What age should I start locking my gun in the safe so the little one can't get to it?

I have a 10 month old, she's starting to pull herself up and stand. She should be walking soon. I have all the childproof stuff setup and the baby gate. I lock up the guns in the safe in my closet except my CC. I usually keep it in my dresser drawer at night but sometimes when I come home from carrying it I unload the chamber and put it on the kitchen table until bedtime which is pretty high. My question is to be safe for her when should I start locking it away so she can't get to it?

I am guessing she won't be tall enough to get to most things for a while but I don't know at what age them little ones start snooping around. I probably have a while but I thought about getting a handgun safe and bolting it down to the ledge above my bed and just putting it in there at night.

To be safe and to build the proper habit, I either keep my handgun on my person or locked up. This results in me carrying around the house a lot as I'd rather not have my handgun locked up in the event that I need it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dropped_71chevy

To be safe and to build the proper habit, I either keep my handgun on my person or locked up. This results in me carrying around the house a lot as I'd rather not have my handgun locked up in the event that I need it.

---

This!

Your house, your call. For me, the first problem was me. I need to build a routine to establish self discipline on properly storing my weapons. The kids are only a secondary issue. They will surprise you in many ways as they are growing up. Often their first steps or first (insert verb) comes before you are prepared and may happen when you are not present.

I pray that no one reading this ever has to go through the horror of having someone injured by their gun because it was not maintained in a safe manner.

Once more; Your house, Your call. You do what you can live with and no one else can tell you what is right or wrong for you. [Beer]

Be safe.

I think you guys nailed it! I'm not good at getting myself into a g habit but easily form bad ones. I should get into the habit and now because I couldn't live with myself later if I thought it was safe and left it out and she still got to it. I think I'll snatch me up a good handgun safe like I said to bolt to the ledge on the wall by the bed to lock up at night. Need to figure out something for the day because I'd hate not to have it accessible to me if needed downstairs in another room but I don't know if it'd be comfortable wearing it all day long.

i have a 2 year old my handgun stays on me at all times and the ar is unchambered(bolt closed) and on safe.....that being said shes been taught to steer a wide course around all the gun stuff anyway

Cofi brings up another good point. Teaching your child to treat firearms with respect can start at a very early age.

I think the answer lies in the commitment you took when you became a parent, to love and protect your child. My suggestion would be to start the practice now, to get in the habit now. Just in the last several months, we had an incident in the Denver area where a young child found a gun and a young child died because of it. What you may consider is to find a high place or two and put a couple of quick-access gun safes. A couple hundred bucks is well worth it where a child's safety is concerned. Just a thought. I'm sure you'll get some other good ideas from other members, too.

My stuff is always locked up.

I have a 3 and almost 5 year old that I expose to them all the time; however no free access so to speak. When my oldest turns 5 I will introduce him to a BB gun then a .22. ( as my father did with me)

I also have Foster Kids that by state regs I CANNOT expose them to it. (goofy rule) I do not let them see it and do so when they are not around or I go to my man cave (the garage).

I also agree with cofi, respect for firearms goes without saying. That being said, curiosity, peer pressure, and "double-dog-daring", plays a bit part in a kid's life and, even though they know what's right, they don't always do the right thing (sounds like us adults, also). If an adult can have an ND (Negligent Discharge), so can a child. Sounds like you've made a good decision.

The most important thing is educate her at the age of understanding, both of my boys have been thoroughly educated since 5 years of age and know the drill when it comes to firearms, they shoot regularly and I believe I successfully removed all the mystery that motivates kids to get into dads stuff. That being said until you have done so its best to keep them locked up.

Break the curiosity about the gun as soon as possible. Talk to your kids like a normal person and teach safety. Remember your a parent not their friend.

Drives me nuts to see the neighbors "baby talk" to their 3 year old about things in life.

Always kept my pistols in a quick safe either opened or closed. Open it when I'm around monitoring the child, closed if I'm not.

Now at 11 and 14 years old, I can leave anything anywhere without issue from the children. They don't mess with anything and aren't afraid of anything either. (Except Dad) :)

I definitely plan on educating her at a proper age on firearms, like many of you say I agree with that one. Learning to respect. I don't know if we will become shooting buddies or not or if even mommy will like that but I know as long as I am safe and teach my daughter to respect firearms that should at least make her happy. I just want to be able to keep the family safe as well as the little one that doesn't know any better. A couple quick access handgun safes sound good to me. Like said earlier a couple hundred bucks is better that a horrible incident.

Cstone nailed it. I got busted by my daughter over and over by putting things where I thought they were out of her reach, only to find that while I wasn't looking, she grew tall enough to still see them, or learn to use a stool and still get to them. Almost EVERYTHING your kid does that is new, will be before you can anticipate it. The time to start always carrying, or locking up your gun is the minute that your kid gets mobile; which sounds like it was probably 2-4 months ago.

Always keep guns in a safe place. Always teach your children about gun safety and what to do if they come across a gun. Remove all of the mystery of guns from their minds. In a safe way let them handle the guns in your presence so they don't want to do it when you are not around. Take your children shooting. Let them shoot. Use a reactive target so they can see what happens when it is shot. Guns don't kill people. Stupidity does.

If you have kids, most of your guns should be unloaded and out of reach. The gun you use for carry/home defense -- if an automatic pistol like most guys here favor -- can be safely stowed with a full magazine/empty chamber. Most toddlers would be unable to chamber a round even if specifically taught how to do so, and most small children would not be able to figure it out.

On another forum I had some guy telling me that his 5 year old could rack the slide on his 1911 .45 and knew how to fire and field strip it . . . and I'm thinking WTF would anyone teach a 5 year old how to do that? I started shooting when I was 5 with a both action 22. Moved up to a break action shotgun at 10. Didn't get to fire the handguns until I was 13. I'm not saying a 5 year old shouldn't be allowed to shoot a .22 pistol if supervised, but teaching him how to run your carry gun and leaving it within his reach everyday seems a bit negligent.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skully

My stuff is always locked up.

I have a 3 and almost 5 year old that I expose to them all the time; however no free access so to speak. When my oldest turns 5 I will introduce him to a BB gun then a .22. ( as my father did with me)

I also have Foster Kids that by state regs I CANNOT expose them to it. (goofy rule) I do not let them see it and do so when they are not around or I go to my man cave (the garage).

---

That's kind of a stupid rule...

In the end like others have said, your house your call, but I carry 24/7 amd always have a firearm
with in arms reach of me. I have 5 kids. 4 of which with me 100% of the time and the oldest
is with me 50% of the time. 15, 14, 11,5 and 7 mos. All the kids know if they want to handle the
firearm, if it is a good time such as not going somewhere, I will let them handle the firearm after
they watch me unload it. BTW all my firearms are loaded, pistols one in chamber and
AR15 has a round chambered and safety on. The 5 year old has since a baby been there everytime
I would clean firearms, "help" me clean them. He has a great understanding of being safe aroudn firearms.
I have diciplined the kids when they didnt follow the 4 rules. The 4 rules are posted ALL over the house, so they
have a great understanding of the consequences of not following the rules. They also have no imagination
to get them into trouble with the wonderment of firearms. They handle them less and less
as they get older because there curiosity isnt as great as it once was. They all do love to
go shooting still and get excited when we do.

YMMV and I hope this helps.

Also when the kids are handling an unloaded, checked by both of us, firearm, they point in
a safe direction including where someone might be downstairs or upstairs in the event we both missed the round in the
chamber, which has never happened (knock on wood).
They do not muzzle sweep anything that can not be destrpyed especially when
I ask the older ones to retreive a specific firearm fromt he safe. This has shown them great
responsibility and booger hooker nevers enters the trigger housing and they
are very consious of this. Good habits young will keep those habits for a lifetime.

Also I keep my safe unlocked when I am home and I lock it when Im gone. I dont tell the
older kids that the safe is unlocked when I leave, in the event an intruder gets in while Im gone,
I want them to have a fighting chance.
They think it is locked and also the curiosity factor is null and void, so I trust them to never
go and fart around in the safe.

ETA: Im sur Ill get heat for this, but in the end I want them to have a fighting chance at defending themselves from an intruder.
My house though has a lot of security measures that are great deterants already.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JM Ver. 2.0

That's kind of a stupid rule...

---

Yes it is, one of the foster boys, he is 18 is in scouts and they were going to do target shooting and his troop was looking for an NRA instructor, his social worker told him Adams county and the state frowns on that he was not allowed to go to it.

I was asked to keep my stuff hidden from them as well.

My boys, I grill them each time I am working on my stuff of what it is and what is safe. I remember the best respect for them when I was young was when my dad took me shooting to watch. After hearing the noise and what they did I was somewhat scared, then learned to respect them as a tool and what they can do.

Kids are smart and can get in to everything...............even at 1 year old, basically as soon as they can walk and figure out where the cool stuff is at.

You should have started good firearms habits when you first bought your handgun.
Before you had a child did you leave your handgun unsecured when you were not at home, merely hiding it by tucking it under your banana hammocks in the undies drawer ?

I was a little confused at first, I didn't know if you were asking what age YOU should be or what age your KID should be :D. The answer is the same anyway, 1 and 1 :).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

You should have started good firearms habits when you first bought your handgun.
Before you had a child did you leave your handgun unsecured when you were not at home, merely hiding it by tucking it under your banana hammocks in the undies drawer ?

---

I carry my gun with me during the day with 1 round chambered. When I get home I unchamber the round and usually set my pistol on the kitchen table, when I go to bed I put it in my dresser drawer next to the bed so it is hidden and accessible. My gun safe is hidden and bolted to the corner inside my closet covered by all the clothes hanging inside. It does not make for a good quick get to if I lock my pistol up in there that's why I have considered a handgun safe in another place from what some here has said. I have always done this with my pistol before she was born and currently. I try to practice good firearms habits and safety since I first shot and owned a firearm. I continue to try and learn daily. I may not know it all but I learn the best I can especially from info I get from other members here. Which is why I ask the question in this post because I feel it is getting time to change habits.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ranger

I was a little confused at first, I didn't know if you were asking what age YOU should be or what age your KID should be :D. The answer is the same anyway, 1 and 1 :).

---

Yeah, lol I tend to do that when I write sometime. Making things confusing is what I do.

The only thing tougher than learning something new, is unlearning a bad habit.

Be safe.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Adawg38

I carry my gun with me during the day with 1 round chambered. When I get home I unchamber the round and usually set my pistol on the kitchen table, when I go to bed I put it in my dresser drawer next to the bed so it is hidden and accessible. My gun safe is hidden and bolted to the corner inside my closet covered by all the clothes hanging inside. It does not make for a good quick get to if I lock my pistol up in there that's why I have considered a handgun safe in another place from what some here has said. I have always done this with my pistol before she was born and currently. I try to practice good firearms habits and safety since I first shot and owned a firearm. I continue to try and learn daily. I may not know it all but I learn the best I can especially from info I get from other members here. Which is why I ask the question in this post because I feel it is getting time to change habits.

---

Why do you unchamber the round? Do you practice chambering a round under stress so when a bad guy enters your muscle memory will do just that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DD977GM2

Why do you unchamber the round? Do you practice chambering a round under stress so when a bad guy enters your muscle memory will do just that?

---

I don't know it's just been a habit for me. I'm confident I could rack the slide quickly if I needed to and I know it takes seconds off of a situation that I only get seconds to act in. It took me a while getting used to keeping 1 in the chamber when carrying but maybe I need to get used to keeping it chamber at night in the home as well. I guess keeping it out where it is in potential reach of others cause me to unchamber it. Might need to find a new spot for it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cstone

The only thing tougher than learning something new, is unlearning a bad habit.

Be safe.

---

+1 on that.

Aren't you worried about bullet set-back? You should be.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Adawg38

I don't know it's just been a habit for me. I'm confident I could rack the slide quickly if I needed to and I know it takes seconds off of a situation that I only get seconds to act in. It took me a while getting used to keeping 1 in the chamber when carrying but maybe I need to get used to keeping it chamber at night in the home as well. I guess keeping it out where it is in potential reach of others cause me to unchamber it. Might need to find a new spot for it?

---

Why not holsterd OWB, something with a paddle on it for easy off and on or just carry it from room to room and set next to you???

I do that, day A I wear a hoslter, day B I carry it, Day C I carry it, Day D I holster.... no real pattern Kinda what I feel for the day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Irving

Aren't you worried about bullet set-back? You should be.

---

I never chamber the same round over and over. My buddy warned me about that. I am just going to keep my pistol chambered and remember it's chambered, of course when I handle it to always check if it is loaded or not to be safe and find a new spot for it. I don't feel comfortable leaving it out in the open on the kitchen table loaded. I won't worry so much when I get me a couple quick access handgun safes. 1 in the bedroom and maybe find a spot hidden upstairs.

Education FIRST!
Control a VERY close second.
Followed by more education.

Don't make it a mystery. Explain, teach, Demostrate.
Little Byte started at 2
It isn't a toy. we do not play with this. It only points at the paper target. we do not walk on the range with a loaded gun(Yet). we never point a gun at people. If we see a gun we DO NOT TOUCH, Go tell an adult. etc etc etc...

as for control, mine stays ON ME unless I am asleep and then it sits on top of my safe at almost 6" with no climbable around it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DD977GM2

Why not holsterd OWB, something with a paddle on it for easy off and on or just carry it from room to room and set next to you???

I do that, day A I wear a hoslter, day B I carry it, Day C I carry it, Day D I holster.... no real pattern Kinda what I feel for the day.

---

I like that too. IWB when I am out and OWB at home could work. Lots of good ideas guys. Lots of knowledgeable guys on here.[Alrigh]

My baby girl is 3 , and she really wants to play with firearm.
This is why we lock em up.
She makes that supressor sound whenever she sees firearm/toy gun/taser, etc.
I haven't yet to introduce her to any of these yet.

When I was cleaning one, she constantly wants to play with it, and she also messed my zero on a scope. :(

I think she picked it up from one of the TV show or something.....

My question is, is it good idea to buy her a toy/squirt gun?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Adawg38

I have a 10 month old, she's starting to pull herself up and stand. She should be walking soon. I have all the childproof stuff setup and the baby gate. I lock up the guns in the safe in my closet except my CC. I usually keep it in my dresser drawer at night but sometimes when I come home from carrying it I unload the chamber and put it on the kitchen table until bedtime which is pretty high. My question is to be safe for her when should I start locking it away so she can't get to it?

I am guessing she won't be tall enough to get to most things for a while but I don't know at what age them little ones start snooping around. I probably have a while but I thought about getting a handgun safe and bolting it down to the ledge above my bed and just putting it in there at night.

---

I'm sure you've already heard something along these lines, but locking it up now = habit that is formed for when they are older. Unless it is on your person...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrPrena

I think she picked it up from one of the TV show or something.....

My question is, is it good idea to buy her a toy/squirt gun?

---

Super Soakers, nerf guns, heck if they don't have toys, they will use their thumb and finger. Curiosity just comes natural to kids. You can teach proper handling, including muzzle and trigger discipline just as well with toys as you can a real gun. Start them young and stay on top of their training.

Good idea.
I will get a super soaker and a toy pistol for my kid.

I lived in CA, and I really had no firearm experience till I turned 18.
My wife's family are somewhat anti-gun too.

I would like her to have an experience with firearm. Maybe she may not enjoy it near future, but at least bring her the opportunity to have some kinda firearm safety.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cstone

Super Soakers, nerf guns, heck if they don't have toys, they will use their thumb and finger. Curiosity just comes natural to kids. You can teach proper handling, including muzzle and trigger discipline just as well with toys as you can a real gun. Start them young and stay on top of their training.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrPrena

Good idea.
I will get a super soaker and a toy pistol for my kid.

I lived in CA, and I really had no firearm experience till I turned 18.
My wife's family are somewhat anti-gun too.

I would like her to have an experience with firearm. Maybe she may not enjoy it near future, but at least bring her the opportunity to have some kinda firearm safety.

---

When the time comes, look into the Eddie Eagle program from the NRA and think about going to an Appleseed. Great for the whole family. Shooting can be a great family activity even if you never carry a gun. Spending time together, building confidence, and developing a mental discipline. Just some of the benefits of the sport.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrPrena

My baby girl is 3 , and she really wants to play with firearm.
This is why we lock em up.
She makes that supressor sound whenever she sees firearm/toy gun/taser, etc.
I haven't yet to introduce her to any of these yet.

When I was cleaning one, she constantly wants to play with it, and she also messed my zero on a scope. :(

I think she picked it up from one of the TV show or something.....

My question is, is it good idea to buy her a toy/squirt gun?

---

IMHO your making a mistake creating such a curiosuity for her.

You need to figure out a way to incorporate your daughters interest into cleaning.
I have done that with all the kids and they have a great respect for firearms to this day.
You keeping it from her is a mistake. Even if youhave to go all the way to get your spare
parts and tell her to "clean" them with a clean brush and no LCP etc. Then your making her
a part of the routine and the curiosity will be taken away from her.

As far as he toy guns or squirt gun, ALL 3 of my boys have them out the ass and the only rule I have for them,
while they are not playing a shooting game with them outside or where ever, they are to adhere to the 4 rules and
treat the toy gun as a real gun, such as when they are pickingup their toys or whatever that isnt part of their game time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrPrena

My baby girl is 3 , and she really wants to play with firearm.
This is why we lock em up.
She makes that supressor sound whenever she sees firearm/toy gun/taser, etc.
I haven't yet to introduce her to any of these yet.

When I was cleaning one, she constantly wants to play with it, and she also messed my zero on a scope. :(

I think she picked it up from one of the TV show or something.....

My question is, is it good idea to buy her a toy/squirt gun?

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Byte Stryke

Education FIRST!
Control a VERY close second.
Followed by more education.

Don't make it a mystery. Explain, teach, Demostrate.
Little Byte started at 2
It isn't a toy. we do not play with this. It only points at the paper target. we do not walk on the range with a loaded gun(Yet). we never point a gun at people. If we see a gun we DO NOT TOUCH, Go tell an adult. etc etc etc...

as for control, mine stays ON ME unless I am asleep and then it sits on top of my safe at almost 6" with no climbable around it

---

you are already behind the curve.
teaching safety at 2 and 3 is simple
it's even easier when THEY are Mimicking YOU!

They want to be a part of what you are doing. Teach them now while they idolize you or try to beat it into them later when you are "the old man that don't know nothin'..."