Guns in the home?

[trillionaire]

Do you own a gun in your household? Why or why not?

FI and I have been debating the topic, so I was curious about fellow PSers.

 

[yssie]

No.

I don''t object to it, however I do think that if you''re going to keep one you''d best learn every inch of it and for heavens sake keep it away from the kids, dogs, goats... or it''ll just make a bad situation worse.

 

[neatfreak]

No way. Too dangerous with kids around and you''re more likely to have one of your household members killed or hurt than use it on an intruder.

 

[JSM]

We actually have many - most of them are heirlooms from my husband's grandfather. The rest are used for hunting.

Now that we live in an actual city, he wants a handgun. It makes me nervous, but DH grew up with firearms (farmer in rural middle America), has taken many training courses, and is very responsible and skilled with them. I'd prefer never to touch it if I didn't have to!

Honestly, when I met him and realized he had so many guns, I was very uncomfortable. But as immature as he can be, he's very responsible and serious when it comes to this issue.

Trill, have you or your FI had any experience hunting or at a shooting range? If you are looking into purchasing, one or both of you should get some experience first!

Edited to add: He has already looked into gun safes for if/when we have children. There is no way they would not be locked up with little ones around!

 

[Karl_K]

a? is it possible to just own one?

I sold off most of mine since I destroyed my elbow.
Cant handle the recoil anymore

 

[Dancing Fire]

drama!!

let me just say that i agree with the "Second Amendment".

 

[Kaleigh]

No, wouldn''t want them in my house... I don''t oppose other people having them....

 

[Octavia]

Growing up, my father had one heirloom gun from his grandfather, but never owned any ammo for it and I don't think the gun has been cleaned or fired in 50+ years. After I was grown up and out of the house, my little brother was old enough to hunt and he has acquired several hunting rifles, all of which he uses and has ammo for. I don't love having the stuff around when I'm there visiting, but he does keep it responsibly. My husband and I don't own any guns and don't want to, although I have considered getting one of the personal-use Tasers.

 

[Cehrabehra]

No - Never. Hell.No.

 

[pennquaker09]

Date: 12/13/2009 1:54:14 AM
Author: Cehrabehra
No - Never. Hell.No.

Ditto.

 

[Amethyste]

The only thing that makes me even with a man ( trying to break into my home and cause harm ) is me, with a gun.

I trained to be able to carry and I support responsible gun owners.

A glock and a revolver are a good thing to own

 

[ksinger]

Hubs was in the gun biz for 15 years - retail, wholesale, smithing, gun range. I''ll leave you guys to figure out how I voted.

 

[Liane]

Absolutely!

I don''t have kids (and never will), I live in the city, and my job puts me in contact with some not-so-nice characters. So I have a concealed carry permit for myself and a shotgun for the home.

I grew up with guns so to me it''s no big deal. And, as Amethyste says, it''s an equalizer between a small woman and a big guy.

That said, FI is entirely convinced that I will end up shooting some innocent person who bangs on my door at 3 AM. But since I can''t conceive of a reason that any innocent person would bang on my door at 3 AM, they''ll have it coming for disrupting my sleep.

 

[justginger]

I grew up with my father having guns in the household, but never even realized it - they were very safely tucked away. I didn''t find out he even had them until after I had moved out.

Now that I live in Australia, I won''t ever have one. There is simply no need here. In the urban areas, people just don''t have guns - you hear of a shooting maybe every 3-6 months or so, in a city of 2.5 million. It''s amazing, listening to the news stories here in comparison to where I grew up. In my new home, I reckon not one person out of 50 polled would even be able to tell you where one could acquire a gun!

 

[elrohwen]

No, I don''t. Personally, I really don''t like guns; they kind of scare me. Though I''m all for target practice, if that''s what you''re into, or skeet shooting or whatever and people owning a gun for that purpose.

I don''t think guns for personal protection are a good idea. It just seems like so many things could go wrong, plus, to be useful, you''d have to store the gun and ammo close together which is a big no-no if you have kids. Unless I lived in a very very bad neighborhood I would never consider getting a gun for this purpose.

 

[lulu]

Many. My husband is a collector and those guns are in a locked gun room. We also have two large safes. The guns we have for personal protection are trigger-locked when grandchildren are here.

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

SO and I both grew up with guns in the house (for hunting) and were taught to leave them alone at a young age. Now we have guns because we do target shooting, but not so much hunting anymore.

Until SO came along, I had never fired a gun and they scared me. He took me to the shooting range where I learned that I love to go shoot some holes in paper! All of the kids -- including my 9 year old teeny tiny daughter! -- except our 3 year old have shot at least 1 gun, too, because we want them to learn gun safety.

However, our guns are NOT for home protection. I simply won''t take the chance on relying on a gun that I may not be able to get out in time to do it''s job or that could be used against me. A baseball bat is much more effective in my hands.

 

[E B]

Date: 12/13/2009 1:19:46 AM
Author: neatfreak
No way. Too dangerous with kids around and you''re more likely to have one of your household members killed or hurt than use it on an intruder.

This.

 

[lucyandroger]

I grew up with guns in the household because my dad was in law enforcement. As long as you keep the guns locked up and TEACH the children about gun safety early and often, there shouldn''t be a problem.

 

[perry]

I grew up using guns for target practice and hunting. I''ve had a gun in my bedroom since about age 14. My dad used to shoot competition in high school (schools had shooting teams) - and my most treasured gun is his target 22 rifle.

About 20 years ago I became the target of an attempt on my life and multiyear stalking. That took me into guns are for self defense.

I have quick opening safes (and have had one about 20 years). That takes care of the issues when kids are arround. There is no easy accessable ammo for the rifles that are not in the safes.

I still enjoy target practice.

Karl; why not get yourself a plinker gun.... I enjoy shooting the 22 as much as I did when I was a kid - and no recoil.

Perry

 

[vc10um]

SO has two hunting rifles in the closet, but since hunting is pretty sparse out here, they haven''t been out in a couple years. SO is an NRA member and grew up hunting and target shooting on his grandfather''s farm in the country. I grew up without every seeing a gun except for law enforcement holstered side arms. It''s just not my culture, but I have no problems having the hunting rifles in the house. When we have children, they will be locked up in a safe, with the ammo kept in a separate safe, and the children will not have access to them until they''re old enough to learn how to hunt, and only if they want to. I plan on eventually learning how to go target shooting, but I don''t think the act of hunting is my thing.

I don''t plan on having a personal protection handgun at any point, however, and I don''t think SO plans on it either. We just don''t live in an area where you would need one.

 

[diamondringlover]

We have many guns in our house, my husband collects guns and knives like I do jewerly, however, we do have a gun safe and everything is locked up nice and tight.

 

[soocool]

I do not want a gun in my house because of 2 incidences:

When DD was little I specifically asked her babysitter if she had any guns in her home (her husband was a hunter) and she told me no, that he kept all his guns, rifles and ammo at their hunting trailer. She used to watch many kids in her home for a long time. It will be 7 years next Valentine's Day weekend that her husband shot her in the head (she is still alive with a bullet still lodged in her head, paralyzed on one side, living in a nursing home) and then turned the gun on hmself (he died). She was lying there all weekend until one mom came on Monday morning to drop off her kid. When no one responded to her knocking, even though the car was in the driveway, she called the woman's son who then came to the house and found his parents. Found out later (from the woman herself) that she lied to all the parents about her husband keeping a gun in the house. She didn't want to lose business. Also, later found out from some of the kids that the husband would bring out his gun and show it off to them frequently. Apparently, none of the kids ever told their parents.


A second incident happened when my nephew was 10 years old. He went to a friend's house and the boy showed off his father's gun. Nephew told his father who then contacted the parents. The parents said it was no big deal, the gun wasn't loaded. Several months later the boy and father were arrested. The boy deicded to play target practice outside with the gun and shot a neighbor when he missed the target. Lucikily, the neighbor only suffered a superficial leg wound. It could have been much worse.

Remember the saying," guns don't kill, people do"? Whatever your decision make sure it is the right one.

 

[Tuckins1]

You bet we do. We both have our CPL (concealed pistol permit) and we go to the range regularly for target practice.

You never can be too prepared for Zombie apocalypse

 

[Tuckins1]

Date: 12/13/2009 1:19:46 AM
Author: neatfreak
No way. Too dangerous with kids around and you''re more likely to have one of your household members killed or hurt than use it on an intruder.

Where are the stats on that? I would love to see the actual numbers on that study...

 

[packrat]

We have a lot. I don''t have a conceal carry license yet, so there isn''t one in my truck, but JD''s trucks both have a small gun. JD hunts a lot, plus IF something were to happen in the outside world, zombies or what have you, we have plenty of protection. JD and dad built a nice reloading bench and gun cabinet in the basement, and the guns are always unloaded. He''s super careful and respectful of guns and their power. I''m not near as comfortable around them-I rarely handle one and we''ve only gone out shooting a few times-I just need to spend more time learning about them and handling them.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 12/13/2009 10:58:35 AM
Author: Tuckins1

Date: 12/13/2009 1:19:46 AM

Author: neatfreak

No way. Too dangerous with kids around and you're more likely to have one of your household members killed or hurt than use it on an intruder.

Where are the stats on that? I would love to see the actual numbers on that study...

Here are two studies that literally took me 2 second to find that talk about it. And there are MANY others.

Inj Prev. 2000 Dec;6(4):263-7.
Gun use in the United States: results from two national surveys.

Hemenway D, Azrael D, Miller M.

Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. [email protected]

OBJECTIVES: To determine the relative incidence of gun victimization versus self defense gun use by civilians in the United States, and the circumstances and probable legality of the self defense uses. METHODS: National random digit dial telephone surveys of the adult population were conducted in 1996 and 1999. The Harvard surveys appear unique among private surveys in two respects: asking (1) open ended questions about defensive gun use incidents and (2) detailed questions about both gun victimization and self defense gun use. Five criminal court judges were asked to assess whether the self reported defensive gun uses were likely to have been legal. RESULTS: Even after excluding many reported firearm victimizations, far more survey respondents report having been threatened or intimidated with a gun than having used a gun to protect themselves. A majority of the reported self defense gun uses were rated as probably illegal by a majority of judges. This was so even under the assumption that the respondent had a permit to own and carry the gun, and that the respondent had described the event honestly. CONCLUSIONS: Guns are used to threaten and intimidate far more often than they are used in self defense. Most self reported self defense gun uses may well be illegal and against the interests of society.

JAMA. 2005 Feb 9;293(6):707-14.
Gun storage practices and risk of youth suicide and unintentional firearm injuries.

Grossman DC, Mueller BA, Riedy C, Dowd MD, Villaveces A, Prodzinski J, Nakagawara J, Howard J, Thiersch N, Harruff R.

Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. [email protected]

Comment in:

* JAMA. 2005 Feb 9;293(6):740-1.

CONTEXT: Household firearms are associated with an elevated risk of firearm death to occupants in the home. Many organizations and health authorities advocate locking firearms and ammunition to prevent access to guns by children and adolescents. The association of these firearm storage practices with the reduction of firearm injury risk is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To measure the association of specific household firearm storage practices (locking guns, locking ammunition, keeping guns unloaded) and the risk of unintentional and self-inflicted firearm injuries. DESIGN AND SETTING: Case-control study of firearms in events identified by medical examiner and coroner offices from 37 counties in Washington, Oregon, and Missouri, and 5 trauma centers in Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma, Wash, and Kansas City, Mo. CASES AND CONTROLS: Case firearms were identified by involvement in an incident in which a child or adolescent younger than 20 years gained access to a firearm and shot himself/herself intentionally or unintentionally or shot another individual unintentionally. Firearm assaults and homicides were excluded. We used records from hospitals and medical examiners to ascertain these incidents. Using random-digit dial telephone sampling, control firearms were identified by identification of eligible households with at least 1 firearm and children living or visiting in the home. Controls were frequency matched by age group and county. MAIN EXPOSURE MEASURES: The key exposures of interest in this study were: (1) whether the subject firearm was stored in a locked location or with an extrinsic lock; (2) whether the firearm was stored unloaded; (3) whether the firearm was stored both unloaded in a locked location; (4) whether the ammunition for the firearm was stored separately; and (5) whether the ammunition was stored in a locked location. Data regarding the storage status of case and control guns were collected by interview with respondents from the households of case and control firearms. RESULTS: We interviewed 106 respondents with case firearms and 480 with control firearms. Of the shootings associated with the case firearms, 81 were suicide attempts (95% fatal) and 25 were unintentional injuries (52% fatal). After adjustment for potentially confounding variables, guns from case households were less likely to be stored unloaded than control guns (odds ratio [OR], 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.16-0.56). Similarly, case guns were less likely to be stored locked (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.17-0.45), stored separately from ammunition (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.34-0.93), or to have ammunition that was locked (OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.23-0.66) than were control guns. These findings were consistent for both handguns and long guns and were also similar for both suicide attempts and unintentional injuries. CONCLUSIONS: The 4 practices of keeping a gun locked, unloaded, storing ammunition locked, and in a separate location are each associated with a protective effect and suggest a feasible strategy to reduce these types of injuries in homes with children and teenagers where guns are stored.



Personally I think there is a HUGE difference between people who respect firearms and truly store them correctly vs. people that don't. But for me, it's not a risk I am willing to take. Kids are smart and there have been many studies that have also shown that the kids know how to get guns out of safes much more often than parents think they can. And the fact of the matter is that most people are not storing them safely or using best practices when securing them.

So please, I urge anyone who has guns in their home to not only conceal them from their kids (and practice every safe gun practice possible) but to educate their children on how harmful they can be and teach them to respect them. There are SO MANY accidents with guns that would not have occured with the right gun safety practices and education. There are many quick access safes on the market that are as easy to open as a dresser drawer but are also so much safer for the occupants of the house.

 

[anchor31]

No way, no how. Ever.

 

[iheartscience]

Threads like this are so interesting to me because I don''t know exactly where I stand on this issue. My father is a hunter and his father and grandfather owned a gun shop together, so I grew up around guns, and plenty of them. I learned how to shoot a gun very young-I probably shot my first gun at age 5 or 6. I actually took target shooting classes at a 4-H camp when I was 7. (I''m very good with a .22!) So because of my childhood I''m not afraid of guns and I know how to use them and store them responsibly.

But I''m still not sure I''d feel comfortable having one at home, especially if I had children. In my current job I''ve come across several people who have lost loved ones to gun injuries (both accidental shootings and suicides). I can''t imagine losing a child because of my gun ownership.

And overall, I wonder how many home invasions actually occur in the U.S., and of those home invasions, if gun ownership would even make a difference? And in home invasions, how many homeowners are actually home at the time? And how many of those homeowners are injured by the intruder? If the homeowners brandish a gun, does that escalate the situation and cause the homeowner to be more likely to be shot? Or does it actually scare the home invader away?

It just seems like the risk of a home invasion where you''re actually home is so small, and there''s no guarantee you''ll even be near your gun when the home invasion actually occurs. I''m not sure if the possibility of being home invaded is enough to make up for the risk of owning a gun, especially if you have children.

 

[sparklyheart]

Interesting question.. I don''t own one and don''t know if *I* will.. I grew up with guns in the house.. My dad is a huge hunter and he had a double-locked gun closet that was in my bedroom! My brothers and I never knew where the key was.. My brothers had beebee guns when they were little and my dad was very careful to teach us all about gun safety. I know it sounds crazy to have a gun closet in my room.. but I feel like my parents were very safe about everything and they didn''t keep the guns a secret.. They told us they were in the closet and that they were not toys or anything.. I think a big part of the trouble is when the kids discover them on their own and decide to play with them or when parents make it out to be a fun game.. Kids live with kitchen knives in their house but don''t go around stabbing people.. it''s all about education and the parents approach.. at least that''s my .02!