(courtesy The Truth About Guns)

Lock up your guns! That’s the message from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and the rest of the civilian disarmament industrial complex. It’s also the message from the more than a few members of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia. Yes, but … anyone who really loves guns doesn’t want to hide their prized possession(s) in a dark gun safe. They want to see them! So, do you display your gun(s)? If so, how? On the wall? In a case? If you put your gun(s) on view, are you worried about maintaining security? [Send a picture of your gun display (with the firearm’s description) to [email protected]. We’ll post the photos on Facebook in a new gallery.]

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119 COMMENTS

    • Agreed. It would be nice but there is to much crime. I think back to Charles Ingalls in the “Little house in the big woods.” Laura grew up in a gun cultured house, knowing never to touch it and that it was an important tool kept right where Pa could get to it quickly. When we keep guns locked up it sends the message that they are wrong, like a secret hidden stash of drugs. Another sign America is changed for the worst.

    • It all depends on where you live. If you live in the city, and chances of burglary are higher, then no, at least while you’re not home. If you live in the boonies, you’re probably good. Same with gun racks on trucks.

    • I think that is the way I feel. My first response was ‘hell no’, but, really, if I had a nice collection of Ruger Number 1s, or some such, I’d love to display them in a discreet (non public) area of my house.

      Other than that, no.

  4. Chalk up another one for “I don’t advertise expensive, easily hockable hardware.”

  5. NO. and, if you ever get to see them it means “hell is coming to breakfast” and they just might be the last thing you see.

  6. Most of mine are in the safe . I do have a Henry 44-40 Cal that I do display on the wall . It’s a replica by Uberti ,so not too costly . Fun to shoot and works like a charm . No Facebook pix for me ,I’m not into FB at all .

  7. My handguns live in a safe but my long guns are locked in a glass door wormy chestnut gun cabinet. If the crooks can get in through my locked doors and past my dogs, they are free to try and take them.

  8. Since the Moms and the other antis claim we own these things to compensate for something, no I don’t display mine: I don’t want to be charged with indecent exposure.

    • Yes we wouldn’t want to be insecure haha. I see what you mean though I don’t like being “that guy” that has to be over macho all the time. It looks like too much dang work!

  9. I have a .50 cal matched pair of cap locks I built from kits.

    They are displayed on a wall in my office, and get taken out at least once a year for firing, which
    should happen this year next week.

    The rest are, sadly, locked up. I say sadly as I now have 4 matched pairs which I’d love to display,
    but only in a perfect world, which we are far from. Will keep rummaging for pics.

  10. Nope! Locked in safes behind resistant locked doors! Don’t talk to the neighbors about guns nor display any NRA or other shooting organization stickers. I DO have two firearm related stickers on my car, “If You Want To Empower A Woman, Give Her A Gun,” and “More Guns, Less Crime!” I get a lot of thumbs up in traffic! I have to add, if you have a gun stolen here in Kalifornia, you may be held responsible for a crime.

    • Lol. Since I am surrounded by Calif./NY/NJ transplants in my neighborhood, the mere sight of a long gun case would certainly trigger a massive SWAT’ting event. Better to be the surly old bastard at the end of the cul-de-sac.

  11. Don’t ask … don’t tell. No one needs to know what you have. Advertising makes you a target.

  12. That’s a good point. The rifle over the hearth has always been a real piece of Americana. But we’re being told from all sides to lock up our guns. Hide them from view because someone WILL steal them. Of course safe storage is defiantly a good thing. But I wonder if we’re kind of missing something here.

    • ‘The rifle over the hearth’ was there for a reason.

      Fireplace heat kept powder dry in high humidity.

      I might consider hanging an inexpensive black powder reproduction for ‘atmosphere’, but nothing else…

      • Makes sense. I always thought it as more for ease of access. But more to the point of this discussion we’re also talking about a time before people starting to have this unreasonable fear of weapon falling into the wrong hands.

  13. Nope. All kept out of sight in locked boxes, except the bedside every day carry. Added locks to ammo cans, too. Will have grandchildren around soon. No stickers on my car either. Cars get turned inside out for people looking for hidden weapons here.

  14. I lock up some and display others.

    But my house is locked. Does that count??? Why do I have to lock up my guns if my house is locked and it is against the law for people to:

    *unlawfully trespass on my property.
    *unlawfully break into my house.
    *unlawfully steal my possessions (including guns) from my home.

    • I completely agree with you. If someone breaks into my garage and steals my chainsaw, then goes on a killing spree in a mall, I doubt I’d be found guilty. Once I am no longer willingly in possession of something, it is no longer mine, and therefor should not be my responsibility.

      Next thing you know, those imported Mosin Nagant’s will end up in the news for a shooting on US Soil, and rather than be adults, we will blame the Russians and treat it as an act of war.

  15. I have a firing pin-less pair of chinese built shotguns on a rack when you walk in. Take it and go, don’t worry ’bout trying to find the safe.

    • OooooooOOOOooo. Decoy guns. Now that IS a good idea.

      /off to shop the interwebs for crappy decoys.

      I like it!

    • I love it! And if they put down their .38 snubnose and pick up the shotgun to use against you or someone else, all the better! Good idea for fireplace gun, etc. I don’t know if I want everyone who I invite into my home to see that I own weapons, but maybe I’d hide a cheap firing-pin removed shotgun in a place that a burglar would obviously look, but a guest wouldn’t. On top of a cabinet by the door, etc.

  16. I’m planning on making a “man cave” with my next home which should be in a couple of years. I currently have a few items on mantels around the house, but far from everything is out. I just don’t have the room.

    Part of the reason I got the firearms and bladed objects in my possession was to share them. It’s all great conversation pieces, there are stories attached to everything, both mine and a guests… We shouldn’t hide the things we love, that’s how people end up thinking something is not important and lacks value.

    Advertising outside the home might be inviting dishonest folks to try and take what I’ve earned, but displays within your own home are only known to those you bring into your home. If you feel your belongings are at risk, perhaps you should look into the folks you share your lives with.

  17. Nope, in a safe, or on me. No stickers on the car, but I do have a NRA badge on my range bag. Figure people at the range know I like guns. Of course, anyone who is in my basement might wonder about the big safe with the black powder notice, and the ammo locker but I hope anyone in my basement already knows what I think about weapons.

  18. I keep everything in my toy box. I will open it for select others to see the contents but other than that they stay locked and (relatively) secure. Now what I’ve though of doing… Getting replicas and hanging them on the wall. Something like an AR, or Kentucky Long Rifle, M1, etc… So an inexpensive solution? Is it ideal? I dunno but the idea makes me feel all sorts of warm and gooey and tangly in all the right places.

  19. I used to display them on my boat, but alas, she’s resting at the bottom of the lake…

    • Avast there, ye’ salty dog. I do share in yer pain. Me grubbins do be laying at the bottom o’ the sea as well.

  20. As from a few days ago, the security of my weapons is no one’s damn business.

    I live in ‘The South (the deep south, so deep, (HOW DEEP IS IT?) Atlanta Georgia is over 400 miles *north* of me) and have invited (a few) people into my home.

    The gun-safe is not on the guided tour. (family assists in cat feeding, etc.)

    You will need to guess what toolset to bring if you decide to steal them.

    As I am seriously *considering* NFA toys, the level of security for them will be substantially enhanced.

  21. In my wedding video, I was shooting slow-mo fireballs from a .460 XVR and blew up tannerite with a 6.8 SPC AR. Fire is so romantic!

    I had an olde-school glass front cabinet. I lost the keys and pried open the front door by hand. While those were popular decades ago, I don’t see them much anymore.

    These days the closest I come to displaying guns are pro-gun shirts and a couple La Rue Tactical bumper stickers.

    • “In my wedding video, I was shooting slow-mo fireballs from a .460 XVR and blew up tannerite with a 6.8 SPC AR. Fire is so romantic!”

      Geeze, 81.

      As I started reading that line I was hoping it would end something along the lines of: “I was shooting slow-mo fireballs from a .460 XVR and blew up tannerite next to my mother-in-law’s head…

      But no.

      *sigh*

      🙂

  22. I have an old “wall hanger” leaning up against a brick wall under a deer and turkey mount .

    There also are a couple easy to find old guns around.

    Anyone in my house will see antler mounts, shoulder mounts, a shelf of gun books, gun magazines , photos of me with a gun over dead animals.

    They pretty much know there are guns around , so I give them easy ones to find.

  23. I have a small 4’X4′ display made of slat board. I display four rifles and rotate them occasionally. Each is padlocked to an eyebolt through the display into the wall stud. Most of my guns stay locked in my safes. I do like to look at my guns. No one but me sees them. No family and I don’t invite friends into my home. When I travel all firearms are locked in a safe.

    Works for me. YMMV.

  24. Guns…….we don’t need no stinkin’ guns……

    What guns?

    For those who need to know…..
    Storage by canoe accident.
    /sarc.

  25. I don’t “display” them, but they do lay about being all sexy and beautiful.

    It’s like the gun version of living at Hugh Heffner’s Place.

  26. My dream for when I buy my own house and there’s no kids around is to build a heavy duty display case with shatterproof glass so I can display my collection.

    • Yes, I merely come here for the intriguing articles as well. No guns to see here. Move along, move along.

  28. I don’t think i’ll ever say “isn’t this a beautiful unadorned bolt action in an ordinary black synthetic stock” or “look at the graceful lines on this unmodified glock brand glock” so no I don’t feel the need to display them. I don’t even feel the need to display grandpa’s old pump action .22, even though I love the story of how it fell off the tractor got plowed under one year plowed up the next year and would still shoot.

    That’s my favorite “they just don’t build them like they used to” story.

    If I ever do get to where I start buying fancy expensive showoff guns I would probably already have a walk-in safe/gun room where I would be able to both lockup and display them at the same time.

  30. I don’t display any guns! However, I would make an exception, if someone breaks into my house. I would display the gun to the intruder just before I shot him!

  31. I live in a house with lots of old windows, I’d love to display something but Im not willing to advertise what I own right now. If I had an office or man cave I’d consider a glass front case or an over the mantle display

  32. Only 1 ever visible is on my hip, all that had not been destroyed in that terrible boating accident are well hidden yet easily available when needed.

  34. I do have one hanging on the wall. It’s my grandfather’s JC Whitney shotgun, and it’s worth less than the deadbolt I’d have to replace if someone broke in and stole it. OK, maybe not less, but close.

    Other than that, the only time my guns are on display is when they’re spread out on the table getting cleaned.

    Also, 11110011101010010101

  35. Sadly I keep them all locked up or out of sight. I do however have fond memories of the glass front case that my dad used to have and the trap-door Springfield he once had hanging in the living room.

  36. I keep a handgun within reach and another where I can get to it quickly, but if I display a gun in your presence you’d best find the nearest exit in a big hurry.

  38. If it is not on my hip it is in the safe. That said, I’ve been really considering getting a replica Springfield muzzle loader or Kentucky Long Rifle to put over the fireplace.

  39. I don’t display my high end or real high power stuff but to keep a few where they are handy for easy use and access.

    • Why do you want them out of mind? Is this your solution to the 22LR shortage? 🙂

  41. Absolutely not. My family, and select friends know what I have because we go shooting together. All of my guns are safe queens when I’m not using them. My nightstand handgun is the only one that is never locked up. I’m a single man who lives alone, no need to worry about kids in my house. So, I guess the crooks will get away with my XD 45 if they break in when I’m not home. Maybe I should start locking it up when I’m gone? That’s probably the most responsible course of action so my gun isn’t part of the stolen gun statistics. I guess I just kind of stumbled into that train of thought. Sorry for the rambling.

    RF: Am I #1,000,000 yet?!

  43. No – friends know that I own firearms, but others don’t need to see them – the big metal box is called a “safe” for a good reason… And the “Shot Lock” is out of plain sight, but easy to access.

  44. None of mine are pretty enough to display. Plus I live in a bad neighborhood and don’t want (perceived) easy targets.

  45. With regard to the “Mom’s” (which I detest calling them as my Mom is intelligent and truthful), display is perfectly fine in most cases. It boils down to responsibility. If a person is intent to commit a crime, they will, and that is a fact. Do you need to leave bolts and ammo in a display?, no. Display pieces should never be your self-defense or typically functioning unit. If I live rural and have a display, so what. I may not display in the big city where theft is of greater possibility. As for kids, it’s a tough call. Most will never mishandle a firearm if educated properly. My rule is if there is any sense of doubt or trust, my family or the possibility of unknown visitors, then they are locked away. In the end and my personal preference, I don’t want people to know what I own, that’s my business.

  46. “Locked up” v “displayed” is a false dichotomy. I learned from a friend who does metal work and gunsmithing that your arms can be both locked up and on display. I wish I had a pic of his old set-up; he had three beautiful old rifles on a gorgeous walnut rack over his fireplace, and they were as secure as if they were in a safe: there was stainless steel embedded in that rack and bolted into the steel framing in the chimney, and each rifle was locked into the stainless steel in the rack. The locks weren’t visible, so the display wasn’t ruined; in fact to find the locks you had to know where on the walnut to press so the walnut cover pieces would pop loose. We used to ponder someone breaking into his house and trying to steal one or more; first the intruder would have needed a ladder….

  47. Only friends and family ever see my firearms. I don’t post pictures online. To many unsavory people freaking out about them.

  48. No display here. But are most gun owners a bit of a smart ass as the commentators above? lol

  49. I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t own a gun safe.. living in an apartment I feel pretty safe “displaying” my guns on a homemade rack in my room. The rack is out of sight of the window but I really don’t think most of my neighbors would know what they’d be looking at anyway.

  50. I display an m&p 9c, on my hip, daily. Open carry, it’s there but I don’t think anyone actually sees it. Growing up my dad made a beautiful felt lined glass display for his Ruger revolvers, with lighting. Sadly those days are gone…

  51. Hunting guns, yes…on a gun rack on the wall (miniscule chance of burglary where I live). Anything else I may or may not have well….that is need to know information

  53. For the most part, yes….but I live on a ranch behind locked gates, long bumpy caliche road, dogs outside and inside, and only adult children around as well as some other security measures.

  56. i display the guns i feel are worth looking at. all my mil surp stuff and some that i manufactured myself. my family and close friends all know i have guns and what and how many. so i leave them in place when they are going to be around. but if i expect anybody else then they get taken down and hidden. so does the gun rack and anything that may suggest i have even the slightest interest in firearms. as far as they are concerned the word gun is a foreign word in this house. and if i get a surprise guest then the room where all my surplus and collection of other things is displayed is off limits with a locked dead bolt.

  58. I have several guns visibly hanging on the wall. In the living room over the front door is a rolling block external hammer monstrosity that a gun collecting friend says is a Zulu rifle. It looks neat, worth about $50 and if anyone tried to shoot it I would not bet against an explosion. In my man cave I have several sentimental guns and a pellet gun hanging on the wall. One is a single shot bolt action 16g that was my Father’s first gun. A .22 scout rifle that an old gunsmith gave me when I was about 6 or so, no firing pin and a rusty barrel, but my first real gun even if it would not shoot. My first real gun that shot, a single shot bolt .22.

  60. Nope. For 2 reasons:

    1 – I don’t really own anything that’s “display worthy.”

    2 – I have four young children running around the house (they’re mine…not like they’re strangers or anything) and, as much as I’d love to have something stashed in every room, just in case, I can’t really risk that. So, locked up, or on my hip.

  61. I have an Irish hand and a half double edged bastard sword hanging on the wall of my office, does that count? It is rather deadly, after all.
    I don’t own any of the guns that I would display, all of which would be original Civil War era rifles and pistols in glass cases, and probably a light saber to round it off. But there is usually at least one replica Colt percussion pistol on my desk: to my eye, they are works of art, and I enjoy looking at them…regularly.

  62. I don’t have a display yet, if I redo my office I might setup some displays like the office from “Last man standing”

  63. Title II firearms make up the bulk of my collection, so they are all in safes, so are all the others. The only one on display in my house, is the one on my hip.

  64. My husband and I both agreed years ago that normal gun safes are awkward, ungainly, ugly, and overly expensive. However, since we have our first kiddo on the way, I insisted that we needed a way to lock the guns up safely against small curious hands (no excuse not to teach little ones not to touch, but I like redundancy when it comes to the safety of children). So my husband designed and built a lockable sheet metal gun cabinet, welded strong with expanded sheet metal doors. We live out in the woods at the end of a long dead-end dirt road so we don’t worry much about burglars or what any neighbors might see through a window. We just need it to be secure against children and the occasional house guest. Yes, a determined thief could break into the thing with power tools and enough time and the guns would be vulnerable in a fire, but as my husband is on the local fire department he knows from experience these are both just as true with commercial gun safes that cost thousands of dollars more.

    So the short answer is Yes! All of our guns are beautifully displayed in our living room AND locked up safely. And all for significantly less money than an ugly commercial gun safe would cost. And less money invested in a gun safe means more we can afford to invest in more guns (or, you know, car seats and diapers).

  65. Locked in a safe, save the one that never leaves my side. With 2 little ones around, I don’t mess around with unsecured firearms. When the kids get old enough to learn proper gun handling, the guns will still be locked up. Responsible kids sometimes have stupid friends, and I don’t like to play stupid games with stupid people.

    • Responsible kids sometimes have hormonally deranged emotional episodes (don’t ask me how I know…I just do). I scoffed at my wife for insisting that all the guns be under lock and key, but she was right, and I’m glad I let her have her way.

      Unless you’re wearing it, please lock it up.

  69. I assign at least 1 gun to do sentry duty when I am away to make sure none of mine get violent.

  71. My dad still has the two .22lr rifles (a lever-gun, and a single-shot) he’s had since he was a kid. He cleaned them up a few years ago and they now reside on the wall in my parent’s living room. He’s mentioned shooting them again at some point. Other than a smashed tube magazine on the lever gun (how it happened remains a mystery), both appear to be operable.

  72. I don’t display my firearms but I don’t lock them up either. When I lived in a large city, I used to have a 30-30 lever action on display in the back window of my pickup truck. It was there because I was sick and tired of being pulled over for no reason at all. Funny enough, I never got pulled over after that rifle went on display. I guess the risk to reward ratio changed for bored officers. Go figure.

    My firearms are all tools to me; no safe queens. So, they tend to get stored like any other tools except the ones I am using at the time. If I still owned a firearm that was particularly beautiful or collectible then I would likely display it on a wall rack, display case/glass gun cabinet, or over the hearth.

  73. Possibly in a future abode–but not here in the People’s Republic of Kalifornication. Everything is secured; a few are quickly accessible though.

  74. I don’t normally “display” my guns, no, but when I do, it’s on my hip.

  75. I am considering displaying my old bolt action military rifles. Some of them can be seen as works of art in wood and metal. And maybe the muzzleloaders.

    But they don’t get displayed in direct view of any windows in my house.

  77. I have only two guns on regular display: a Damascus double and a flintlock rifle.

    The modern guns are all locked up. I have a couple of nice rotating long gun racks and some classy wooden pistol racks and I often pull them out and enjoy them, but they go back in the cabinets for the night.

  78. Oh, I guess i often display my sidearm on my belt at home–but that is never for aesthetic purposes.

  81. Most all of my firearms are practical, and not worthy of display. If I had more money, I may have a few interesting ones on display, but I would probably somehow render them inoperable. I have little kids at home so all of the guns at my house are either locked up or in a holster (home carry, people, home carry).

  83. I display some of them, carefully unloaded and with no ammunition anywhere near them. On the other hand, I don’t have children in the house…

  84. I might have displayed some of the nicer antique/milsurps, but it’s a shame to have lost every one of them in that houseboat accident.

  86. I’ve considered getting a KY rifle for just this purpose….but since black powder rifles aren’t legally firearms would that count?

  87. When the suburbian life finally calls to me, and I finally acquire a House-type house, I will hang my Mosin-Nagant somewhere on the living room wall.

    With the bolt removed in case of children or burglars.

    (If I need to get to a gun for home-defense, well, I home carry and I have other long guns more suitable for it than a super long monstrosity that will blind and deafen everyone in the room.)

  88. I’ll admit I was surprised by this thread and how many people are very guarded about their guns or even admitting to gun ownership.

    I understand not wanting to be a target but I figured more people would display (doesn’t have to be in front of a window) unless children or bad neighborhood or something.

    If you post here then chances are gun ownership is a big part of who you are. So I figured people here would be more willing to be themselves in their own homes.

    I live in Canada and I’m going to be hanging some guns on a wall in one room. Not the living room but it’s more because of décor and not opsec. But perhaps it’s different here since we need a license to buy guns so the gov already knows I own them. I also don’t hide my gun ownership but I don’t advertise it either.

  89. Yes. I display some of my guns proudly. I never became attached to “black” guns. I love beautiful wood and highly blued (or stainless), well put together metal. They are the center piece of my “library” (read small room with books and deer heads on the wall).

    I have my “ugly” guns in a closed cabinet with a couple in strategic locations. I had a friend with a well known manufacture gun safe. Thieves had it open and all her guns gone in less than 5 minutes (timed with surveillance video). That happened in Phoenix. I have another friend whose safe was ripped from the floor and carried out guns and all, in California. If they want them, they will get them.

    So, if they have nerve enough to come in to my house to try to collect them, the pretty ones may as well be the last thing they see in this life.

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