Lock 'em or leave 'em

[rtracy2001]

When storing your firearms in a gun safe or strong box (like one of those stack-on cabinets) do you also apply a gun/trigger lock, ore just leave them bare?

In my few years I have had to cut off several gun locks due to loosing or otherwise misplacing the keys, and was just curious if you folks felt the compelling need to double lock your sticks or not?

[RobS]

I lock so I know that little fingers (kids) don't find their way into the safe. Also I do not trust anyone by nature............I don't have much so I'll be darned if someone is going to have a free lunch due to my foolishness.

update: I misread your opening post I thought you were referring to locking them in a safe or cabinet as to the trigger locks.............no way too much time to get things working if in quick need.

[Recluse]

I'll send campaign checks to Obama, make wild love to Nancy Pelosi and go to naked weinie roasts with Barney Frank before I ever, ever use a trigger lock.

That's why I have gun safes.

I refuse to shoot at the local Bass Pro Shops indoor range because they rummage through your bag, put trigger locks on your gun, and then the guy at the range desk has to unlock them.

No way in HELL will I ever use a trigger lock.

:coffee:

[geargnasher]

Is THAT what they're for? In that case I use trigger locks all the time. On my shed doors, bicycles, extension ladders that I hang on the back of my storage shed, keeps the neighbors honest. I even have a pair with the keys glued in them that stay on my engine hoist at home as they are a handy way to hook a chain to irregular objects.

Where I live I actually might need to shoot something evil at a moment's notice, so weapons on the "active duty" list are fully loaded and hidden for security, not locked in any way. Those in the safe need only be loaded to function. A box or two of shells (or extra clips depending on gun) are stored with each gun.

Gear

[Mumblypeg]

Trigger locks are like child proof caps for med. bottles for old folks with out kids. Might as well put a lock on a fire exstinguisher... don't have kids but I secure them when I need to. And that's all I'll say about that. Reminds me... when I worked for the sheriff's office we had free gun locks, another gov. give away, the only people that came to get them were the same ones that wanted everything free.

[Bret4207]

I don't own a gun safe. I don't lock my guns. I do keep my peestols in a large ammo can.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

I don't have any trigger locks . . . wouldn't use them if I did . . . I have more guns not in the safe, than I do in it . . . If I need a gun quickly, I can get it, plus usually have one on my hip . . . sure beats waiting for the law to show up . . . closest sheriff's office is 25 mi away . . . no local PD!

[Jim]

No children here and my wife is fully qualified with her S&W mod. 19, so no need for trigger locks.
When my son was a little fella, I taught him to never touch Daddy's gun. Never had a need for trigger locks. Besides, the boogie man ain't gonna give you a time out to go get your keys.

[bob208]

i will put a trigger lock on my guns. when you see a guy in a red suit with a tail and horns holding a pitch foork, selling ice cubes. because that means hell done froze over.

[Oldtimer]

Only thing at my house with a lock is my Browning Prosteel. Everything lives in there, cept the Glock that stays on the night stand. (kids all grown and gone) Bob

[gray wolf]

Did you say gun LOOK ? Oh yea I have one on my chair that gets a look and one in the corner that gets a look--theres one in the bedroom that gets a look, 270 leans against a wall --it gets a look to. 45 ACP on my hip gets a look and a nod.
Oh you said lock--Like said above --use them to lock the wood splitter, the snow blower,
the shed door.
Crime and death happen in an instant-- 5 feet away from you is to far away
Do what makes you comfortable if you have to leave firearms at home and your not.
To each his own if there are kids in the house.

GW

[Phat Man Mike]

no trigger locks on any of our weapons! those in the stack on are all empty! only have a pistol loaded by the bed in case needed . local sheriff took 4 hrs last time I called could be dead and gone by the time he made it!:brokenima

[Tazman1602]

No kids in my house exept my grown kids and wife who are all shooters. I thought those locks were just freebies for locking up your toolbox with a cool manufacturers logo.

Trigger locks are the same as the warning on the box of Preparation-H "Warning: Not to be taken internally"

NEVER..................................I'd be dead by the time the cops made it out here.

[DLCTEX]

We raised five sons without locks, but I now have safes for my guns to keep the thieves out. I lost 13 guns in one burgulary, 7 in the second, and one in the last. My carry pistols do not have any locking features. I do have some that have locking features (Tarus), but will never use it.

[archmaker]

No to trigger locks.

I do lock my bedside gun up, but it is a one of those of biometric safes (do not recommend them). I unlock it at night when I get home and lock it when I leave.

Because of the kids I have in and out of my house I feel the need to lock the gun, not my kid but their friends. May be paranoid but figure I would feel better having it locked in a $20 cash drawer, when I am not there, or when there are a lot of kids running in out of the house, I just unlock it once everyone leaves or as I go to bed.

[cbrick]

I refuse to shoot at the local Bass Pro Shops indoor range because they rummage through your bag, put trigger locks on your gun, and then the guy at the range desk has to unlock them. :coffee:

Say what?? http://www.lasc.us/Holycripe.jpg

Be a cold day in h*ll before I would allow that to happen.

Rick

[pmeisel]

I'll send campaign checks to Obama, make wild love to Nancy Pelosi and go to naked weinie roasts with Barney Frank before I ever, ever use a trigger lock.


Don't care one way or another about the first but if you get to the second two call us so we can get video! Thanks for giving me a chuckle today!

I don't use them anymore. Used to keep one of the "adult strength" rubber bands on my Python which was the "drawer" gun. Now that there are no younguns around there is no point.

[dukenukum]

There is a old Russian saying " is gun is meant to be dangerous is meant to kill enemies and game, not be paper weight " .
okay so I feel like being silly today

[C1PNR]

I like the "gun" locks better than the "trigger" locks.

That one with the cable works real well on the mountain bike I borrowed from my Brother. Use another one on the storage shed.:coffeecom

[Gar]

I like the "gun" locks better than the "trigger" locks.

That one with the cable works real well on the mountain bike I borrowed from my Brother. Use another one on the storage shed.:coffeecom

I agree, gun cable locks are great, use them for locking up my tool boxes and other stuff I keep in the bed of the truck and I get one free evey time I buy a pistol :)

No way would I ever put one on a gun though, thats what the gun safes are for.

[Bullshop Junior]

I do not lock them. I do not even have a safe. My guns sit upright in a homemade gun rack that I made. Works for me.

[geargnasher]

I do not lock them. I do not even have a safe. My guns sit upright in a homemade gun rack that I made. Works for me.

Your REAL lock is the fact that anyone who gets within ten miles of where you live without dying of exposure or getting eaten is probably not going to be an inner-city thief!

Gear

[rtracy2001]

For a Red state Idaho has a lot of really blue laws, one of them being a "child protection" law that no gun can be sold without a gun lock being applied before you leave the store!! Another is the transport laws that require any gun to be locked, disassembled, and completely inaccessible to vehicle occupants. I was in violation for a number of years since I will NOT put my guns in the back of any pickup truck. The CWL solved that problem, though explaining how/why a full length shotgun is my concealed carry weapon is a trick.

My solution to the little fingers problem is twofold. first is education. They know what guns can do and Know that they are not toys. Second, the only gun I keep loaded is my P944, and as of yet, they can't rack the slide.

So no gun locks in the safe. sounds like a plan to me.

thanks all.

RT

[Longrange]

I have a Safe. What is a gun lock? I thought that was a free Bike lock for my son.

:castmine:

[Bullshop Junior]

Your REAL lock is the fact that anyone who gets within ten miles of where you live without dying of exposure or getting eaten is probably not going to be an inner-city thief!

Gear
:mrgreen:

[Lloyd Smale]

my main safe in the living room stays locked. Mostly because i store my narcotics in it along with the guns. I also have one of those steal locker securtity safes in the bedroom. It has 7 ars and 4 1911s in it and its only locked when im away overnight and every gun in it is loaded. I dont use any extra locks. I dont want to be fooling with locks when i want a gun. Granted my kids are grown and gone but there was loaded guns in this house when they were growing up and i never had a problem with them fooling with guns. They were allowed to handle and shoot guns about the time they learned to walk.

[3006guns]

I won't go into the reasons for owning or not owning a gun safe........your choice. But when California law decreed that trigger locks were mandatory I just about hit the overhead. The law was the result of some tragic accidents involving children and their idiotic, irresponsible parents. Result, law passed that affected everyone whether you had kids in the house or not (by the way, my son could safely unload a S&W at age 5 under my supervison).

How many people here can truthfully say that they can wake up from a dead sleep at two in the morning and INSTANTLY have full posession of their faculties? Try it sometime. Even when normally awake and alert, it can still take several seconds to:

Fumble for the key
Insert the key
Remove the key and turn it the RIGHT way this time
Open the lock and arm yourself.

The same applies to any storage container with "biometric" or "coded" features. If I want a firearm, either handgun or long gun, I wan't it NOW........loaded and ready. I'd feel pretty stupid hitting an antagonist with a metal box.

Now, using not so common sense, if I have children visiting I take the unprecedented steps of:

Unloading and placing any handgun on a closet shelf (rifles are usually unloaded)
Closing the closet door
Closing and (if necessary) locking the door to that room
Telling the parents to keep the kids out of my room...no further explanation.

[rtracy2001]

It seems that I was either unclear in my original post, or we have drifted off topic a bit. (I am guilty as anyone on that.)

I had intended to limit the question only to firearms in storage i.e. not the primary home defense weapons. The home defense weapon IMHO should be loaded (One in the chamber is your choice) and accessible to all those entitled and qualified to use them should the situation arise.

We could certainly start many threads on how/where/and why home defense weapons are to be stored.

I have heard that there is no deterrent quite like racking the slide of a 12 GA pump. The sound is unique and will cause most intruders to start looking for a way out. . . FAST.

[yondering]

I had intended to limit the question only to firearms in storage i.e. not the primary home defense weapons.

If the gun is unloaded, in a locked safe, what is the point of an additional trigger/gun lock? Why do you feel this is necessary?

[rtracy2001]

If the gun is unloaded, in a locked safe, what is the point of an additional trigger/gun lock? Why do you feel this is necessary?

Having a safe is new to me, in the past the guns lived in the closet wrapped in a blanket and locked with a cable lock (no need to make it easy on anyone.) Now that I have a couple strong boxes, I have been storing the guns in there, and out of pure habit, adding the cable lock too. I got to thinking the other day, and really couldn't think of any reason to lock them inside the strongbox. I asked a couple friends and they seem to be locking the guns inside their safes too (again out of habit alone).

I figured with the large number of gun owners here, if there were a reason to lock them while inside the strongbox, then it would come to light.

[clong]

I use a gun lock to attach my helmet to my motorcycle. Guns go in the gun safe or the holster.