Locking it up
Off to the children’s house for the holidays!
You’re staying for a week. How are you going to keep your new handgun away from all the children?
Years ago, I took my two sons to my parents’ house. I was worried about what they would find.
“They won’t touch my things,” reassured Dad.
“Hah.” Maybe he hadn’t been around kids in a very long time! My youngest boy, Christopher, had “magotty” hands! He got into everything!
Pretty soon, Christopher, who was about 4, said: “Grampie gots guns!”
Of course, I knew my parents had no guns.
“No, Christopher,” I said firmly. “They have no guns.”
“Yeth, they do!” Christopher nodded his head emphatically. “Day do! I will thow you!”
And he led me upstairs to show how he could stand on a stool and unlock Dad’s clothing cabinet. He moved aside a bunch of white shirts to show me…
“Thee? Thee? They do gots guns!” he cried triumphantly.
“You’re right, Christopher, but come downstairs.”
We clomped down the stairs.
“Dad,” I admonished, “You need to put your rifles in a secure place. A place the children can’t get to.”
“They won’t touch my stuff. And how do you know I have any guns?”
“Christopher found them in your closet. You need to put them away so that no children can be accidentally hurt.”
So that day, Dad took his rifles to his office which was a mile away.
At home, you can keep your handgun in a locked office or in a closet with a lockable door. You might have a big safe bolted to a bureau. You might have a safe buried in a closet which is attached between the studs.
This is fine when at home, but how about traveling?
Now, when traveling to my own grandchildren’s home, I have to make sure they won’t be able to get their hands on certain things. How do you travel to a relative’s home with small guns, jewelry, pills, or cash?
If you only have a gun to make safe, you can use a trigger lock. This gizmo fits inside the trigger guard. It can be unlocked by key or by combination. On the positive side, a trigger lock is portable, inexpensive, and doesn’t require a cabinet or a case. On the negative side, the keys tend to be the same size as other keys, and the lock can be picked. They can be drilled through and they can be pried with a screwdriver. When loading, the lock can accidentally push against the trigger, firing the gun.
Another gun lock is the cable lock. On a semi-automatic gun, slide the cable into the ejection port and though the magazine well. Push it into the lock, and turn the key
Another small lock I considered is a portable gun safe. The gun safe can be made of steel. It can have a combination lock, a biometric lock, or a key lock.
A key lock is pretty basic. Just insert your key into the metal box and lock it. These locked boxes come in many sizes. Since I’m afraid of losing the key, or of adding its weight to my bunch of keys on the keychain, it didn’t seem like the right lock for me.
Another consideration is a combination lock on a small metal safe. All you have to do is choose a combination you will remember (hopefully!). Should you forget, many of these locks have keys as a backup measure. Forget your combination? No probs! Just use your key!
You can also find what they call a biometric locking safe. Here you can press a finger, or in some cases, up to four different fingers on the pad, and the lock will recognize you.
OK, I originally thought this would be a great idea. I purchased a good-sized box that would hold jewelry, pills, cash and my small Sig Sauer P238. I read the directions and set the lock to recognize my index finger.
I pressed my finger on the pad. Turned the knob! What? The lock didn’t work? I replaced my index finger. This time it worked. Trouble is, laying my finger on the pad worked about six times out of 10. If I needed to get at my gun right away, how many times would I have to put my finger on the lock? Sometimes it took using the key to open this safe. The older biometric safes were often very sensitive to dirt, grime, placement and sweat. Good thing they have back-up keys!
I’ve heard that biometric safes have been improved greatly since then.
However, I chose the combination locking box for this particular journey. At about 9 x 6 x 2, it’s big enough for the Sig Sauer P238, a few dollars, an extra pair of earrings, and blood pressure pills.
Which item did I need the most?!!
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.
