A gun in the house could potentially save your life one day, as well as the lives of your family members. But you should also be aware that a single moment of recklessness around firearms can cause serious injuries and even death.
Unintentional shootings have taken many lives and children are particularly prone to causing gun-related accidents, often with fatal outcomes.
A common misconception is that children can easily differentiate real guns from toys. However, research shows that the reason behind 16% of unintentional firearm deaths that involved children under the age of 13, occurred because the gun was mistaken for a toy.
If you choose to bring a gun into your home, safety should be your number one priority.
So how do you combine safe storage with quick access to your firearm, should you need it unexpectedly? This is what we’re here to explain.
We’ll concentrate on two main aspects – storing conditions and storing solutions.
Storing Conditions
Storing your gun and ammunition in optimal conditions will allow you to extend their lifetime and be confident about their performance at all times. Optimal conditions for gun storage include:
- Stable temperature – hot and cold fluctuations can degrade your gun’s grip, magazine, and any other part made from plastic or rubber. At the same time, constant changes in temperature can corrode and ultimately destroy your ammo. If you do happen to lose your ammo to poor storing conditions, you can quickly refill your stock with Natchez reloading supplies and ensure you have everything you need in a potentially urgent situation.
- No humidity – moisture is the biggest enemy of firearms. It can cause your barrel and firing pin to rust, turning your gun into a weapon that is no longer functional.
- Protection from direct exposure to sunlight – UV light can degrade your weapon and ammo in a matter of weeks. Sunlight affects all plastic, wooden, and anodized parts of your gun and ammo alike.
Lastly, leaving don’t your gun in the open air can lead to rust and cause splits in metal alloys or protection finish, which is why many gun owners opt for airtight storage safes.
Storing Solutions
In today’s market, you can find many gun storage solutions with all kinds of different features, such as trigger locks, gun cases, security cases, locking steel gun cabinets, and gun safes.
All of these products offer some level of security, but for home defense purposes we recommend gun safes as the best option for both safety and accessibility requirements.
Gun safes for handgun storage usually have a compact briefcase-like design. The main points that differentiate one safe from another are lock types, steel thickness, and fire and water resistance.
Lock types can operate on either electrical or mechanical mechanisms.
- Electronic locks use cutting-edge technology, such as biometric scanners for fingerprints, facial recognition, or eye retina scanners. They offer a high level of protection from unauthorized access and are very fast and easy to open in emergency situations.
- Mechanical locks typically come in dial lock form. Safes with this type of lock are more durable but it would take more time to open an emergency. Unlike electronic locks, mechanical locks will not automatically lock when you close the safe, which is something to keep in mind.
Steel thickness is measured in gauges. The higher the number, the thicker the steel. Big gauge numbers can make your safe vulnerable to unauthorized breaches. Opting for a gauge between 12 and 6 can provide extra security.
Fire and water resistance are two very important features of gun safes. Fireproof products have an additional layer that stops the fire from reaching your weapon, while waterproof safes contain extra isolation that keeps the water from penetrating inside.
Considering all the features listed above, we came up with the following two gun safes that are currently the leaders in their field.
1. Awesafe
This product perfectly combines safety with the latest technology.
It will provide you with enough storage space for two standard-size handguns. Made out of solid steel, it offers useful features like a pry-resistant door and anti-theft alarm. Because it is small in size, you can easily place it on a nightstand or between mattresses.
You can open this safe quickly by scanning your finger or entering a numerical password. But it also comes with a manual key that you can use to open the safe in case the batteries run out.
This gun safe is very popular among gun owners, mainly because it can be hung on the wall. It is a very useful feature as you can declutter your nightstand and keep the safe high up on the wall and away from a child’s reach.
It is protected with a digital keypad access code and offers multiple mounting options. It also comes with a backup key for overriding the digital lock.
Wrapping Up
As a responsible gun owner, you already know that you need to protect your family, which includes protecting them both with your gun and from your gun at the same time.
It’s not a simple task, but we hope our article made it a little easier for you to make an informed decision for storing your gun for home defense that satisfies both safety and accessibility needs.