Parking a gun on the table

[davidtx]

Do some of you fellers have mafia connections or something? I am feeling a little bit left out knowing I don't have anyone out to get me. I have weapons here and there put away in drawers or up in a cabinet, but I don't normally carry a weapon around the house with me.

No mafia connections here. I live in a neighborhood that has seen almost no crime. I carry around the house as part of my ongoing effort to develop habits that will keep me from doing something stupid. If I don't do the things the same way every time, I find that I forget. I've managed to get away from the house twice now carrying but without my wallet. I'm working on that one now. The gun goes in the holster in the morning and out at night and on the bed side table. I wake up and take it with me into the bathroom to shower and dress and then in the holster. If I go the gym, it goes in the console of the car and when I get back, stays near me until I shower and dress. I could never use one of those satchels - I'm the guy that leaves his cell phone at restaurants...

[chabouk]

Do some of you fellers have mafia connections or something? I am feeling a little bit left out knowing I don't have anyone out to get me. I have weapons here and there put away in drawers or up in a cabinet, but I don't normally carry a weapon around the house with me.

How many times have you been targeted going shopping, or while driving? Statistically zero. Might as well leave all your guns locked up at home, because carrying them in public sounds paranoid.

[karder]

A gun on a table is pretty safe. An AD is more likely to occur while the gun is being carried than while resting on a table. Still, you never can be too safe. Maybe you want to consider a holster mount you could affix to your desk, so that the gun is accessible but pointed downward? Fobus has some accessories for this application and I am sure there are others.
Longtooth is right and I know how you feel. My home is almost paid for and I am not moving. I live in a middle-class neighborhood with great neighbors but we have been having break-ins by teenagers as we are only a few blocks away from a high school. We have never had to deal with anything like this before an most of us have lived on this street 15-20 years or more. The cops have been great and are doing everything they can, but no luck yet. To make a long story short, I am spending a bunch of money I don't want to spend to put bars over my windows, but it is cheaper than buying a new house. The fact is, no place is safe. We have to take care of ourselves and our neighbors. Carry at home, always.

[03Lightningrocks]

Do some of you fellers have mafia connections or something? I am feeling a little bit left out knowing I don't have anyone out to get me. I have weapons here and there put away in drawers or up in a cabinet, but I don't normally carry a weapon around the house with me.

How many times have you been targeted going shopping, or while driving? Statistically zero. Might as well leave all your guns locked up at home, because carrying them in public sounds paranoid.

Not even close to being a fair analogy. You have control behind the locked doors of your home. It is all about the odds of being attacked. There is no comparison what so ever to the level of safety in your home and the level of safety out on the streets. Unless of coarse a person has a cardboard box for a home. I refuse to be a captive to fear. If I lived in a bad neighborhood, I might feel the need to walk around my home with a gun in my hand. My firearms are within reach if I do need them.

[KD5NRH]

I refuse to be a captive to fear.

Then why are you locking the doors?

[KD5NRH]

No, not me - people I've looked after. It's hugely stressful and really devastating to relationships. I'm tempted to tell you the story about the team I was on covering a (legit) Russian businessman in South Africa whom the Russian mob was after - but you'd never believe me.

Russian mafia in SA? I'd believe just about anything under those conditions.

[03Lightningrocks]

I refuse to be a captive to fear.

Then why are you locking the doors?

There is a difference between caution and paranoia. Like I said in a prior post. my neighborhood does not necessitate a red level in my own home. i would not want to live that way. If your neighborhood is more dangerous than mine, do what you feel you have to do. I do know folks who live out in the country and don't lock the doors. I don't know anybody who lives in a neighborhood where they are subject to being mugged in their own living room. If you are, great, walk around with a gun in your hand.

I actually feel sorry for anyone who goes through life scared to the point of always having to feel like their life is at risk. The home is suppose to be a refuge for the family. Our children should feel safe and at ease from the daily stress of life. I am not sure how they get that if pops is running around with a self defense weapon in his hand or on his side. Walking around freaked out that someone is going to kick my door down is something I just can't relate to. I do feel bad for those that are forced to live this way. No point in going on with the conversation.

[CompVest]

Do some of you fellers have mafia connections or something? I am feeling a little bit left out knowing I don't have anyone out to get me. I have weapons here and there put away in drawers or up in a cabinet, but I don't normally carry a weapon around the house with me.

How many times have you been targeted going shopping, or while driving? Statistically zero. Might as well leave all your guns locked up at home, because carrying them in public sounds paranoid.

Not even close to being a fair analogy. You have control behind the locked doors of your home. It is all about the odds of being attacked. There is no comparison what so ever to the level of safety in your home and the level of safety out on the streets. Unless of coarse a person has a cardboard box for a home. I refuse to be a captive to fear. If I lived in a bad neighborhood, I might feel the need to walk around my home with a gun in my hand. My firearms are within reach if I do need them.

Tell that to the latest home invasion victims in a very nice, "safe", The Woodlands neighborhood! I don't think that unless you have done above and beyond the typical locks your home is all that safe any more.

[03Lightningrocks]

Do some of you fellers have mafia connections or something? I am feeling a little bit left out knowing I don't have anyone out to get me. I have weapons here and there put away in drawers or up in a cabinet, but I don't normally carry a weapon around the house with me.

How many times have you been targeted going shopping, or while driving? Statistically zero. Might as well leave all your guns locked up at home, because carrying them in public sounds paranoid.

Not even close to being a fair analogy. You have control behind the locked doors of your home. It is all about the odds of being attacked. There is no comparison what so ever to the level of safety in your home and the level of safety out on the streets. Unless of coarse a person has a cardboard box for a home. I refuse to be a captive to fear. If I lived in a bad neighborhood, I might feel the need to walk around my home with a gun in my hand. My firearms are within reach if I do need them.

Tell that to the latest home invasion victims in a very nice, "safe", The Woodlands neighborhood! I don't think that unless you have done above and beyond the typical locks your home is all that safe any more.

If the day comes that I am so paranoid about somebody getting me in my home that I start to carry my pistol around like I live in the old west, I will move. let us not be confused here. I do have weapons in my home that are accessible, I simply draw the line at walking around in my own home with a gun strapped to my waist. I can get to a firearm quick enough if it is needed.

[mr surveyor]

home invasions take about 5 seconds for entry...if I didn't have a side arm "strapped to my waist", I would not be able to get up from a seated position and retreat from the room in 5 seconds. And, for the record, I'm not paranoid, and darned sure not scared... I'm armed. My back door was kicked in in 1986 (semi-rural setting) while no vehicles were in the drive way... fortunately my aged mother-in-law wasn't in the house at the time. Back then, these creeps did case the places for a few days to watch the in-out routines, and seemed to make sure there were no occupants. Today, they are much bolder and don't seem to care as much about occupants.....just quick entry, grab and leave. I refuse to be a target without the ability to get off at least a round or two.

Nope, no paranoia here... just refusal to be victimized.

And, on topic, I wouldn't worry about a gun laying on the side table and walking in front of it. Although, it would be considered bad manners to leave it laying with the muzzle openly pointed towards guests sitting on the couch. Think about how many folks are "swept" by those that carry in horizontal shoulder rigs every day....I've never heard of anyone being placed on the dirty side of the grass from a shoulder rig deciding to go off on it's own.


just my opinions

surv

[Dragonfighter]

I refuse to be a captive to fear.

Then why are you locking the doors?

There is a difference between caution and paranoia. Like I said in a prior post. my neighborhood does not necessitate a red level in my own home. i would not want to live that way. <SNIP>

I keep the doors locked to keep the honest people and raccoons out. It may slow down a bad guy a few seconds. I have a small house and with strategic placement neither my wife, girls or myself are ever more than 10' away. Quiet neighborhood with very attentive and watchful neighbors. I have gotten in the habit of carrying when taking the trash out and checking mail more out of a concern for the four legged critters than those on two. I did see big cat tracks in the wooded lot next door during the last snow

[ghostrider]

>If the day comes that I am so paranoid about somebody getting me in my home that I start to carry my pistol
> around like I live in the old west, I will move. let us not be confused here. I do have weapons in my home
>that are accessible, I simply draw the line at walking around in my own home with a gun strapped to my waist

I'm sorry, I don't understand the difference. Why is having one accessible (I read that to mean in a drawer, cabinet, table or something) less 'paranoid' than wearing it? Seems like a fine line.

For those who have kids and/or frequent visitors it would seem to me that carrying would just be safer than having it stashed somewhere anyway.

I live in a safe, low-crime, neighborhood too - doesn't mean that stuff can't happen. Does being 'more prepared' or 'prepared in a different manner' than you somehow make me paranoid? How do you draw the line between a good area where carrying a gun would be paranoid and a not-so-good area where its just prudent? Are vehicle break-ins sufficient justification? What if a gun was taken from someone's vehicle? How about a kid stabbed multiple times in the middle of the day in his own house? Is 1 incident like that enough?

When bad things happen in good neighbourhoods, the first thing that people interviewed by media often seems to be "nothing like this ever happened here before".

[joe817]

If the day comes that I am so paranoid about somebody getting me in my home that I start to carry my pistol around like I live in the old west, I will move. let us not be confused here. I do have weapons in my home that are accessible, I simply draw the line at walking around in my own home with a gun strapped to my waist. I can get to a firearm quick enough if it is needed.

Where are you going to move to? Home invasions have occurred in gated community enclaves; subsidized housing; white collar upper middle class neighborhoods; blue collar working class subdivisions; apartment houses and duplexes of all varieties.

I do admire your courage and "it can't happen to me...not here" attitude.