Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Nightstand handgun

I have a two year old grand nephew that frequents our home, I keep a few guns around but the one on the nightstand needs to be toddler proofed.
Looks like most small nightstand safes are fingerprint activated.
Do they work?

They work generally but sometimes have been known to short out.

I Have small kids and the best thing ive found to do is i keep my gun on me until i goto bed then i takeit off and put it in nightstand. It gos back into the holster when i wakeup and stays there

Put in a book shelf next to the bed but high enough to be out of jr's reach. Be creative as to how to hide the pistol without being inconvenient for that bump in the night.

After his dad passed his mom lived alone out in the country a friend attached a secure holster within easy and quick reach but out of sight behind the headboard of his mother's bed for her.

I had a couple of those gun safes early on for Moose, Angus and Junior. Mine were of an older variety with mechanical buttons. They both worked until they didn't. With Grandkid #1, I have just kept a pistol high and out of the way as a precaution, but I also never let the little booger out of my sight.

At age 3, my sons all began their indoctrination. I brought out pistols, deer rifles, shotguns-- the works. I had them touch them, hold them, and work the actions. Very quickly, they got bored with them. The mystery was out it. My oldest, Junior showed no interest again until he was in his mid-twenties. They're just very heavy tools that are too big for little kid to handle and as such, they're boring. I explained:

1) They are extremely dangerous. You will kill yourself if you handle them on your own without supervision.
2) When you are old enough to use them, you will have proper instruction.
3) In the interim, you only need to ask, and they will be brought out for you so you can handle them. Most kids will ask once within a couple of weeks and then be done with it until they're teenagers.
4) If you ever see a firearm out, go get an adult and tell them. Do not touch it.

The same was done to me by my father with his Win Model 12 Trap gun at age 4. I have vivid memories of that. It was big, it was heavy. I had no interest in it after that. I think I asked him once about the time I was 10 or 12 to bring it out once again after that. After that, I was in my 20's before I thought about firearms. I was a late bloomer.

At age 4, Mooselette went into one of her grandma's bedrooms and found a loaded 22 auto. Shame on that woman for leaving it out like that. Moose told me about the incident and said, "I think it's time for the talk."

Mooselette came to Grandpa's house and was ushered into the shamanic reloading cave. At first, she was scared. However, she quickly caught on and was asking to hold everything that caught her fancy. She's the oddball of the whole bunch. She regularly asks to go down to the cave and handle firearms now. Not only that, but she asked for instruction on "Pulling Grandpa's handle" (learning to reload). Her birthday was yesterday. She turned 8. She now has her own .22 and 30-30 deer rifle, for which she'd loaded her own rounds.

My advice for little ones is as follows:

1) Do "the talk" as soon as the kid is old enough-- age 3-4.
2) In the interim, keep all firearms locked up with ammo locked up separately.
3) If you feel the need to keep a firearm handy keep it high and out of the way.

My kids are 50 and 53!

Problem solved!

We used an electronic push-button design, ran off a 9v battery, also unlocked with a key. We used it until our son was well into his teens. One reason for this was so stealing it would be a difficult proposition in the event of a burglary, the other was whilst our son was introduced to guns and the handling thereof early, any friends he might bring in might not have been.

The one time it got used under duress was when I was at a dumb teacher inservice maybe 30 miles out of townwhere we were required to stay overnight . Feeling like a college kid again, I snuck out in the night to go sleep with my wife.

The dogs didn’t bark because they knew the sound of my motorcycle, my wife wakes up to the sound of someone quietly entering the house. Mere seconds to the bedroom and she was already on her feet, gun in hand.

No toddlers. No kids here.

I do keep my 1911 on the chest of drawers a step or two away from my bed though.

Gives me a bit of time to wake up before I lay hands on it.

I want it that way. Last thing I want to do is shoot a loved one while still half asleep.

Good point, when I snuck home that night my wife said she came close enough to shooting me.

There used to be a story about a guy who shot himself in the head when the phone rang in the middle of the night and he answered the revolver instead. Dunno if that was an urban legend.

I had one of the electronic locking nightstand safes. That thing keep killing batteries and locking me out. It would go thru a battery every 6 months or so, and you never knew when it would happen. Of course that is no good so I thru it in the trash.

Purchased a Fort Knox nightstand safe with a simplex push button lock, problem solved. I cannot recommend the Fort Knox more highly, but the thing is expensive.

keep mine in my dresser drawer, and a 870 right next to my bed. my 7 yr old grandson is not allowed in my room and only comes in when i'm here and he asks me for permission to enter.

only occasional G/kids here........this FN-S compact 40 is close by always....

Helluva buy from Euro Optics a while back for $380 delivered as shown w/night sights

Grandkids?

My Sig 320 Carry is in a ambi holster that is held by a flap between the mattress and foundation on my bed. When made, the holster and gun are covered by the bed spread. When we are visited by our grandsons, I remove it to a higher position until I go to bed.

On rare occasions I have one of the grandkids overnight. I keep the .45 ACP on top of the bedside book shelf then. It goes back in the safe when Ii get up.

Biometric Safe

Biometric Safe

Been eying one of these for some time.

That works for me as well, though my grandkids are a bit older.

Why not just put it on the nightstand when you go to bed and put it away or on when you get up?

I conceal carry a different handgun than I keep by the night stand.
Night stand has a 41 mag. I live in a Croatian built stone house so over penetration is little concern.
Additionally, child will sometimes use our bed for sleeping, screaming and as of late writing on the sheets with black sharpie....while his mother watches.

No help, my nightstand gun is a 7.62.