If you do not have a gun safe, get one. One of my shooting buddies had his house broken into this week.They stole 14 of his handguns. All he has left are the ones stored at his range locker.

*sigh* We sold the great safe we had in our second house, when we were trying to sell the house as the crash came. When we started using the house again, we did not have a safe in it. Came home after a weekend this past summer, and had been burgled. Lost a patrol rifle (Noveske N4), patrol shotgun (Vang modified M590), and a 625-6. I never leave guns there now.

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NHI, 10-8.

Gun safes are a good thing. I've got two of them and my house has an alarm. I've only see one successfully burgled in the last 13 years. That one was removed from a house while the owner was out of state working. It was found peeled over in Louisiana. The safe company replaced the safe but the contents were gone. I suspect his druggie ex-stepson was involved but there was no proof of this. I have seen several failed attempts at breaking into a gun safe. These things will also help protect your stuff in some house fires. Depends on what your safe is rated for and how hot the fire is. Occassionally we'll get a wave of house burglaries followed by a wave of safe buying.

A safe was the best purchase I ever made, but I filled it and need a second.
Would like one for handguns and one for rifles, plus an ammo safe would be cool.Hmmmmm, might be better off with a vault.

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OGCA Member.

I've been thinking of a display case so that I could show them without being handled. Not a good idea. I'm going to go with a safe.

Buying a gun safe is only part of what is needed.

Install it securely mounted to the floor. A safe that just stands on the floor can be carried away by 2-3 good sized guys using an appliance dolly.

Then keep the door closed and LOCKED. Never leave the combination one number from completion. A lot of people do so and their safes are easily compromised.

A good safe is a lot cheaper than replacing one good gun.

I am still amazed when I visit a Gunowner's house
& see guns stored in a glass front wooden cabinet

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

My Canon safe was THE BEST MONEY spent for any part of my shooting hobby. When I had 20 plus guns, it hit me one day when I realized that a single gun cost more than the money I paid for my Limited Edition 2nd Amendment safe. I'm in it a minimum of twice per day.

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Go big or stay home

I worked with a Dr. once that was a serious gun nut and collector. I went with him one time to pick up some guns from a gunsmith and was amazed to see he had some Montgomery Wards rifles and shotguns and H&R revolvers highly blued and the wood poly-urethane coated. When I asked him why he spend so much money on getting the guns prettied up - especially when the dress-up in some cases exceeded the value of the gun - he told me they were his "bait guns". He would place the "bait gun" in locked, glass cabinets while the good stuff was locked up in hidden gun safes. He had been the victim of a few robberies, and the thieves smashed and grabbed all of the bait guns and didn't bother anything else in the house. By the way, he had also had the gunsmith carefully deactivate each gun by doing things like shortening the firing pins.

Regards,

Dave

Quote--"By the way, he had also had the gunsmith carefully deactivate each gun by doing things like shortening the firing pins."---ROTFLMBO!!!! hahahahahahhhahahhaahhaahhahaah

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Go big or stay home

One of the first things I did when I got serious about handguns was to purchase a Liberty Centurion 30. This is an entry-level safe, offering only moderate fire protection. Since I own no collectible guns, I am not worried about losing them during a serious home fire. For the valuables that I am less willing to lose (the gigs and gigs of family phiotos and videos, for example) I have (so far) purchased two fire-resistant, water-resistant boxes that sit in the fire-resistant safe. I'll get about an hour of 1200F protection from that arrangement, and unless the fire department (which is only a mile away) simply cannot get here, a fire of this magnitude is unlikely.

The total price, including the safe, sales tax, delivery, and a tip for the *excellent* delivery dudes, was about $1200. For another $100 I could have purchased one of Liberty's fat boy safes, but since the extra foot of width would make it much more difficult to store in my postage-stamp house, I opted for the smaller model. Good thing, too. The Centurion 30 *barely* made it up the stoop to my rear door in my enclosed patio room, having less than 1" clearance when rotated to get into the house. The fat boy would have gone back to the store on the truck.

Wise decision. I've got a beautiful,glass-front walnut gun cabinet and a glass-topped chest that I don't use anymore. It sucks that you have to lock 'em up out of site.
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

Even a glass cabinet is better than what I see in people's homes. Most of the places I go inside of has a couple of wall hanging racks where someone just has to lift the rifle. Fingerprints go with the gun.

My gun safe was my best purchase ever as well, of course it was empty and now it's filled. Now I need a second one!
Of course at one time I did have the gun cabinet but that was a Christmas gift from the wife. We still have it but it's not used any longer.
A good gun safe is a wise purchase!

i must agree...my very large winchester safe was a smart buy

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

When I started adding up how much $$ I had in my guns I finally got a safe. I don't have to worry when I'm gone like I did before. All my guns stay there...except for the flavor of the day that I carry and have at night. Safes are a MUST have and like another post said...it cost less than most any of my guns!

Yes, good reminder S&W keeper. Everyone thinks it only happens to others.
I've also got an alarm, a dog and LE neighbors who I shoot and hunt with.

Buying my gunsafe was the one of the smartest things I've ever done. It really eased my mind. I also have it bolted thru the floor. I've had it over 20 yrs. and the peace of mind has really been worth it. When I think about the times before I had a safe and worried a lot especially when out of town I don't know what took me so long. I also have bought a second one to catch overflow. It is full also.


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James

A good gunsafe bolted through the floor is a must IMHO.
I've got a hunting buddy who tells of a guy who had
two safes stolen from his house while he was away. The thieves
simply put a chain around the safes and pulled one right through a
window and the second right through the side of his house with a
pick-up truck i guess. The story is told that the safes we're both found
later in the country with the tops cut out by torch and all guns removed. The Homeowner bought a third safe and took it to a welder
to have a hidden compartment welded in the top of the new safe which was then filled with 5 pounds of black powder. I guess the third safe
gets taken and the police will find bits and pieces of the thief/thieves along side the safe when it's torched open. "Not something i would do".
But to each his own i guess.


chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Great idea, but then he will get sued, especially if they survive and are maimed. Great country we live in.


Anyways, to all the guys that have their guns stolen because they have no safe, thank you for placing more guns in the hands of criminals. Safe gun handling starts with safe gun KEEPING, yes you should not have to, but the facts are you just helped arm people that are the reason our gun rights are under attack.

If you can afford a gun, you can afford a safe. Granted nothing will stop a determined thief, but at least don't make it easy for them to just walk in and walk out.

People having guns and not under lock and key when not home, imho, are completly irresponsible gun owners.

Glass front cases do not count, and the mentality that "it won't happen to me" is inexcusable.

To those who are responsible gun owners, who don't like helping thiefs get our guns so our right come under even more fire, to you I say THANKS.

Sorry but that is extremely disgusting, over a dozen guns and can't get a safe.

Just plain irresponsible, the loss of guns/ money serves him right, but what is even worse, 14 guns are now out there to rob and kill people, because your friend wanted to be cheap.

9c1lover
you said it all buddy, I feel the same way. The last thing I ever want to do is call LE and say I left my guns out and they stole them all along with my 3000 rnds of wammo. the piece of mind is worth the price of a safe.

Gun safe bolted down, alarm system, two Irish Wolfhounds and an Ill-tempered wife. Can't think of anything else I can do...

Responsible gun owners should own a gun safe and use it.

I see this all the time and it's frustrating.

I do this ever time I leave the house, you would need a micrometer to tell the difference.

Everytime you leave your house you replace all the firing pins with shorter ones? Really?

Usually people stealing guns, the guns end up in peoples hands that use the for robbing people, a non working gun robs people, just a easy, this is still no excuse for safe gun keeping, just lock the dang things up.

Dummy guns for thieves to smash and grab is pretty stupid too, imho, while they might not be able to be used to kill, they can still EASILY be used to ROB!

That isn't very nice at all. If he leaves them out on the front lawn, they belong to him, and no one has the right to take them. DO you keep your car, television, computer, etc in a safe? Would it "serve you right" if they were stolen?

I wouldn't want to live near him if his house caught fire!!??!

I just love it (not) when someone gets on a forum and whines about a burglar taking all their guns.

BUY A DAMN SAFE.

If someone only has one or two guns, ok, but pretend the guns are cash and find a hiding place place for them that no one will ever find.

My car and tv and computer are notused to rob and kill people, and further wittle away our rights to own firearms if stolen. Very bad comparison.

As far as them being his and him leaving them out in his front lawn, Welcome to planet Earth, sorry but life is not fair here, but the beer is good. You are right, he SHOULD be able to do that, unfortunately, that is not acceptable. We live in a world filled with thieves and piece's of excremint, so, to protect the only right that really matters to keep our country, we need to keep guns out of criminals hands.

It sadens me that you can't see my point, to the point you would defend the irresponsibility.

Nice try though.

Even one or two, be responsible, it's not just a piece of metal, guns are highly regulated and kept from criminals, the only way they get them is from theft, STOP HELPING THEM, YOUR stolen gun hurts ALL OF US.

I feel more importantly than keeping my guns away from criminals is keeping them away from children. If a thrift wants them bad enough they will get them but a curious child is all it would take to make a believer out of you. A few years back a guy I went toit school with had his pistol on his night stand and his 7 year old shot a hole in bedroom wall. Luckily nobody was injured but it could have been far worse.

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Should not have kept his kids from the guns at an early age, my 4 year old has shot guns and has more gun safety than several adults I know.

The forbidden fruit attitude kills a lot of children.

My sons knows what to do before you touch a gun, knows not to touch a gun without me, and knows what a gun does, your buddy should have shown his child gun safety if he cared to keep a gun exposed.

I test my child daily in gun safety, he is 4.

Be responsible people, dang!

Worst thing you could do! Teach them YOUNG! I bet all he did was say "don't touch this" IF that!
And now he is wondering why it happened, or blames the kid. SAD.

I keep all of my guns locked up in the safe but when my kids are 4-5 I will start the process of teaching them gun safety and proper handling procedures so they k ow it is not a toy and it can be deadly

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No, it wasn't very nice. But it was true.

Too many gun owners just can't bring themselves to buy a safe but they sure as heck can afford another gun!!

ALL gun owners should have one. Why do you think you are not charged sales tax when you buy one. It's an incentive.

Because of people like this, many states have stepped in and require gun owners buy and use a gun safe or pistol safe. Just what we need, more government because some of us don't use common sense. And more states are considering the same law.

In the closet in the master bedroom, there is a cheapy gun safe, bolted to the floor and wall. It is easily seen if you slide the closet door back. My idea is that any thieves will see it and waste a bunch of time tearing it out or cutting it open. Hopefully they get so mad when they find the Daisy BB guns and old Slavia .177 pellet rifle and a couple of old Mosin stocks that I keep in there that they have a heart attack and drop dead on the spot. Good luck in finding the small handgun safes that are hidden throughout the house, or the safes where the rifles are hidden in places that your usual thug would NEVER think of looking...hehehe... sometimes doing your own remodeling has unforseen benefits.

It takes me months to able to afford a gun purchase. I've been looking at safes for my very small gun collection but would have to forgo eating for a month then I would have to try to figure out how to bolt it down to the floor of my second story apartment. I think the apartment manager would have something to say about that.

Gunsafes are mandatory here in Sweden.

Can't get a license if you ain't got one.

Excellent points, especially the last...a really good safe can be bought these days for only a little more than the price of a moderately expensive handgun.

Now that's one clever idea! Thanks for sharing it with us! :-)

You make some very good points.

When I was in the process of buying my safe, and wondering which model to buy, the salesman pointed out that what you are really buying is time...

If you live in a populated area, with attentive neighbors, you don't necessarily need the biggest, strongest safe money will buy, because a burglary of your property and an attempt to break into the safe will be noticed promptly. If you live in the middle of nowhere, in a place where the bad guys would go unnoticed while they try to get your safe open, you need a heavier, stronger model.

Alarming the safe itself, or the room where it sits, is a good idea as well. :-)

When we were remodeling the house a few years ago, we had two very large walk in closets in the master bedroom.

One of these I converted into my "arms room"

Several friends and I spent the better part of two weeks lining the inside with 1/4 in sheet steel plates in the walls,floor and ceiling.Then covered with fire rated drywall. Found a fire rated steel door at a salvage yard, brand new. Insulated with fire proof insulation, all the electrical is armored cable and fire resistant.

The 2 large gun safes are bolted through the steel floor and the nuts welded.

The security system is biometric. My wife,myself and our youngest son are the only ones who can open it. There is a backup bio pad hidden in another part of the house.

We occasionally store guns for friends going on vacation or whatnot.

If someone wants my stuff, they are gonna be there awhile.

Was it worth it? Sure. The total cost was about that of a very large Canon safe.

Cheap security? Buy a couple of IR game camera's with big SD cards. Hide them. They record in a continuious loop. Great for ID'ing the thieves. Or tresspassers. Three in the house and one in the garage along with two outside.

I replace the batteries twice a year and they are hard wired to power supplies for daily use.

Not paranoid, just protecting what I have.

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Take your time..quickly.

Well, they are highly regulated anyway.

I agree that gun owner possession and use of a safe is part of responsible gun ownership. However, I don't think for a single moment that universal theft deterrence would materially alter the number of guns possessed by criminals.

Maybe sales tax is not charged for a gun safe where you live. In Franklin County, Ohio I paid 6.75% sales tax on mine. Added about $50 to its price.

The Liberty Centurion 30 is a fairly large safe and at around $900 retail (including sales tax) represents a low $/volume figure. Since $900 is not an insignificant amount of money for most people, there exists a drive to buy something much cheaper, which should mean "smaller". But the $/volume doesn't scale down for theft-resistant, fire-resistant safes. Even a small safe having such qualities may still be $400, which is still a significant sum of money. I can understand why people choose not to purchase such a device when it costs as much as their gun, or an annual supply of ammunition. Those people instead should focus on ways to secure their guns with a minimum of expenditure, remembering that the goal is not to make the guns theft-proof, but simply to deter a thief sufficiently that something else gets stolen.

This implies a judgement call on the part of the gun owner. For example, I am not allowed to carry a concealed handgun into my client's office; therefore, it stays in my car. I purchased an under-seat lockbox which is secured to the vehicle by a cable that wraps around the seat frame and terminates inside the lockbox such that it cannot be unwrapped without unlocking the box. In Car Gun Lockers To what degree will this deter a theft should some low-life scum sucker decide to burgle my car? Only some. It will not stop theft of my handgun by a properly-equipped, determined thief. Does this make me irresponsible for leaving my gun in my car? That's somebody else's opinion, and I leave it to them to decide for themselves, but my obvious position is "no" since (a) I have secured the firearm in a lockbox and (b) theft of my firearm is itself a crime in which I am the victim, not an irresponsible perpetrator.

Gun safes are like hard drives - no matter how large, I'm gonna fill it up and need a bigger one!

Hey buckeye, as for the crimanals already having them, you are correct, a safe will not lower that number but it will help to not increase it.

As far as the safe not having sales tax, I did not post that brother, I paid tax on mine.

Don't know how you got my name above that quote, but it had me do a double take..LOL.

Sure they could be. Any good burgler needs a getaway car; one with tags not traceable to him would be all the better. As for the computer; ever hear of identity theft? Most anything can be used for criminal activity with just a touch of imagination.

I have two safes, an will shortly be shopping for #3. I don't think it's a bad idea, I just didn't appreciate the tone of your post, frankly.

America's great, ain't it?

You don't like my tone, that's fine, I don't like people helping erode my rights further by being irresponsible with an already fragile "right" to own guns.

While we're at it, if you haven't taken the time to document your guns, you should be slapped upside the head.

Record model and serial numbers. Include accessories too. Pictures work great.

Yep! Great addition.

It has already been mentioned, but is worth saying again:

All any safe can do is buy you time. Even bank vaults can be broken into if the perps have enough time to work on it.

Without giving instructions on safe cracking, nothing listed so far can or would survive a 2 hour assault by 2 or 3 determined thieves.

Security goes way past a safe. Things like glass exterior doors, and accesses to the rear of the house by vehicle, especially if hidden from the street, are big security holes.

Safes do stop many smash and grab druggies, but team home invasions are the rising event in Ga, safes are not the number one deterrent for these robberies.