How to keep my guns away from "the 3 C's"

One of the biggest responsibilities of being a weapon owner, regardless of whether you concealed carry or not, is maintaining control of your weapons. I don't remember where I heard it, but someone described the 3 C's - Children, Criminals and the Clueless. The first two are obvious, but what exactly are the Clueless?




I think of them as anyone who is not competent to handle firearms. Perhaps they are not properly trained to maintain safe control, or perhaps they are not mature enough to be trusted not to hurt themselves or someone else. But here is what I think - the Clueless includes just about everyone but me. It is my responsibility to make sure that my weapons are always secure, either on my person, under my direct control or safely secured.



Why bring this up? Well, lately my collection has been growing to the point where it is getting difficult to maintain control. I have a couple small pistol safes, which is where I keep my handguns. But I have a couple long guns now, and they won't fit. I have resorted to making them un-fireable (if that is a word). Each has at least 1 vital part missing, securely locked away, without which they can not operate. But that is not a good permanent solution.



So, a couple decisions to make. How will I lock away everything? Do I get a gun cabinet, or a real gun safe? A gun cabinet is a heavy duty metal storage cabinet, with either a combination lock, electric lock or security key. And it isn't just 1 small tab of metal holding the door closed when it is locked; typically it is 2 to 4 tabs. A gun safe is as it sounds, a very heavy (often over 500 lbs) steel vault with heavy locking bars holding the door against prying attempts. I am leaning towards the cabinet for several reasons-

• It is about 1/3 to 1/4 the price

• It is something I can manage to get in to the house without a small army

• Once it is bolted to the wall or floor, it won't be going anywhere soon

• I am securing a utilitarian group of weapons, not a highly valuable antique collection

• Living out of town and away from my closest neighbors, if I am not home any thief will have an almost unlimited amount of time to attack whatever I put in, which means the added security of a safe is probably not holding up for long either.

But I don't intend to just trust what is basically a heavy duty locker to hold weapons. I plan on securing it in as obscure a location as I possibly can think of, which gives the additional security of stealth. Again, a burglar will no doubt find it if I am not here to stop them, but it will certainly work to keep any kids, un-authorized adults and petty criminals from having immediate access to them.



So, I guess I better pull the trigger on this. I had been thinking of going with more of a hidden storage solution, which relies even more on being out of sight than really secure. I looked in to all kinds of locks, and researched how to make secret storage spaces in walls and behind bookcases and such. But let's face it, that all takes time and money which I may never be able to afford. So, going with the simple commercial solution seems to be the way to go, at least for now.



Who knows, maybe in a couple years I can get one of those really expensive, elaborate safes like from Fort Knox or something. But since one of those costs about a mortgage payment and car payment combined, it will probably be a while.