Guns in Kids’ Bedroom

If you haven’t heard by now, Rob Pincus from I.C.E. Training caused quite the stir among the anti-gun crowd recently. Rob was one of the featured speakers at the 142nd NRA Annual Meeting in Houston last weekend, where he spoke on home defense. In his talk, he made the unusual suggestion that if you have kids in the house, it might be a good idea to stage a gun their bedroom.

Video

Here is a clip of Rob speaking where he makes the suggestion.

Along with the clip above, you can watch this interview and read this article to get the full context of Rob’s suggestion. You’ll quickly see that the hysteria by the liberal media is not warranted in any way, shape or form.

Home Defense

Here’s my thoughts on the topic of home defense and what I do in my own home. I’m by no means a home defense expert, and I don’t pretend to be one on the internet, but see if this makes sense to you. Context: single family home, two story, one child.

Staging Guns

First off, if your child is properly trained in the use and handling of firearms, and the gun is in a locked safe, I see no problem with staging a gun in their bedroom. Let me be clear here, I’m talking about a gun in a safe. I’m not talking about you keeping a gun under their pillow. Can kids break into a safe given enough time and motivation? Of course they can, which is why I made the same caveat that Rob made – if your child is properly trained (hint: this means more than the four rules).

If you can’t trust your kid to not take a drill to the safe when you’re not home, then guess what? This isn’t for you, and you shouldn’t have guns in ANY safe in your house. If they will break into a safe in their bedroom, they’ll break into a safe in your room, the garage, etc.

Having said that, I do not have a gun staged in my daughter’s bedroom, nor do I plan to for a couple reasons.

One, I just don’t think it makes sense for my floor plan. In my house, if something goes bump in the night when I’m asleep or when I’m awake, it doesn’t make sense for me to run across the potential danger zone and go upstairs to find a weapon.

Two, I’m fairly certain that my first response to a home invasion is going to be to put down the threat, not run to my daughter’s bedroom. No, thankfully I’ve never been faced with a home invasion before so I don’t truly know how I would react, but I have had a “bump in the night” happen, and my immediate response in that instance was to stop the potential threat. So perhaps this could be qualified as a somewhat educated guess, but if my instinct is going to be to stop the threat, I’m going to want to be armed.

A Different Approach

Here’s a different approach. I’m hesitant to say “better” because it will of course be relative to your situation, and then there’s that pesky detail about me not being any sort of subject matter expert. But again from my perspective, here’s what I do and how I prepare.

Carry All Day, Even At Home

I touched on this topic about a year ago, but if someone kicks in my door while I’m awake, I will already have a gun on me. I carry at home, and I think you should too. I don’t have to run to a safe to find a weapon if something bad happens, I have one on my person already.

When I go to bed at night, I take my gun off and put it on the nightstand with the gun still in the holster. If I have that crazy recurring dream about chasing Rosie O’Donnell with a high pressure water hose and I’m flailing around in my sleep, having the gun slightly out of reach in its holster means I’m less likely to do something less than sensible while half or fully asleep. I can still reach it if I need to of course, but’s not right on top of me either.

When I wake up in the morning, I put the gun back on and I’m ready to go. For more on this, see my loaded handguns at home post.

Stage Loaded Mags

If you follow the carry all day, every day philosophy, I will also submit that staging loaded mags might be a better solution than staging loaded guns. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with staging a loaded gun, in fact I have one staged, but it does require me to access a safe. Even though there are some great products on the market that make this a simple task, I still have to access the safe.

Loaded mags on the other hand give me a reload if needed, and since I’m carrying already, that’s all I should need. Plus I don’t feel that I need to have them locked up (your mileage may vary) so it’s easier to stage more of them. Will you ever need a reload in a home invasion situation? I have no idea, but it’s a cheap and easy way to give yourself options if a group of thugs decide to kick in your front door and start shooting.

Wrapping Up

Rob has gotten a lot of unfair criticism over his suggestion in my opinion, but that’s not exactly surprising. We can’t expect the anti-gun crowd to have an intellectually honest debate on firearms, that’s clearly asking too much.

Having said that, my approach to home defense is somewhat different, rightly or wrongly. I carry all day every day and keep a gun nearby while sleeping. All other firearms are locked up in a safe. I also have loaded magazines staged throughout my home simply to give myself options if something bad were to happen.

What’s your approach?