Does anyone still have nice wood cabinets with glass fronts to keep their long guns in? I never used one, but my father did. It is too bad these days it is just not safe to have such a display or such easy access to guns. I think his old gun case is still packed away down in one of the storage buildings. No way I would think of using it today.

I also remember when about 40 percent of all pickup trucks in Texas had rifle racks on the rear window with a shotgun or a 30-30 hung in it for everyone to see. I just don’t see that these days and I expect it would not last 10 minutes in a parked vehicle.

What happened?

Well, it started a long time ago when they allowed women to vote. And has been getting worse ever since.

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Armed and Dangerous

I have a nice, mahogany gun cabinet that my great-uncle made for me in 1986. I don't use it to store any firearms because it is not secure enough anymore. All my guns are in a Liberty Safe instead. It would be nice to be able to keep them in the cabinet.

A number of years ago I made one in Cherry- it held several long guns etc. Was so big I had to make it in three pieces-- I ended up getting rid of it a couple years later.

I do have some glass front shadow boxes that hold several antique and 100 yr old S&W's that I do display in my home office. They are not what you would think of as shootable handguns, but do have substantial value. I guess I'm taking a chance, but I enjoy them too much, and visitors also enjoy them.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

It's a changing world, and not for the better. Those days of advertising what you own are over with.

I used a bedroom as my reloading/gun room before we had kids and kept all my long guns displayed on a wall rack I built.Things have changed....

What happened? As to rifle racks... theft, liability, etc. Now as to gun cabinets w/ glass fronts... plenty of folks use them. I see them when making visits in the homes of church members. And, in my home there is a large 16 gun cabinet built for me by one of my church members. It has keyed cabinet locks that have served the purpose for the last 28 years. It holds all my rifles and my one shotgun. It has large drawers below that hold most of my hunting gear.

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I remember when many of the nicer houses around hear had large built-in lighted, glass gun cabinets in the family room

Back in the 60s they started telling people via TV to not leave their keys in their parked cars- the motto was "don't make a good boy go bad" It was the start of the Red Neck versus the anti-military- hippie movement--having a rifle in the back window made you a part of the generation gap.
This has evolved to where we are today. Beautiful glass cabinets for guns- loved them-and how many of us have guns we are proud to show-cuidado

Back when I was a yonker and doing pizza delivery in a small town of about 23,000, I used to always drive around w/ three rifles visible in the window, and nobody ever batted an eyelash. I still see a few who have racks mounted and even fewer with rifles in them. My dad, an older brother, my brother in law--all used to have them in their vehicles. For me, the ostentatious display eventually wore off, I removed all but a .22 rifle which was stowed in the trunk--as one never knew when an opportunity would arise and had a chance to use the County rifle range.

Definition of ostentatious== Intended to attract notice and impress others. Ill leave off the rest of the defined word because it sounds like a liberal created the meaning. The left off part was--"in an extreme and unnecessary way" which I strongly do not agree with.

I can only be redundant here. I was raised in the 1940s. I never seen a gun safe and dont think they even started getting popular until about the mid/late 1980s or so. It`s a sorry fact that the world changed in about a decade. I would estimate it all started in the 1960s with the Vietnam era, protesters, peacenics hippys etc. Depends on where we were raised. The citys were faster with it than the country. I was raised in rural wisconsin and we seldom thought about security and burglary's were uncommon. My dad died in 2003 at 90 years old and I dont believe he ever experienced a theft. My grandpa`s store was held up around 1919 and outside of that I never heard of a robbery or theft in our huge extended family. You just cant deny that the country's morals has went to heck and getting worse.

I got one of those:



I converted it to a humidor.

I have made a few for customers over the years. I build them with ornate iron bars so the pistols are not removable. Usually, a section with pistols will get plexiglass instead of real glass if the pistols are of a smaller nature or the bars will block the view too much and detract from the cabinet and/ or the contents.

I'll steer away from the things which changed our society, for fear of CoC violations. Suffice to say, they were not much of a problem until president Johnson was elected............

Haffta laugh at this one, as it is exactly what my grandpa told me decades ago when I was a kid and not a grandpa myself. Also, said that granting women driver licenses would be the demise of the family, too. He said to give women a voice in politics and a means of free travel would be the demise of the family. I betcha there were alot of those old-timers that thought this way.
Have a Happy New Year....

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GA Carry member
Vietnam Vet

I wish I could own one but the risk is too high. My friends as a kid had them and we'd look through the glass at their dad's deer rifles and such. We knew enough not to touch but could still look and dream when we'd own our own.
I do have a rack in my man cave with old wall hangers that don't have so much value. The rest stay in a safe where nobody sees them but me.

LIFE !
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

Mine now holds a bunch of model cars.

I had a really nice cabinet to display my guns from 1970 when I got married till the early 80s. Then we moved and break-ins were going on and I did not want to lose my guns nor feel bad if someone stole than and bad things happened.

I bought a Pro Steel safe in 81, (that was long before they were called Brownings) and felt a lot better when we were out of that house. Had houses on both sides of me broking into at different times, one house it happened when we were home and we knew nothing about till the cops rang our bell to ask some questions (guns were taken). We were lucky I guess but moved to another location and bought a much bigger safe.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

My father-in-law has one! They look cool, and they're fun to look at. But not safe with the new Gkids, so I'm thinkin' it'll be gone soon.

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Still just a kid at heart

Still see it around here some. I run a safe, but, then I am sometimes gone for long periods. I would have a window rifle rack, but they kinda suck with extended cab trucks. I made a setup where the muzzles of 2 rifles set under the dash and the stocks rest in cradles on the center rest.

Gun safes are a kind of feel good deal that only keep out kids and casual thieves. I could get into most of them in less than 15 minutes with a 4 1/2" grinder and some .045 disks.

sad to have to hide everything...my glass gun case holds bb guns and breakdown fishing gear now.......oh,and a couple pool cues.

dad had one, it's still in mom's bedroom. I will probably bring it home this summer. I will use it for it's intended purpose.

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SDMF

I had one. It was good for displaying the guns and keeping dust off of them. It kept the kid's hands off also. I gave it to my son. Security wise, probably better than nothing but not by much.

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Luke 22:36

Still have one,but only keep the less valuable shotguns in it. Not too many bangers want old rabbit-ear doubles.

My son has a beautiful built-in upstairs in "his room". The entrance door is a vault style.

f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

I was never fortunate enough to have a nice wooden gun case. Most nice wooden gun cabinets did have locks but I always thought it was taking a chance having them out in plain sight. My neighbor had a real nice one. Actually I didn't have a lot of long guns.

All the gun racks in pickups around here disappeared many years ago. You would be reported and probably arrested for carrying a rifle like that now if somebody didn't steal it first.

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James
On the Llano Estacado

Dad has one. It was the first anniversary gift from mom in 1981. They live out in the woods away from the suburbs and away from Atlanta, the crime rate isn't there, so there hasn't ever been home invasion cases.

I'm renting with intent to move every 3-5 years until I buy a house and I really don't want to move a safe... So it'll be a gun cabinet for me, too

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