Carrying A Gun At Home

I live just about a mile north of the Detroit border and 2 miles north of one of the most notorious drug areas in Detroit. Fortunately it's a city with an excellent Police force but even an excellent Police force can be minutes away when you need them right this second. So, if my handgun isn't on my hip, it is within 2 steps of being in my hand. Good lord willing I'll never need it but being prepared doesn't cost me a thing.
 
I live in the country in a safe area but still keep a J frame in my pocket at home. I carry it almost anywhere I can and taking it out is more of a pain than anything. Still home invasions have happened here too and having one in my pocket is much quicker than getting to one in a drawer.
My wife asked me the other day why I carry at home and told her because of home invasions. She rolled her eyes and thinks me paranoid but I can live with that.
A neighbor up the road heard a noise in his kitchen awhile ago and found two guys there who claimed they had wrong house and left. There was a rash of daytime break-ins then and a couple were caught from out of the area and drug addicts so it happens everywhere now.
 
Carrying at home isn't necessarily a reflection of anxiety or fear.

It's because I'm at ease with carrying that I don't feel the need to disarm myself at home. I just drop an LCP in my pocket when I get dressed and that's that. I'm not worrying about needing a gun in the living room anymore than carrying my wallet with a DL is an indicator of worry about getting a speeding ticket in the dining room... though sometimes I eat too fast :D. I'm in and out of the house throughout the day. A carry routine that well serves my general routine is key.
 
I don't carry on my person at home. With a 5 year old who loves to wrestle around, not feasible. Heck, last night at Walmart, I don't know what he was doing, but he ran up and tried to jump/grab onto my leg, and got a bloody nose because he smashed his face into the model 10 under my jacket. Unfortunately I was turned away from him and didn't see him coming.

One is always in an easy location to retreat to at home however. Unfortunately with kids, you can't just hole up with a shotgun and wait for the bad guy to come to you, you have to fight your way through the house to get to the kids' rooms. When my son was younger, I had guns in his closet and in the guest room, which made it even better. Fight my way to his room, then hole up. With him being 5, and a new baby, I can't leave a gun in his room, and I don't have a guest room, so there aren't any guns in that back part of the house.
 
This is a common response when I post about my neighborhood and I don't have any hard feelings reading it.

If I haven’t spelled it out guys I don’t make a lot of money, any place that I could afford to live would be the same neighborhood in a different part of town.

It's interesting how easy it is to think of a solution to another person's problems --

up until you know their real situation, that is.

I don't carry around the home, but may start soon depending on the local crime situation.
 
Nope. Don't need to.

My home is extremely secure. It will take several minutes for someone to get in if they succeed in doing so at all.

Buy yourself one of these.
Model No. 265DCCSEN | Master Lock

It sure helps.

The last time I looked, sliding doors were mostly glass. Some barrier against forced entry, eh?

A surprising number of home invaders are simply invited inside by opening the door. My cousin thought it was his neighbor, who frequently dropped by when he got bored.
 
I have a pistol on me during all waking hours. There are threes time I don't have one "on" me:

1. When I'm sleeping (it's on a shelf near my head and within arm's reach).
2. When I'm "in bed" (same location as #1).
3. When I'm in the shower (it's on top of the medicine cabinet within arms reach from inside the shower).

What good is a loaded firearm if you can't get to it when you need it? The only way I'd not have a pistol on my person while at home, is if I had one in every room in the house.

BTW, I open-carry when I'm outside in the yard on my own private property. Whether I'm doing yard work, working on or washing the car, taking the garbage out, etc. It can't hurt for people you don't know who are driving or walking by to know that you're a person who chooses to be armed......just in case those people are in the process of selecting their next "target".
 
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FWIW my entire home is 720 sq (23' X 30') feet. I literally can’t get 10 steps from my front (only) door and still be in my home. If someone kicks in the door I’m going to have about a second to react.

The door is also between the LR and BR so if I’m sitting in the LR and someone kicks it in I have to go past them to get to any gun in the BR.

I’m better off with it in my pocket
 
The best advice when living in an unsavory apartment area is move.

Living close to many other people brings out the worst in everyone. Too many petty disputes.

I've been there too. Insane neighbors, drug raids, constant domestic disputes close by, thefts etc.

Move and never look back....and keep your gun close.
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2
 
The best advice when living in an unsavory apartment area is move.
SNIP
He's not living there by choice.

I work as a Rental Housing Inspector for a small city. I see the full range of apartments, from the ultra-clean to the downright nasty.

Normally I don't deal with tenants, just the landlords and maintenance men. However, I have had contact with tenants, and I speak with them when I get a chance, mostly time permitting. Lots of people living in lower quality places are decent, law-abiding people. Some are truly stuck there for one or more reasons.
 
The only time I carry at home is when I'm working outside. Inside my home is time for relaxing, which means loose clothes like sweat pants and t-shirts and no restrictive gunbelts. But there's always a gun within reach in whatever room I'm in. Reloads? No. I don't anticipate an at-home incident turning into a gun battle. It isn't going to last longer than it takes to fire fourteen rounds.
 
Since I picked up my M&P Shield I’ve made a habit of carrying at home. Part of the reason is simple convenience. I can put the shield (holstered of course) in the pocket of my hoodie and I barely know it’s there.


Another factor is the fact that I live in an apartment where I don’t know anything about the person that lived here before me. I can make inferences from the numbers of process servers that have shown up at my door looking for her but I don’t really know what kind of people her life may attract to what is now my home.


Another factor that goes with living in an apartment is my neighbors, when we moved in our neighbor across the hall worked in a MMJ shop and let’s just say he brought his work home that could attract some unwanted attention as well.


On the up side this particular apartment is two stories up on a flat wall and only has one door which makes it easy to secure. Short of a SWAT team and a breaching charge you aren’t going to kick my door down easily.


I'm also curious as to who carries a reload at home?

Yes, I carry at home. Otherwise I'd have to change my username to "Mostly Protected One" :o

Seriously. The city I live in has VERY little violent crime, so I'm not worried about a home invasion or such. Still, I won't be one of those victims you see on tv saying "this type of thing never happens around here!"

It is no burden to simply keep my Shield 9mm where it is when I come home....at 4:00 on my hip. No reload though, because if something happens I'll be retrieving more than a reload!
 
I go home, the IWB holster stays on but the Shield 9mm comes out and spends it's time in a covert location in my computer room. I have my wife's 6" 686+ and my 8" 629 in covert holsters attached to the each side of the couch. I also have the 1911 and an extra loaded magazine on my nightstand should I be back there if the need arises. Loaded 12 gauge stashed behind a false wall in the master closet.

I've always got multiple firearms within quick reach. Even have one stashed in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. lol

I live in a nice area, but you just never know when trouble might come a knockin'. I'm relatively new to conceal carry, but I'm no stranger to guns. Rest assured... My house is the last house you want to invade.
 
I like to put on my western rig when I'm cooking out in the back yard.
My neighbors think it's cool. My neighbor on the left is a veteran of the war in Iraq and my other neighbor is a pistol packing nurse. We look after each other. They have keys to my house and I keep a set of keys to their house. Our neighborhood is very safe but you never know.....
Inside the house I am either carrying or have one within reach.

My western rig consists of a Ruger Bilsey Vaquero in .357 in an El Paso Cheyenne rig with a Silver Stag skinner knife. Nothing fancy.
 
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Well, someone here needs to be the glaring exception to the rule so it might as well be me. :o Despite an extensive collection and a lifetime of experience with handguns, I don't carry at home. In fact, I don't even have a loaded gun at the ready. I know I should, but I don't. :confused:

Let's start by saying that I live on a very safe street in a very safe neighborhood in a town that has a reputation as one of the safest of its size in the entire country. The neighbors, many of whom are now retired, all know each other and look out for each other. We have a state cop living on our street and enough doggies in the neighborhood so that when anyone even walks down the street, you know about it. There is even more to tell security-wise, but you get the idea. It's as safe as safe gets.

My days of doing dangerous things and going into dangerous places are pretty much all behind me now. I haven't carried in years... not that I couldn't or wouldn't today if I felt the need. I have lots of options. ;)

At home, I like to be comfortable. I wear comfortable clothing. I suppose I could slip a small gun into a pocket if I wanted to, but it would only get ruined in short order by my keys and pocket change and a pocket knife and whatever else I need to carry around. :o

Prior to our loony moonbat state's "safe storage" law, I kept my trusty Model 49 (my main carry piece in the good old days) loaded and ready... accessible in less than 10 seconds from anywhere in the house. The "safe storage" law ended that. Given that the number one way of jamming up licensed gun owners in MA is to charge them with a violation of the "safe storage" law, a serious prison time felony, it's something we've got to take very seriously.

Could I locate quick access gun safes all over the house? I suppose I could. :confused: I think my fully-licensed wife would probably like at least one in the bedroom. Maybe I'm just cheap... or lazy... or both. :( Maybe naive too. :rolleyes: But also consider that in my loony moonbat state, the theft or "loss" of even one gun from your house can mean you lose your license for life. :eek: In that regard, I rest a lot easier with all my guns in a proper full-size gun safe. :cool:

Now, after all that, things are changing... and not for the better. The ongoing invasion of illegals and greatly increased illegal drug activity among welfare clients in two nearby municipalities are increasingly threatening our otherwise very-low-crime town. I am following that trend very closely and changes may become necessary. :cool:

We also expect to be moving in the not too distant future to a much more rural property. While the less populated towns we are considering are generally even lower in crime than our current town, the properties in question are a whole lot more isolated.

I am not a complete fool. I know things will have to change with that move. Guns will be deployed in whatever manner necessary for us to feel fully secure at home, but also in a manner that meets the dubious MA "safe storage" law. I still doubt that I will actually carry when indoors, but I sure as heck will be a whole lot more ready. Outdoors? We'll just have to wait and see. :)
 

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