Hiding Guns Around the Home

Dear Fellow Survivalist;

I don’t know how many movies I’ve seen, where people have guns hidden in secret compartments around the home. There’s no question that it’s a common theme, which writers and directors in Hollywood love to use. A part of the furniture industry seems to have taken hold of this idea and is making furniture with this in mind, designing everything from floating shelves to tables, with secret gun compartments where nobody will supposedly suspect them.

I have nothing against these furniture manufacturers; but I think a moment’s reflection, before buying their goods, is needed. The real issue in my mind is just what does anyone expect to accomplish with them. In the movies, the good guy pops open his secret compartment and grabs a gun right in the midst of battle, using it against for his life. But in real life, I’m not convinced it would work that well.

The first consideration has to be safety. If you have children in the home, any hidden guns are going to have to be in child-proof storage areas. While a few of the furniture manufacturers take this into consideration, they don’t all do that. Many don’t bother with any sort of lock, as that would make it obvious there was a secret compartment in their furniture. They’d rather depend on the fact that the compartment is hidden. But with kids, I’m not so sure about that.

Kids are curious, exploring everything. So, there’s a pretty high chance that they’ll find that hidden compartment and even figure out how to get it open. Maybe a two-year old toddler won’t; but a curious seven-year-old will. Then what?

On the other hand, there are the furniture pieces which have the guns in a locked compartment. The question then becomes how quickly you can unlock it, when you need to? If you can’t unlock it quickly, that gun might as well be put away in a gun safe somewhere, for all the good its going to do you, especially if someone is breaking into your home.

In either case, if someone kicks your door open while you’re watching television, about the only hidden compartment that might be of use is one in the armrest of the chair you’re sitting in. You won’t have time to get to any other, let alone open it and get a gun out.

Of course, if you don’t have children in the home, the whole equation changes. Then you can hide the guns pretty much anywhere, without the safety issue to worry about. While adults have just as much curiosity as children do, their curiosity is tempered by the wisdom of age and bad experiences. In other words, they’ll be just as curious about how to get the secret compartment open and want to see what’s hidden inside; but at the same time, they are less likely to treat those guns as a toy.

I personally keep guns in a couple of pieces of furniture in my home; but not in secret compartments. Rather, I have a gun in my desk drawer, one in my dresser and one in the family room closet. I purposely avoid the bedroom nightstand, as that’s the first place any burglar is going to check.

Last night, someone knocked on my door late at night, when I was in my robe. Being late, I was suspicious, so I grabbed the gun in my desk drawer and had it hidden behind my back, when I went to answer the door. I had to do that, because I had already taken my carry gun off for the day. It turned out to be a neighbor, giving us a package that had been delivered to his house by mistake. No problem.

I actually can’t see a situation where I’d be needing to grab a gun from a secret compartment, in the midst of a fight. Perhaps that’s because I will grab the gun and a flashlight at any suspicious sound, just like I did with my neighbor. I’m sure there have been times when it has looked ridiculous to my wife, when I went off in the night to check out a noise. But when I don’t know what that noise is, I plan for the worst. I’d rather look ridiculous for having a gun in my hand, checking out something one of the dogs knocked over, than look ridiculous for not having that gun, when it turns out that someone breaks into my home.

In my thinking, those hidden guns are backup pieces, just for situations like the one that happened last night. I don’t depend on them as my main defensive weapons; I depend on my carry gun for that; or, in the case of a noise in the night, I depend on the gun in my dresser (which is my carry gun).

Having to grab a gun when a burglar or home intruder comes in means that you’re already too late. The only way to make sure you’re ready for them, is to have that gun on your person. In other words, to be carrying all the time. Anything less, is just asking for trouble.

Stay safe, stay armed. Make that a part of your life, just like keeping your powder dry and your survival gear close at hand.

Dr. Rich