Many of us own firearms, and the reasons may vary, but the one element that we all have in common is the need to safely store them. This can look different for everyone depending on your home, who you live with, how frequently you are home, and multiple other factors. We will outline several options for you to entertain when it comes to safely storing your firearms so you can make the best decision possible for you.

One of the first options gun owners can look at for storing their firearms is individualized pistol boxes or gun lockers. These are something that “store” your firearm, and may not always be “safe,” but again it depends on your situation. A pistol box or gun locker can be something handy to have in your bedroom if you want to keep children or roommates away from your firearms, yet you want a firearm close at hand for protection. Lockable pistol boxes and gun lockers are often viewed as something that “keeps honest people honest.” Your own kids and potential roommates aren’t likely to smash these items to steal a firearm, but a burglar might.

Some other creative ideas that aren’t as “safe,” but keep your firearms close at hand are discrete furniture. You might have a friend who has a bookshelf full of books, and his encyclopedia from 1984 is actually a secret pistol book. Or, you maybe have seen on the internet companies that craft bookshelves that – when you touch a secret button – a storage tray pops out that could host a firearm. Discrete furniture is fun because you can hide self-defense firearms “in plain sight” throughout your home, but they are by no means safe. They’re not safe if you have kids, roommates, or if you want to stop miscreants from taking your firearms.

Other what we would deem as lazy storage locations are a desk/office drawer or the glovebox/center counsel of your vehicle. Yes, these are common places people will put firearms, but they are not safe storage options or clever ones. Criminals know to look in these places and your kids can get into them. If you put a firearm here, it should be for extremely short periods of time.

The best answer to safely storing your firearms is by putting them in actual gun safes. Some gun safes are fire-rated to curb potential fire damage and a complete loss of your firearms while other gun safes lack that feature and are simply a robust safe. In either scenario, gun safes are often large, heavy, and depending on how well they are built, they could be theft-proof. Thieves are looking for “low-hanging fruit.” It's not exactly easy to hide a gun safe, but thieves don’t want to bring a torch, metal saw, and other loud, expensive tools to break into a safe with unknown contents. Is your childhood Pokémon card collection inside, or guns and cash? Criminals don’t know and that’s an enormous gamble where they could potentially get caught. So, a gun safe is definitely the safest place to store your firearms.

A bonus location is on-body or concealed carry. If you only have one firearm – or the rest of them are at home in a gun safe – then it is pretty easy to know your firearms are safe when those are the only locations they are stored/carried.

In the end, make sure to get out there training, honing your craft, getting reps with your firearms, and likely Tyrant can help you along the way with some rad accessories. Until next time, continually check out our blog, join our newsletter, and watch the website for new and exciting updates! As always, let us know all your thoughts in the comments below. We love it when you participate in our articles and keep the conversation going!