While many people keep guns in their home for protection, hunting, and many other reasons, not everyone stores them safely. This can be particularly dangerous in homes with children. In fact, 89% of accidental shooting deaths among children happen in the home. Many of these could have been easily prevented with proper gun safes and storage. To keep your home safe, remember these helpful tips for proper gun storage.
- Keep it clean: Make sure any gun safes you have in your house are kept clean. This will help to ensure the locking mechanisms on your safe work properly, keeping your guns locked up securely when you don't need them. Additionally, be sure to have your safe and any safe accessories serviced regularly so that all locks keep working.
- Use fingerprint locks: Biometric gun safes are designed to only be opened by you. This way, family members, like your children, aren't able to access your guns on accident. Because these gun safes are only unlocked with your fingerprint, you can rest assured knowing your guns and your family are safe.
- Keep it unloaded: Make sure any guns that you keep in your home are unloaded, even when secured in a gun safe. While it might seem like a smart idea to have a loaded gun ready in case of emergencies, like a break-in, this is incredibly dangerous. If a child or untrained person finds your gun and does not realize it's loaded, accidents can happen that put everyone at risk. If you want to be able to load your gun quickly, keep ammunition near, but not in, your gun instead.
- Educate family members: If you live alone, you don't need to worry about educating others on proper gun safety. However, if your household has children or other family members in it, you'll want to make sure your kids are educated on what not to do with guns. Make sure they understand that guns are incredibly dangerous, and do not leave your gun or gun safes anywhere where your children can access them.
For more information on proper gun safe maintenance or to purchase a gun safe for your home, contact Safe and Vault Store today.
