Worst place to store a gun?

**AlexSchira** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 2:28pm

We all hopefully know basic gun safety, which includes storing your gun dissassmbled and unloaded.
...As in, we know OF this rule...or suggestion, as many take it. I'm in Chicago, a city that doesn't exactly smile upon carrying, but I know quite a few handgun owners who see nothing wrong with keeping one loaded in an office safe or even under a loose board if you live in the Brownstone side of town.

But in the suburbs out here...almost every other suburban gun owner I've met, has been a bit off in the head. I remember coming along with a friend to some guy's place in a very nice little town I grew up in. He was an older guy, I'd put him in his forties, and had a few kids and a wife or two running around a house that really should have car parts on the lawn to warn people like me to stay out.
I'm sitting on his couch, waiting while my friend and him are getting whatever he came for, and I'm staring at what I hoped were about a half dozen large Airsoft guns that were sitting on every flat surface in the living room along with day-old food and the occasional drained can of predictable substances. They come back, he sees me tilting my head at what looks like a tad overdone Airsoft rifle with a scope AND laser attached...and he lists off all the brand names of what were actually working fire-arms, a few of which were loaded. The guy had probably four young kids running around aruging who had the worst ADHD, a wife chain-smoking in the kitchen who kept glaring at me with a twitch, the front door wasn't locked, and he has a year of my paychecks in weaponry sitting around a public room with ammunition ready to go.

If he were living alone...I'd say he was a stupid gun-owner who wanted to get robbed and wrapped up in every shooting case this side of Joliet. But in an obviously chaotic enviroment with young children playing literally underneath the table the things were on? I wasn't sure to call the NRA or Child-Services first. this isn't anything against blue-collars, I myself grew up in that level of society, and I learned how to shoot from a man who actually told me to me to imagine Jeff Gordan every time I pulled the trigger. He also kept even every single weapon he owned out of reach of his five kids, and never used them to get the remote out from under the couch.

You all probably know at least one oddball who keeps a handgun under his pillow, even if he has space under his bed or a quiet nightstand drawer. Have you ever been shown a gun or even found one in the stupidest place possible? From 007 wannabes to the dying breed of shameless rednecks, these idiots do exist. Feel free to complain about them, keep away from Jeff Foxworrthy quotes.

***JohnnyCache*** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 2:59pm

I used to actually keep one behind my headboard, but I put it there at night and stored it during the day.

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 3:36pm

in the early 90's i used to hang out with the guitar player from a well known late seventies/early eighties new wave band. (not going to name names, don't even ask.)

dude was a recovering junkie and was on methadone, but that made him "sleepy" and therefore he was freebasing coke all the time... he and his girlfriend would spend all day lying around on a king sized bed in the middle of their loft, and on this bed was a pile (literally) of large and small combat knives, freebase pipes, torch lighters, bunch of other random trash and at least one loaded handgun.

that has to be the worst place i can think of to keep either knives OR guns, but at least he had no children running around.

**Robot Jesus** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 3:56pm

i remember hearing about one woman who kept a gun in her bedside table.....

next to her asma inhaler.

**SFGOON** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 4:25pm

So, like what's this guys address?

What a fucking idiot. I would have had to leave.

**Nid** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 5:01pm

Disassembled+Unloaded=Gun safety?

Mmmmm, yyyyeah...I'm going have to have to go ahead and disagree with you, Bob.

I rented two videos from the library once about gun safety.

Jeff Cooper:
-4 simple rules
--Including: Guns are always loaded because they always SHOULD be loaded.
---Hell yeah.

Professional actor in khakis and a polo:
-10 rules
--Basically: Complete and total inaccesibility. 9-1-1 should be your weapon.
---**** him.

***jnp*** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 6:07pm

Tucked into the front of your pants without a holster.

**Don Gwinn** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 6:38pm

Dad used to have an entire closet lined with gun racks in our living room. The other side of the closet was the kitchen, with the microwave protruding into the closet. It was like a patented Rust Chamber.

**AlexSchira** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 9:53pm

Hence the joke about the 'rule' being known of. I'm with the usual crowd, loaded handgun in a safe along with some files and jewelry. Then again, I also have background in ASP Batons and keep a few around simply to store them, including one on the nightstand with a light in the endcap and one near the door, the rest are just in drawers or down the couch probably. It's like keeping batteries in a flashlight, why leave out an essential component of a devide that may be used at any time?

I barely remember how I was ranting to my friend after we left that idiot's house...My friend HAD mentioned this matter to the guy a couple times...didn't get very far, obviously. Then again, reasoning with a guy who has a gun on both sides of his couch is always a bit difficult for guests.

**Shard** · Posted On: 5/13/2006 11:06pm

Ok maybe dismantling a gun that you intend use for self-defense is a bad idea. But at the very least it should be somewhere safe and it shouldn't have a bullet in the chamber, ready to fire.