Panic at the gun locker in the night

[bearcreek]

I don't know that anyone can provide some real advice without knowing your life situation.

This right here is at the core of so many internet gun debates/discussions. Folks have a really tough time with the idea that not everywhere and everyone is the same deep down.

 

[MarshallDodge]

This is really a good life lesson.

I deal with electronics and mechanical items on a daily basis. Based on this experience, you will find that they all fail at one point or another, and then your sleeping brain is trying to figure out how to solve the complexity of the situation.

The only time my gun is in the safe, is when I must leave home without it. The rest of the time it is either on me, or place in a location out of reach of small hands, but easily accessible.

 

[bearcreek]

I don't have kids in the house. I keep them locked in-case there is a break in. No one can touch them. But in this instance, neither could I, when it mattered.

Doesn't seem like keeping the gun in a gun vault under the bed would make much difference in a break in, since someone could just walk off with the whole thing (unless it's fastened to the floor).

 

[shafter]

Well, I had quite the wake-up call this morning (pardon the pun.) My security alarm went off at 5:00 AM. It has NEVER had a false trip. I jumped up and went for the gun-vault under my bed, and could not get it to open (the battery was low). I spent about a minute pushing buttons, and gave up. So, I ran to my backup (the locker) and in the dim light, and half asleep, I could not remember, or work the code. The thought going through my mind was, "I am screwed." It took a good minute to get it open. There is a lesson here, and I am trying to fully understand the best fix for it. Understand that I have been using these vaults for over a decade, so they are not new to me.

What I learned is, that when it's go-time, you need something in your hand RIGHT NOW! Not fumbling with buttons, codes, dials, or the like. I was comforted to know that what I grabbed didn't need to be racked, or unsafetied (two more things to fiddle with under duress).

Anyone have a methodology for being fully ready in the night?

It's a draw stroke like anything else. You gotta practice drawing from the gunsafe if that's where you keep your gun. Burn some reps and from time to time set an early morning alarm on your phone, even better set some way in advance, and work the wrinkles out of your plan.

Make sure batteries are changed out on a regular basis.

 

[roval]

Well, I had quite the wake-up call this morning (pardon the pun.) My security alarm went off at 5:00 AM. It has NEVER had a false trip. I jumped up and went for the gun-vault under my bed, and could not get it to open (the battery was low). I spent about a minute pushing buttons, and gave up. So, I ran to my backup (the locker) and in the dim light, and half asleep, I could not remember, or work the code. The thought going through my mind was, "I am screwed." It took a good minute to get it open. There is a lesson here, and I am trying to fully understand the best fix for it. Understand that I have been using these vaults for over a decade, so they are not new to me.

What I learned is, that when it's go-time, you need something in your hand RIGHT NOW! Not fumbling with buttons, codes, dials, or the like. I was comforted to know that what I grabbed didn't need to be racked, or unsafetied (two more things to fiddle with under duress).

Anyone have a methodology for being fully ready in the night?

had a similar situation 5 yrs ago or so. 3:30am alarm or so. it took me three inputs of the keypad to get it open. eyes not focusing well right away. i knew it would have been much longer if i actually had to open the big safe with its combination lock. leaving the gun unsecured was not an option for me.

edit time flies... turns out to have been 9 yrs ago as i see my old post here

 

[denton]

Some of my handguns are in a small safe near the foot of our bed. If we are alone in the house, the safe door is open. If we have guests or are gone, it is locked.

 

[JDeere]

Side of night stand my edc resides when I go to bed. No need to even get out of bed... Got one by desk and one by reloading bench. Some say why, I say why not?

 

[Bob Willman]

Like Trackskippy my carry gun is in it's holster on my pants at 4 o'clock and 2 mags at 8 o'clock. If my pants are on, all is still there. No need to secure things at any time day or night. When pants go in the laundry, everything is moved to the clean pair before I put them on and life continues.

NRA Benefactor

 

[doubleh]

If I were to use a lock box it would be a keyed one and it would be unlocked at night, locked during the day with the key in my pocket. Keyed locks seem to be much less problematic than electronic locks. Since it is only my wife and I here a handgun resides in the head board above my head that has never been needed.

 

[Outlaw75]

Preparedness fail. You had a major brain fart.

The proper solution was to just grab your shower gun.

You do have a shower gun, don't you?

C'mon, man! His toilet gun would be way more accessible.

 

[Arcticfox]

Simplest solution Ive found to that is just keep the gun I carry in its holster, in my pants (fireman style) ready to go, right next to the bed. Everything I need is in them (light, reload, knife, etc), and I can have them on faster than you can get up and open a safe.

We also have a couple of handgun safes in parts of the house that are away from things as back ups. They get their batteries changed once a year when I change out the batteries in the red dots on a couple of rifles I normally use. They also all have a piece of tape on the door with the last date they were changed. They dont get used much either, just randomly checked here and there throughout the year, so the batteries really have no load on them and are basically fresh.

You were lucky and had a proving drill and found some weak points. Address them and move on.

Just a thought here, but layering your alarms so no one gets even close to the house, let alone, through the door, and if possible, having a large, furry, and aggressive to the uninvited roving security team inside, will give you some time to wake up, get some coffee, and wander down and see what all the ruckus is about, should someone actually get through the door. Coffee clears out the cobwebs nicely and makes the safes easier to open too.

I too have pants and shoes laid out and ready to go in a chair by my bed. So having a firearm in there makes good sense. Good point.

 

[Arcticfox]

This is really a good life lesson.

I deal with electronics and mechanical items on a daily basis. Based on this experience, you will find that they all fail at one point or another, and then your sleeping brain is trying to figure out how to solve the complexity of the situation.

The only time my gun is in the safe, is when I must leave home without it. The rest of the time it is either on me, or place in a location out of reach of small hands, but easily accessible.

At one point, I slept with my gun at my headboard, and it gave me piece of mind. May have to start it back up.

 

[Arcticfox]

Doesn't seem like keeping the gun in a gun vault under the bed would make much difference in a break in, since someone could just walk off with the whole thing (unless it's fastened to the floor).

True statement. I guess my logic is no one can immediately "touch it." Unfortunately, neither could I when I needed it.

 

[CapnMac]

Well, there is a critical takeaway here that the alarm is something that created a "time space" to allow going to the various firearms.

Now, that always advances a question of whether the trip "time distance" can be increased (or the situational awareness of the "why" of the trip).

'Speed' is complicated. It can be slowed by age, circumstance, wakefulness, any number of reasons. Which can suggest that 'speed' cannot always be relied upon. Which introduces a different, if similar, factor--certainty.

The problem with surety is that it's not "easy." It was training, it wants testing. It makes you tired when you want to be rested; busy when you'd prefer to be lazy.

What @Arcticfox can really take from this is that it was good training. (And many of us miss that having things "go wrong" is a preferred part of good training--better to go wrong while practicing than "for real.") Note how this thread has already advanced how a simple change, like going to the bed vault once a day, will tend to help detect low batteries.
That's not something that would be inherently obvious, otherwise.

 

[Electrod47]

On my night stand, I merely roll over a grasp the gun with my left hand, pushing my self up with the right arm I transition the gun to my right hand while scooping up the tomahawk light with my left. Can do it in 3 seconds flat, in pitch black. Now facing my bedroom door which, also has a 12 gauge in the corner ready to go.

 

[bassjam]

My nightstand box is from Ft Knox and has a mechanical Simplex lock. Sure, they can still fail but I'll never have to worry about batteries, and I get in it 5 times a week so the code is often practiced and hopefully if there is a failure, its just in a ruitine time I'm grabbing my handgun. I actually have 3 of these boxes around the house with handguns in them.

 

[Ignition Override]

Older people also need to remember that sometimes family members Can arrive in the middle of the night -- a day early.

They don't want to wake up sleeping family members, especially the more paranoid. These situations might be extremely rare, however....

A guy's daughter arrived a night early--unanounced-- decided to walk down a very dark hallway making Almost no sound. She didn't survive, partly because her father assumed the worst, decided to say nothing, and did not reach for a light switch.
This can only happen to the "other guy". This isn't rumor: I read the article and the grown daughter's last words were "I love you Daddy". I would rather risk the extremely Tiny chance of a home invasion over This Risk to a family member.
That father was incaapable of being rational.

A former nextdoor neighbor "Rob" whose next assignment (after the Navy Personnel billet here) was as XO, then CO of an F-18 squadron, knew a Nervous Navy officer who also lived in our area.
That other guy was so anxious that he kept at least four handguns scattered around his house. And we've never even had a home invasion around here. Irrational anxiety every day is a sad breakfast.

 

[SSN Vet]

1. Make your Gun Vault code stupid simple... as in tactile simple (i.e. 1-2-1-2, 3-3-3-3, you get the idea).
2. Accessing it regularly will ensure it works and will identify low batteries before it's go time.
3. I've left the batteries in for multiple years and only once had them run out on me. Now I change the batteries every year when I do my smoke detectors.

I've considered opening the GV every night before I go to bed, and then closing it in the morning.... but I'm pretty sure I'd forget to close it and then that would defeat the purpose.

I've always considered the probability of me shooting one of my own kids (or their friends) going bump in the night, or having someone gain unauthorized access to my piece and having an accident or using it to harm themselves to be much, much higher than the likelihood that I'll need it for self defence, so I'm very conservative about gun storage and error on the side of being over precautious at the expense of fast access.

If I can't get my piece I'll ambush the intruder and pummel them with a 4 D-cell mag light I have clipped to my night stand.

 

[.38 Special]

I've had several failures with electronic GunVaults and won't have anything more to do with them. As per @bassjam, I switched to the Fort Knox/Simplex box and find it better in every way.

I still don't want to have to try getting into it it while half asleep and with sirens blaring - but maybe I don't want a gun in my hand in that situation either. At any rate, I no longer worry about batteries, sun spots, and the sheer cussedness that so often infests electronic devices.

My current solution, with teenagers in the house, is to keep the gun on my person during waking hours, and in a cheap plastic holster screwed to the side of my bedframe at night.

 

[Ranger99]

One of the relative's in-laws was
awakened in the wee hours one
time with a gun in the nose.
He surely didn't have time to unlock
anything or twist any dials or any
of that. Really wouldn't have done
much to have one in hand.

Just me- if you don't have whatever
you need bare inches from being at
hand, it might as well be in another
room of the house
If you have kids, train them ruthlessly
about gun safety.
If you thought about it, and blew it
off shame on you
My daddy gave all the siblings the
gun lecture once.
When the trouble maker inevitably
screwed up, we all stood in line for
a leather belt meets butt cheeks
reinforcement of the lecture.
That was very effective
Too bad it's not able to be implemented
more often these days

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

I unlock the nightstand and armory doors when Im home and lock 'em when I leave. The kids are old enough now to know when to go in there and when not to.

 

[armoredman]

Preparedness fail. You had a major brain fart.

The proper solution was to just grab your shower gun.

You do have a shower gun, don't you?

Ooooh, now I have an idea with that nice new vacuum sealer the wife bought me...
Edit to add, my kid is an adult living with me and is just as well armed and prepared. Our major concern will probably be crossfire...

 

[The Night Rider]

I think you are on to something there.

If you do that put your wallet in the locker at night so you remember to lock it.

 

[Caplock]

No shower gun here.
I once got out of the shower and had just gotten into my bedroom. Put on some tighty whites when I heard my front door open. Lean my head back to see down the hallway to see if it was one of my two sons. Nope. A Hispanic guy standing there looking lost/confused. I yell to get the F@#$ out of my house. No effect. Did have an AR 15 hanging from the buttstock on a hook on the inside bedroom door.
Simular to the shower gun minus protective plastic.
When he seen the chunky guy in his under ware pointing a loaded gun at him he took off real quick.
Keep a gun handy. Lock your door if you can. Mine was unlocked so my kids could get in and out. This was in the morning about 9 o'clock in a decent neighborhood.

 

[Beck]

Keep one gun easily accessible. Forget safes that have complicated combinations or could fail from a low battery! Low battery? That's not an option. I have two guns at the ready. A handgun in a drawer and a shotgun near the bedpost. But I'm a night owl. I'm already half awake. YMMV

Seriously, some safes and lock boxes are so complicated you might as well not have a gun.