Triangle Tactical Podcast and Blog on Guns, Gear, and Competition Shooting
Do you have house rules for guns? I’ve got a couple that I implemented a long time ago, and I still follow:
No chambered rounds in the house.
I started this way back when I first started carrying concealed. I was somewhat inexperienced with handguns, and it made me feel better to have an empty chamber when home. Years and years later, I still pop a round into the chamber on my way out the door, and pop it back out when I get home.
No exposed trigger guards on pistols that aren’t in the safe.
This one comes from the same time frame that I mentioned above. If I have a handgun sitting nearby, it’s always in a holster. I don’t really know why I do this, but I never leave a pistol sitting out unholstered.
Do you have any ‘house rules’?
I remember when I first started owning guns and I saw someone on some video somewhere racking the action on some rifle and a round popped out and both people in the video were visibly shaken.
I still to this day can’t understand that reaction. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t keep each gun loaded with a chambered round, otherwise what good is it? If you’re supposed to treat them all as loaded, shouldn’t they be loaded?
Can you elaborate more on why you make guns safe when entering your home? Right now I’m comparing it to the gun show rule where you can’t have a loaded gun and it seems somewhat hypocritical to me for gun owners to not want loaded weapons around them but get amped up about people not wanting loaded guns around them or in their stores.
I can understand when you’re first learning and you’re not comfortable enough with it to trust yourself to not fuck up. I just didn’t expect you to feel that way with all your experience. Not knocking you, just wanted a little more elaboration.
I was always taught that guns are to be unloaded when not in use, so it’s something that stems from childhood for me. When I first started buying my own guns, even leaving a pistol with a magazine in it was something that made me nervous. I guess I feel like in my home, I’ll have plenty of time to chamber a round if needed, and since my wife isn’t an experienced shooter, leaving the pipe empty in the house still works for me.
My house rules are fairly simple…the gun is on me or in the safe (I keep 2 fast access pistol safes in the house). When I dryfire, there is no live ammo in the room in which I am practicing in and the gun gets put back in the safe immediately at the end of the session. Because I have small kids, this system seems reasonable and works for me.
I always have a round in the chamber with my handguns, and do not have a round in the chamber with long guns.
My handguns are always either in my hands or in a holster, even in the safe. It makes putting them on easier and I don’t have to worry about losing the holster. I do keep my leather holsters separate, but I don’t use leather that often.
Ed, those are the same as mine. Good rules.
I follow this same principal. Since we have young children in the house, anything that’s not in place for home defense gets locked up with magazines removed. Since our home defense guns are compact 1911’s they are in hidden locations with the mags inserted and not chambered, safety on. These guns require the safety to be dropped to rack the slide. If there is an issue requiring quick response, I can drop the safety and rack the slide in a moment. This is something I practice as a Part of my dry fire. I feel these extra steps offer some resistance even someone was to find the hidden location. Of course, the kids are already educated on gun safety and are not curious about them.