utilized the shot lock in my closet for my Remington 870. The Shot Lock scores high marks on accessibility as all you have to do is walk into the closet and grab the shotgun. In terms of safety, the Shot Lock has a mechanical safe storage system that increases the long-term accessibility of the Shot Lock – i.e no batteries needed. The major downside of the Shot Lock, is the same downside from the closet mount above – namely, it is plainly visible when you walk inside the closet.
ICU Mattress
The ICU Mattress is by far my favorite means of concealment for your home protection firearm. The ICU mattress contains a patented internal concealment unit that is hidden behind the mattress handle. Each ICU mattress contains two concealment units; one on each side! I posted earlier about the ICU mattress and how much I liked and was contacted by Rocky Mountain Mattress. The folks over at RMM, liked what I had to say and they want to give all of my students and readers a discount on the bed…keep reading for the link to the discounted mattress.
The ICU is behind the handle
This concealment compartment is so cleverly concealed that it actually increases the unit’s security and safety. In terms of accessibility, the handgun compartment is directly within the mattress. All that you’ll have to do is lift your fitted sheet and open the zippered compartment.
Should you not be home and a home intruder was able to gain access to your belongings, he most likely wouldn’t find your concealment unit. Bad guys know to turn mattresses over and look for valuables underneath. Just think about this fo a second…how many beds have secret concealment units inside of the mattress? Do you think he’d even know to look inside a mattress when he’s working as fast as he can to get your goodies and go? That’s why in the ICU picture here, you’ll see I’ve got my Glock, Passport and spare cash. The only downside to me posting this information here, in this way, is that now should a bad guy be reading this post, he would know where to look in my house – don’t worry, I’ve got my own additional security protections and you won’t find my valuables.
Last but not least, who doesn’t need to get some better sleep? This mattress is one of the best new memory foam mattresses out there. Check out the mattress for yourself over at Rocky Mountain Mattress. As with the concealment holsters I’ve previously discussed, check out the awesome $100 discount (exclusive for myutahccw.com readears!) that you will get with this mattress purchase! They have a sale on right now for $300 off and the $100 off is on top of what the public gets. Follow this link here for the discounted price.
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