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

[gnihcraes]

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)

[Adawg38]

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.

[Irving]

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.

[Big Wall]

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.

[Clint45]

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.

[JM Ver. 2.0]

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...

[DD977GM2]

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.

[DD977GM2]

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.

[DD977GM2]

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.

[Skully]

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.