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It may be time for me to eat some crow - anybody got a good recipe?

I have argued here a few times for responsible (and intentional) gun ownership. For me, much of this centers around properly securing weapons when they are not on your direct person or otherwise under your control. This is particularly important to me if you have children of any age living in your home. I think quick access safes are a must unless you simply never have children in your home.

Personally, I have always also kept the loaded magazines in my quick access safe which is in the bottom cabinet of my nightstand. But now that I have been carrying more frequently, I am tempted to leave the extra mags in the top drawer of the night stand - for space (as I have a few pistols in there now) and convenience.

My girls are now teenagers, so there isn't much risk of them playing with the ammo or teething on it or any thing like that. What do you think? Am I hypocritically lowering my standards or acknowledging the changing risks in my home?

I don't personally feel that having loaded magazines lying about is any less safe than having ammo around in the factory containers sitting out openly on a shelf.
Unless someone puts it on a concrete floor and hits it with a hammer, or throws it in a fire, there's no real danger that I see. (And even with the hammer or the fire, the danger is much less than most people think. Lots of BANG and not much energy directed in any one place without a chamber and barrel to contain it.) I think we're back to the gas can for your lawn mower being much more dangerous, like was discussed in a recent powder storage thread.

terryg wrote:It may be time for me to eat some crow - anybody got a good recipe?

I have argued here a few times for responsible (and intentional) gun ownership. For me, much of this centers around properly securing weapons when they are not on your direct person or otherwise under your control. This is particularly important to me if you have children of any age living in your home. I think quick access safes are a must unless you simply never have children in your home.

Personally, I have always also kept the loaded magazines in my quick access safe which is in the bottom cabinet of my nightstand. But now that I have been carrying more frequently, I am tempted to leave the extra mags in the top drawer of the night stand - for space (as I have a few pistols in there now) and convenience.

My girls are now teenagers, so there isn't much risk of them playing with the ammo or teething on it or any thing like that. What do you think? Am I hypocritically lowering my standards or acknowledging the changing risks in my home?

Not at all.

I can't think of any incidents where anyone shot themselves or anyone else with a loaded magazine.

The only potential downside I can think of is that if someone were to find those, it's not a stretch to figure out that where there are magazines there are guns nearby. If that connection would be a problem, you might want to make them a bit harder to find, but there's no need to keep them under lock and key.

terryg wrote:My girls are now teenagers, so there isn't much risk of them playing with the ammo or teething on it or any thing like that....

I think you answered your own question.

Besides, as Excaliber pointed out, you can't really shoot anyone with a magazine.

Thanks for the reply's. I remember reading about someone on this forum that had a round roll of the table and hit just perfectly to ignite the primer. It probably couldn't be repeated (with out a hammer) in a million tries - but I know it is at least possible.

Here was the story:
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=36705&hilit=discha ... 15#p435090" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I figured I was just being too (substitute adjective of choice to indicate clenched rear end).

Excaliber wrote:The only potential downside I can think of is that if someone were to find those, it's not a stretch to figure out that where there are magazines there are guns nearby. If that connection would be a problem, you might want to make them a bit harder to find, but there's no need to keep them under lock and key.

I should be ok here. The safe is screwed into the cabinet shelf and these are pretty stout night stands. They would pretty much need to cart off the whole thing. Not that they couldn't do it - but they would have to be pretty motivated. Hopefully they would go for the HD TV or my wifes jewelery or something like that first. (Did I just say that? Sorry dear.)

If you have taught your kids proper safety I think they are fine as teenagers. It is the friends of theirs I wouldn't trust.

terryg wrote:Thanks for the reply's. I remember reading about someone on this forum that had a round roll of the table and hit just perfectly to ignite the primer. It probably couldn't be repeated (with out a hammer) in a million tries - but I know it is at least possible.

Here was the story:
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=36705&hilit=discha ... 15#p435090" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I figured I was just being too (substitute adjective of choice to indicate clenched rear end).

That was my post as well.

Two things to note:

1. The round was loose, and not in a magazine
2. Although the round detonated and I was hit in the leg by the projectile at a distance of less than 2 feet, I suffered no physical injury beyond a very small bruise.

My ego - well, that's another story. It takes talent to get shot with a loose cartridge that's not in a gun.

terryg wrote:My girls are now teenagers, so there isn't much risk of them playing with the ammo or teething on it or any thing like that. What do you think? Am I hypocritically lowering my standards or acknowledging the changing risks in my home?

I'm not supposed to let my nine month old teethe on ammo? Uh oh...

Texas Size 11 wrote:

terryg wrote:My girls are now teenagers, so there isn't much risk of them playing with the ammo or teething on it or any thing like that. What do you think? Am I hypocritically lowering my standards or acknowledging the changing risks in my home?

I'm not supposed to let my nine month old teethe on ammo? Uh oh...

Of course not.

Toothmarks on the projectile could adversely affect the accuracy of the round....

shootthesheet wrote:It is the friends of theirs I wouldn't trust.

Yeah, your exactly right! That said, should I keep them locked up for this reason?

As others said, I think you're worrying too much. Lock your bedroom door if you want to, but stop worrying about it. A round in the chamber is something you should be worried about. A round on a dresser is barely dangerous, even in the magical event that it does go off.

If you worry about stuff like this, you'll never get any sleep.

Edit: But if it keeps your mind at ease, then do what you want. Kind of seems like your leaning towards keeping them in a safe. If that's the case, buy a bigger safe for them; you know, then you have reason to buy more guns.

trig wrote:As others said, I think you're worrying too much. Lock your bedroom door if you want to, but stop worrying about it. A round in the chamber is something you should be worried about. A round on a dresser is barely dangerous, even in the magical event that it does go off.

If you worry about stuff like this, you'll never get any sleep.

If you really want something to worry about...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu3FwgIHsQA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's what can happen to your hot water heater if your T&P Valve fails (which you would have no way of knowing unless you routinely test it)
And then your thermostat fails....

Talk about something to worry about... and also much more likely than a random loose round causing any sort of problem

terryg wrote:

shootthesheet wrote:It is the friends of theirs I wouldn't trust.

Yeah, your exactly right! That said, should I keep them locked up for this reason?

Yes, you should definitely keep your daughter's friends locked up. Personally, I feel this way about all teenagers.

I've been thinking about starting my own ammo storage thread and then this one pops up. I only keep a couple of extra mags loaded at any one time, but I'm not worried about these.

After another thread about push-back, I am a little worried about the rest of the ammo. I'm wondering how many boxes high the rest of the ammo can be stacked before the weight becomes problematic. Any of you high-volume folks have any wisdom that you could enlighten us with regarding this?