By Robert Sadowski
Storing a loaded pistol in the nightstand drawer to keep it nearby in case of a home intrusion isn’t a safe idea. Think of your child or grandchild exploring your bedroom and accidentally gaining access to your fireararm. The consequences could be deadly.
Beyond that, there are also a number of legal considerations involving the proper storage of firearms. While laws differ by state, the law in some states and larger cities requires that owners secure their guns. Some states also have Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws, which provide that if a minor accesses a firearm, the responsible adult who failed to adequately secure the gun is liable for any harm or damages done by the minor.
The smart thing to do is to safely lock your guns away when you aren’t carrying or using them.
Despite these safety concerns, there are still many gun owners who are hesitant to keep their guns under lock and key. Why? They’re fearful they won’t be able to get to a gun in time should they need it to defend themselves or their family.
Easy access to your gun while keeping it secure for safety and legal reasons might seem like an oxymoron, but in-home firearm storage manufacturers have designed high-tech options that allow just that. Here are some easy-access, high-tech storage options that can provide peace of mind, keep you in compliance with the law and still allow quick access to your gun.
SECUREIT FAST BOX MODEL 47
The SecureIt Fast Box is an economical under-bed or vertical closet safe that stores your long gun. While it’s lightweight at only 39 pounds, it’s also rugged. You can use the programmable push buttons to open the safe door and access your firearm. It also has a key override in case you forget your code. A 9-volt battery powers the keypad. ($297-$323)
VAULTEK SLIDER SERIES – WI-FI
The Vaultek Slider Series – WI-FI offers rapid deployment and presents a stored firearm in the ready position in fractions of a second. The 16-gauge steel Slider features a door that can be opened in 0.3 seconds. It holds one handgun and a spare magazine, and can be mounted on a wall, behind or on the side of a nightstand or nearly any space in your home. It has a slim vertical design so it doesn’t take up much space. Access is via a keypad or biometric scanner capable of storing up to 20 unique fingerprints. You can even purchase a Wi-Fi enabled Nano key (a small key that works like a panic button). The cool thing about the Slider is the app, which allows you to monitor the vault as well as track when the safe was opened. ($290)
NAPSAFE UNDER BED SAFE
SNAPSAFE UNDER BED SAFE
The SnapSafe Under Bed Safe stays out of sight under your bed, yet you have access to your firearm in an instant. You also have the space to secure other valuable items. The safe comes in three sizes, medium, large and extra-large, so if an AR-15 or shotgun is your choice for home defense, you can safely store and access your long guns as well. Access to the safe is via digital keypad or back-up keys. It runs on four AA batteries. A 5-foot cable allows you to anchor the safe to the bed frame or it can also be bolted to the floor. ($479)
HORNADY RAPID SAFE NIGHT GUARD
This safe can sit on your nightstand because it’s disguised to look like an LED clock. Not only is it a clock, but it has a drawer that holds a handgun and small valuables as well. The Night Guard uses RFID technology, which is a form of wireless communication. Hornady provides four RFID tags: a key fob, a wristwatch band and two adhesive decals. To open the drawer, just place the RFID tag near the face of the safe and the spring-loaded drawer opens. You can also program the keypad, and there are back up keys. There are even USB ports to charge your cell phone. It runs on four AA batteries or plugs into an AC outlet. ($334)
V-LINE TOP DRAW XD-HANDGUN SAFE
The V-Line Top Draw XD accommodates up to two pistols depending on their size and is easily accessible with a programmable push button mechanism that does not require batteries. It’s fitted with a heavy-duty internal cover lock that defies prying and tampering. The 16-gauge steel box cover opens on the top and can be attached inside a nightstand drawer. ($250)
Legal Takeway
Many states now require “proper” storage of firearms to prevent children or others who should not be in possession of a gun from accessing them. Gun owners can be held liable under some state and local laws if a gun they own is improperly accessed and used in the commission of a crime. Make sure you have a way to securely store your firearms when not in use.
“Make sure you have a way to securely store your firearms when not in use.”
Really?
Safe storage means locked containers of firearms make for a safe environment for thieves and burglars.
IAW someone’s law, whenever an emergency tool is required to properly function 100% of the time, that tool will invariably fail at a critical moment.
The blizzard of products and regulations supposedly designed to increase safety of children (ages 0-19) are simply devices made to ensure parents can avoid parental responsibility for properly supervising their offspring.
First line of the article above:
“Storing a loaded pistol in the nightstand drawer to keep it nearby in case of a home intrusion isn’t a safe idea.”
That’s why I place mine right on top of the nightstand, where I can immediately get to it. Otherwise, it’s on my person.
Do you cover it with something? Have you ever thought about someone coming in while you’re asleep? I understand that’s highly unlikely, but so is needing a gun.
I’ve thought about that because I can be a heavy sleeper. When I was young, my neighbor from across the street banged on our door and rang the doorbell in the middle of the night. He had already called 911, but his wife was delivering now, and he knew my mom was a nurse. The police, an ambulance, and even a fire truck eventually showed up. I know that because my mom and sisters told me about it. My bedroom faced the street right beside the front door. I slept through the entire event.
I’m an extremely light sleeper. The saying within my family has long been that any burglar dumb enough to attempt our house will be met with a naked Haz and a gun aimed right between his eyes because I will have heard him cracking his knuckles before he ever even stepped foot on my property.
“That’s why I place mine right on top of the nightstand.”
Zackly
damned things cost as much as the gun itself!…just buy a padlock, place it behind the trigger and keep the key on a chain around your neck…hell of a lot cheaper!
“…just buy a padlock, place it behind the trigger and keep the key on a chain around your neck…hell of a lot cheaper!”
Thinking any sort of restraint adds precious seconds in attempting a defense.
But, yeah, your solution would be far less expensive.
My buddy, Charlie, sleeps with a loaded AK47 under a couple of Mike Lindell pillows. He has a G17 mounted under the toilet paper roll in the upstairs bathroom and has a harpoon gun mounted in the shower. He treats both the front and back door with skunk scent. Nobody visits Charlie; even his friends don’t like him.
Friends? They just want stuff from you.
My loaded gat sits next to me as I type this. Ditto all my other gats. When we leave my home everything is locked up. No little kids. No fallible rfid bs required. No kidding🙄
To Water on the Brain
What a depraved way to live. Did it ever even occur to you that “normal” people do not live like that nor would they even consider doing so. You need some serious mental health counseling.
Look! The dunce is back! Where have you been? Did your mom neglect to pay your Wi-Fi bill?
I usually don’t respond to paid trolls but fU & gfy dumbaZz…
It’s how us ‘normal’ people prepare for the people you and your ilk fail to keep locked up and allow to prey on the public at large.
You remind me of my best friends mom…
She had a degree in psychology and was one of the worst bleeding hearts I’ve ever met. I am POSITIVE if she was facing off with a knife wielding attacker and had a loaded handgun in her hand, seconds later she would be on the ground bleeding out saying “Johnnies just a poor misunderstood little boy,” while MY mom in a similar circumstance, would have fired until Johnnie is down and is no longer a threat.
“Did it ever even occur to you that “normal” people do not live like that…”
What’s your definition of “normal”?
When I was growing up in the 1950s-60s, it was not normal for known criminals to be allowed to run the “normal” neighborhoods, to prey on normal people. When caught, the normal perp was given his/her/its normal Constitutionally guaranteed speedy trial and if convicted, was normally sentenced to some real time in a normal lockup facility rather than be released, sans bail or bond to escalate what had become normal behavior for said cretin to worse behaviors, often culminating in murder.
Only a fool or the completely delusional will try to live their life today as we did in 1959 in the burbs, or even in all but the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods in the metro areas. Today’s now-normal violence and crime, and the need for “normal” people to take responsibility for their own safety and that of their property, has been foisted upon we, the “now-normal” by the very progressives I assume you, Dacian, feel are instituting “normal” solutions. Intelligent people are having none of it, as is evidenced by the further arming up of millions of “normal” people who once never considered the need for a firearm, as well as the tens of millions of other “normal” people fleeing the progressive-run metro areas and states.
Since your comments were not directed at keeping guns from the hands of those for whom the owner does not intend them, I might agree if you’d have gone there.
where’s that “like” button when you need it?…..
1959? Even 1959 wasn’t a good time for some ….. some like rural Holcomb Kansas’ Clutter family, on Nov. 15th of that year career criminals Hickock and Smith entered through an unlocked door and murdered that family of four “In Cold Blood”, had Herb Clutter or another member of his family locked their doors/windows and had a firearm in the nightstand the family’s bloodline wouldn’t have ended that night.
At no time is the history of man has anybody been “safe”, not since the first caveman picked up the first rock or tree limb and hit someone else over the head in order to steal the other dude’s stuff or woman.
Laws requiring safe storage should not exist because everyone’s situation is different. I live in a rural area, my child is grown and gone and I don’t have any grandchildren yet. I’m older and a bit slower so I keep one handy but not necessarily on my person. I do have a pistol safe and if someone visits with a child the gun goes to the safe or to my waist, whichever I think is appropriate at the time. My wife is also proficient with handguns so, not much chance of her using it improperly.
This article is nothing but an ad. A poor one at that.
My children were taught how to safely handle a gun and shoot one as soon as they were capable.
Before they are old enough to handle firearms they must be taught the NO TOUCHY rule. With the necessary punishment (including lighting their little behinds up) for failing to abide by it. Something I learned well, long before being old enough to handle the firearms that were in our household. The same rule taught to our sons. As firearms in our household were as common as furniture.
When it comes to unauthorized personnel and firearms…The instant the projectile begins its flight no amount of boohooing or apologies will bring it back.
Yeah, no. I’ll store things however I see fit and not worry about what random TTAG contributor says. Plus I don’t appreciate being fed a barely disguised ad.
This isn’t a random contributor but likely a representative from the NSSF and the firearm industry -most likely Larry Keane or one of his redflag/safe-storage lackeys. When they get blowback from their Fudd guest columns here this website tends to not list the author’s name in a more anonymous way like this.
The NSSF and the NRA are Fudd organizations who do NOT have our back. They both want to negotiate our rights away and support unconstitutional anti-2A laws that erode our right to keep and BEAR arms. Safe storage and redflag lawa are an abomination.
SHAME on you.
In addition to my traditional keyed gun safes, I have both the Vaultek and Hornady products mentioned in this article- and I’m very happy with them.
I have two Hornady Night Guard RAPiD Safes- one by my bed, and one sitting under my computer monitor on my desk. Both stay plugged into wall sockets 24/7, and I charge my cell phone with the one by my bed every night. The RFID tags make access extremely quick and easy.
I also have a Vaultek SE20 Essential Series Slider (the low-tech, non-Bluetooth, non-Wi-Fi model) attached to the side of my wheelchair. The Vaultek allows me to have a full-size handgun at my side, at all times, while I’m in my wheelchair- offering me both rapid access when I need it, and secure storage for the other 99.999% of the time.
I HIGHLY recommend both of the quick-access secure storage options I’ve chosen.
I don’t remember the last time a child was in my home. Must be going on two decades. My safes are to prevent theft. In the meantime there are two loaded long guns and half dozen loaded handguns scattered around. As well as one on my person as soon as I dress in the morning. I sent a lot of men to prison. Some threatened to kill me when they got out. I believed a couple of them. I’m not unlocking a damn thing if that day comes.
Damn, Skippy…
No step on snek
+1 for properly spelling “snek” to match the famous meme…
Another liberal, gun grabber trying to tell everyone what to do. Spin off!
I keep something small and unobtrusive in my pocket or waistband whenever I’m home. At bedtime it goes in or on my nightstand. I don’t object to rapid access safes per se, but if it can fail, it will do so at the worst possible moment.
This discussion reminds me of a 007 movie quote, “Tell me, James, do you still sleep with a gun under your pillow?” Sometimes that’s not a bad idea.
“The smart thing to do is to safely lock your guns away when you aren’t carrying or using them.”
The smart thing to do is to teach and train every child in your house to safely use those accessible guns in case they need them one day. FTFY
Children (or adults) who are not so trained by their parents need not come in.
I use a bedside vault with a Simplex mechanical lock. There are multiple good vendors. You can feel the combination keys, so you dont need light. I have practiced opening it in the dark, and I can get it open in under 5 seconds.
I don’t trust electronic doodads enough to entrust access to my carry piece in an emergency. Fumbling with numeric keypads or keys in the dark, under stress, risks too much delay.
I do believe that if your piece is not on you, it should be locked up. If you still worry about being able to get it open in a hurry at night, you can leave it open and unlocked while you sleep, and lock it in the morning.
I have no children living in my home, and my youngest is over thirty. I have no grandchildren, nor children of others visiting. I have multiple loaded handguns around the house, including by my bedside. None are “secured.” The long guns are in the safe, not for safety but to prevent theft. I have one very loud dog who barks at anything amiss, and yes, she wakes me up. She isn’t really a threat to anyone, but I am.
Make sure you train her to sound the alarm and get behind you. If it ATF they will shoot your dog for no reason at all…
WELL MEAN OLD GRANDPAPA , I TOOK A BELT SLAPPED MY BED WHILE GRANDKIDOS WATCHES AND TOLD THEM THIS IS WHAT YOU GET IF COME IN MY BED ROOM , TOLD THEM TO ALWAYS KNOCK , THEY DO . IN THEY DON’T GO IN MY BEDRM UNLESS I’M IN IT .
PUT LOCKING DOOR HANDLE ON MY BED ROOM . SO NO KIDOS GO IN UNLESS THEY STEAL MY KEY .. YEP SPARE THE ROD AND SAVE THA CHILD …
MOM HAD A 2″ LEATHER BELT I LEARNED REAL QUICK TO FLY STRAIGHT .
DO HAVE LOCKING SAVE FOR ANY 1911 OR LARGE REVOLVER IN MY BEDRM ALSO .
young married couples learn pretty quickly to put a lock on their bedroom door…at least at “those certain times”….one walk-in will teach you that pretty quickly!…[we ain’t talking burglars here]
If a security device doesn’t allow you to access and present your firearm as quick or quicker than an offender can produce theirs that security device is a hindrance and a piece of crap ergo all such devices are useless pieces of crap and a waste of money. One or two (cost $5) “U” bolts mounted under a desktop will secure most semi-auto handguns and provide faster access.
My kids are adults, half of them are gun owners, and they’ve all been taught the 4 rules of gun safety. Most of my grandkids are also adults with the same training. I live in an apartment shared with my bachelor son, no minors live in it. anyone snooping in my bedroom is on dangerous ground anyway you look at it.
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