Bedside Pistol Lock Boxes

[Scogin]

My toddler is now a year and a half. He can climb just about anything at this point. A month ago the wife was doing dishes and turned around to find the boy standing on top of the kitchen table. Two weeks ago he figured out that he can push a chair to the kitchen counters and try and climb on top.
If you are thinking you can just put a gun out of a kids reach you need to make sure there is no way for them to get to it. They are creative and sneaky little devils.
I ended up going with the Fort Knox pistol box. It seems to work well for me. If you put your gun in it every night and take it out the next morning you are keying the combo twice a day, every day. That doesn't take long before you could do it in a half asleep, zombie like state.

[ray1970]

I have been diagnosed with celiacs, I can't drink beer...

But thanks for rubbing salt in THAT wound...

My apologies. I didn't know.

On on a serious note, I've owned firearms for over 26 years. Raised two kids to grown adults during that time. You might actually find that there will come a time where you have to weight the pros and cons of your strategies when it comes to firearms. Everyone's situation is different and everyone needs to do what they feel comfortable with and what is in the best interest of their family.

For me, locking everything up in the safe pretty much 24/7 was what I did. I'm not going to look up any statistics but I bet the chance of my house being broken into in the middle of the night while I'm asleep and me needing immediate access to a firearm to remedy that situation are about 4,000,000:1.

In my mind, that kind of risk was minimal and one I was willing to take versus the thought of one of the kids getting their hands on one of my firearms if I turned my back for two minutes.

Of course, I've never been one of those paranoid types that thought if I don't have a gun within arms reach at all times I'm putting myself at some sort of risk.

Best luck for developing a plan that works for you and your family situation.

[BuffCyclist]

My toddler is now a year and a half. He can climb just about anything at this point. A month ago the wife was doing dishes and turned around to find the boy standing on top of the kitchen table. Two weeks ago he figured out that he can push a chair to the kitchen counters and try and climb on top.
If you are thinking you can just put a gun out of a kids reach you need to make sure there is no way for them to get to it. They are creative and sneaky little devils.
I ended up going with the Fort Knox pistol box. It seems to work well for me. If you put your gun in it every night and take it out the next morning you are keying the combo twice a day, every day. That doesn't take long before you could do it in a half asleep, zombie like state.

Thanks for coming to my rescue lol!

However, you imply that you are no longer in a half asleep, zombie like state during the day. You mean...you mean the sleepless nights due to fussy and screaming bloody murder baby from teething, wonder week and sleep regression eventually passes?!

[mtnrider]

....But, when she turns 5yo, if my niece is any indication of what 5yo's do, she'll get into anything with the use of a chair or step stool, at which point a shelf is not out of reach.

You ain't kidding. My 3 year old can climb anything. I found him on the kitchen counter the other day. He had pulled out each drawer in the cabinet and climbed up into each one until he was able to get on top of the counter. Even if I hide the step stools he will find anything he can to pile up so he can reach what he wants.

[SSChameleon]

TLDR: I went with an electronic combo pistol lock

I have two kids in the house and if you look at this from a risk management perspective, the odds of a child finding an unsecured gun vs the odds of being attacked/broken in your home make this a no-brainer. My father-in-law is an ER surgeon and he has seen the result of child+unattended/unsecured firearm. He gave me great advice, go for the combo lock, kids will get into everything and they will find the key. FWIW, I have two gunvault pistol boxes and if you change the batteries (you can put a reminder in that smartphone to change them annually) you should have no problems.

[BuffCyclist]

Just so others can see what I'm talking about with the GunVault mechanical weakpoint/failure: http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=242167

There are reports of this all over, using these same pictures but mostly that is because people are saying the symptoms and others are posting the picture saying "I bet this is what happened".

Note: I'm not a member on the firing line, just found it through a google search, so I'm not sure how reputable those guys are. Regardless, they have pictures of a failure.

[Zundfolge]

If it just has to be toddler proof, what about a bed mounted Level III retention holster?

[00tec]

Is Tim K still making those nifty drawers?

[Scogin]

Thanks for coming to my rescue lol!

However, you imply that you are no longer in a half asleep, zombie like state during the day. You mean...you mean the sleepless nights due to fussy and screaming bloody murder baby from teething, wonder week and sleep regression eventually passes?!

I am not sure if it actually passes or if you just get so numb and used to it that you don't remember what feeling refreshed was like. Don't make the mistake we did and wait until the kid is 18 months old to try and train him to sleep in his own bed. Bad idea.

[BuffCyclist]

I am not sure if it actually passes or if you just get so numb and used to it that you don't remember what feeling refreshed was like. Don't make the mistake we did and wait until the kid is 18 months old to try and train him to sleep in his own bed. Bad idea.

Ha, no she's 5mo now, and we transitioned her at 3mo to her own room in her crib and she was doing great. Due to family emergency around the new years, we were out of town for over a week. That screwed with her schedule and we are just now maybe recovering from it in that she's finally sleeping for 2-3hrs at a time during the night.