Marital/Gun Advice

[Lurch]

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So it may be that I just watched Boondock Saints and Dawn of the Dead back to back or maybe I have finally been brainwashed by the sheer volume of gun threads on SDN, but I have decided to make my first handgun purchase. I already own a shotgun... Benelli 12 gauge semi-auto that I use mainly for target practice but I am interested in getting a hand-gun primarily for home defense against the zombie/militant nurse apocalypse. I have my eyes on the S&W 686 .357 right now but I am still toying with a few other makes/models.

Anyway, as any good budding anesthesiologist would do, I am anticipating a problem down the road...namely my wife. She has no appreciation for zombie movies and she is a nurse so my tales of imminent armageddon fall on deaf ears. She hates guns too. Is anyone willing to admit to having (had) a similar problem?

All kidding aside, I want something I can keep in the bedside drawer for home defense. Her issue will be safety since we are having a child soon. I want easy access to it in the event I actually need it and locking it up seems like it would defeat the purpose. Any thoughts other than divorce? Thanks

 

[kazuma]

Consider a biometric safe at your bedside. My uncle has one and he can access his gub quickly if he ever needs to. I can't remember if he hard mounted his or not. I don't think he did, because he has a huge vault on the main level, so he probably puts the biometric unit in there when he's not home so an intruder doesn't walk away with it.





www.impactguns.com/store/gunvault.html



My personal hand gub preference is an H&K USP .40 compact.

www.[B]impactguns[/B].com/store/hk_usp_compact.html

 

[pgg]

Anyway, as any good budding anesthesiologist would do, I am anticipating a problem down the road...namely my wife. She has no appreciation for zombie movies and she is a nurse so my tales of imminent armageddon fall on deaf ears. She hates guns too.

Tell her that going to the range is romantic "together time" ... soon she'll want a gun of her own. 🙂

 

[FiremedicMike]

Tell her that going to the range is romantic "together time" ... soon she'll want a gun of her own. 🙂

All joking aside, get her into a "Woman's first shoot" class. Not nearly the bible thumping, sexist scenario that the title implicates, but it is for women only, and introduces them to handguns (designed obviously for women who have never shot, handled a gun), all their inner and outer working parts, followed by about an hour on the range shooting 22LR pistols. My wife absolutely loved her class.

As for the safety issue, IMHO it's all about education. There are hundreds of thousands of cops nationwide, and it's very rare that they have gun related accidents involving their kids. I feel their philosophy, like mine, is education in the home. Once my kids were old enough to be truly aware, at least to the point of being allowed to roam freely without constant supervision, they were educated as to what my guns looked like, felt like, and most importantly, what they do. My kids know that guns KILL people, and playing with them will likely cause one of them to be killed. We have never had any of our kids come within 10 ft of any of my guns at any point.

My oldest is moderately interested in shooting now, so I've been thinking about getting a 22 to plink with.

Guns aren't evil, they're actually quite enjoyable to shoot. Once you get one, you'll end up with 4, then you'll start reloading, lol

On a final note, as for where I keep my guns? All of them, with the exception of my rifle, are chambered and kept at ready in my nightstand drawer. If I need a gun because someone is breaking in to my house, I need it NOW and I don't want to **** with any sort of safe. Again, educate your kids. My kids know where my guns are and that they are loaded. My oldest knows that if someone breaks in to the house, she is to point the gun at the badguy and pull the trigger until it clicks.

 

[rsgillmd]

.......On a final note, as for where I keep my guns? All of them, with the exception of my rifle, are chambered and kept at ready in my nightstand drawer. If I need a gun because someone is breaking in to my house, I need it NOW and I don't want to **** with any sort of safe. Again, educate your kids. My kids know where my guns are and that they are loaded. My oldest knows that if someone breaks in to the house, she is to point the gun at the badguy and pull the trigger until it clicks.

I agree with your advice Mike, but I think Lurch's wife's concern is about that toddler age where they are curious but not really old enough to understand. A safe might be a good idea in that situation. But then again, I suppose even under the bed mattress might suffice. I can't imagine a young kid having the dexterity to lift a bed mattress, much less lift it and retrieve a gun at the same time.

 

[Narcotized]

So it may be that I just watched Boondock Saints and Dawn of the Dead back to back or maybe I have finally been brainwashed by the sheer volume of gun threads on SDN, but I have decided to make my first handgun purchase. I already own a shotgun... Benelli 12 gauge semi-auto that I use mainly for target practice but I am interested in getting a hand-gun primarily for home defense against the zombie/militant nurse apocalypse. I have my eyes on the S&W 686 .357 right now but I am still toying with a few other makes/models.

Anyway, as any good budding anesthesiologist would do, I am anticipating a problem down the road...namely my wife. She has no appreciation for zombie movies and she is a nurse so my tales of imminent armageddon fall on deaf ears. She hates guns too. Is anyone willing to admit to having (had) a similar problem?

All kidding aside, I want something I can keep in the bedside drawer for home defense. Her issue will be safety since we are having a child soon. I want easy access to it in the event I actually need it and locking it up seems like it would defeat the purpose. Any thoughts other than divorce? Thanks

Man what a relief!! I thought "Marital / Gun Advice" meant you couldn't take the marriage not one day longer and were about to go postal!

 

[FiremedicMike]

I agree with your advice Mike, but I think Lurch's wife's concern is about that toddler age where they are curious but not really old enough to understand. A safe might be a good idea in that situation. But then again, I suppose even under the bed mattress might suffice. I can't imagine a young kid having the dexterity to lift a bed mattress, much less lift it and retrieve a gun at the same time.

Ah, I completely forgot about that time period. During that age, when they were toddling somewhat un-supervised, I never kept a round in the chamber. I'm quite confident that a toddler cannot rack the slide and chamber a round on most modern handguns (honestly, and I'm not poking fun at her, but my wife can barely do it)

 

[kazuma]

Ah, I completely forgot about that time period. During that age, when they were toddling somewhat un-supervised, I never kept a round in the chamber. I'm quite confident that a toddler cannot rack the slide and chamber a round on most modern handguns (honestly, and I'm not poking fun at her, but my wife can barely do it)

They probably wouldn't be able to pull the slide back, but it's definitely not something you'd want to gamble with, especially if there are older children that visit your home. I'd go with a safe or biometric safe if you need instant access. Having a gub in a the home should be a non-issue as long as the proper safety measures are in place.

 

[Ronin2258]

I grew up with firearms all over the house (Dad was a cop for 39 years and taught me to shoot pistols.) As kids, we were taught at an early age by Dad how devastating a gun can be. We gained such a healthy respect for guns, that loaded weapons around the house were common, and were avoided unless he was there.

However, since I can't rely on everyone having that same exposure and training, I know that kids+weapons=potential badness. To keep it accessible but away from kids, the biometric lock sounds like a good idea. Since I have other things to hold off the zombiepocalypse until I can get the trigger lock of of Old Betsy, I would go with trigger lock and lock box.

If you are afraid of biometric locks failing, I would consider this, an idea that I have tossed around. Get a key lockbox, put the key on your car keys. If your car is home, then theoretically, you are. When you sleep, you can put the key into the lock for a quick open and grab. When you are away, you take your car keys with the lockbox key with you (get one that doesn't release the key unless it is locked and closed.)

If you have spare keys for the lockbox, keep them in the firesafe you keep valuable records (yeah, I am assuming a lot.) Kids are safe when you are gone if you have your keys, wife can't scream at you for leaving a gun unsecured, and at night, you are one twist away from breaking out something for the shambling, brain-eating corpse coming to your house to look at the menu.😀

This also has the added benefit of helping you keep track of your car keys. "Let's see, they aren't in the car, I don't have them...*thwack head* of course! They are still on the lockbox."

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[Sergio99]

Hello,

A lot of good advice was given here. I would think getting your wife into a course or some type of training would help a lot, if she would agree to it, naturally. We don't have guns, but my wife likes them more than I do. She always tells me she would like to go to a shooting range and practice some target-shooting.

Another good source of information, statistics and ideas are nra.org and jpfo.org. There is a lot of good material in both websites.

Greetings

 

[TacMed]

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[TacMed]

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[doctor712]

So it may be that I just watched Boondock Saints and Dawn of the Dead back to back or maybe I have finally been brainwashed by the sheer volume of gun threads on SDN, but I have decided to make my first handgun purchase. I already own a shotgun... Benelli 12 gauge semi-auto that I use mainly for target practice but I am interested in getting a hand-gun primarily for home defense against the zombie/militant nurse apocalypse.

I'm surprised nobody has made the introduction yet. Lurch, meet BLADE. BLADE, meet Lurch.


There, one big happy family.

D712

 

[Lurch]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I posed the idea of a handgun to my wife tonight. Ironically, she had brought up how one of her friends does not feel safe at home. I told her I felt similarly at times and purchasing a handgun was a solution I had been considering. She seemed receptive to the idea...especially when I talked about dividing the house into zones as discussed on a previous thread.

I will probably use a safe of some variety when my kids are toddlers but ideally I would have more easy access to it. Thanks Kazuma for the links to the biometric safe. That is definitely one I will keep in mind.

I am going to try to get her out to the range at some point. She's 37 weeks pregnant though so it might be wishful thinking. Either way, I think a course is in our future.

If anyone has any experience with the S&W 686 .357, I'd love to hear about it. I'm just looking for a gun that will help me pick off a few zombies on the way to Blade's house where the real arsenal is. Happy Hunting

 

[BADMD]

If anyone has any experience with the S&W 686 .357, I'd love to hear about it. I'm just looking for a gun that will help me pick off a few zombies on the way to Blade's house where the real arsenal is. Happy Hunting

My wife and I rented one. It was hands down the gun she has liked the most. She was perfectly happy (and reasonably accurate) shooting 38 spl loads. The 686 plus holds 7 of 357 magnum. It also comes in a number of barrel lengths from 3" to 6". The 3" or 4" can be reasonably carried. The 6" is good for a home gun and can double as a hunter.

One issue with the biometric safes are that that you have to put your finger on it the same way every time. In an emergency, you can be delayed getting your finger just right. I have seen some people recommended scanning the finger in multiple ways to get it open. Another, cheaper option is a safe that has buttons for each finger and must be pressed in order.

 

[cfdavid]

So it may be that I just watched Boondock Saints and Dawn of the Dead back to back or maybe I have finally been brainwashed by the sheer volume of gun threads on SDN, but I have decided to make my first handgun purchase. I already own a shotgun... Benelli 12 gauge semi-auto that I use mainly for target practice but I am interested in getting a hand-gun primarily for home defense against the zombie/militant nurse apocalypse. I have my eyes on the S&W 686 .357 right now but I am still toying with a few other makes/models.

Anyway, as any good budding anesthesiologist would do, I am anticipating a problem down the road...namely my wife. She has no appreciation for zombie movies and she is a nurse so my tales of imminent armageddon fall on deaf ears. She hates guns too. Is anyone willing to admit to having (had) a similar problem?

All kidding aside, I want something I can keep in the bedside drawer for home defense. Her issue will be safety since we are having a child soon. I want easy access to it in the event I actually need it and locking it up seems like it would defeat the purpose. Any thoughts other than divorce? Thanks

 

[killerleaf]

my hubby is a retired policeman, 22 years. my son is an active policeman, 15 years now. So they both have faced the issue of handgun vs. child.

In our case, our bedroom was arranged where his side of the bed was three steps to the closet. Inside the closet, three steps in, was a built in set of shelfs, that had a locked area. Inside the locked door was his gunbelt. Also, on the top shelf, where two lockboxes with his off duty weapons of choice. the key to the locked area was on the nightstand. I have seen the man wake up out of a dead sleep and have gun in hand in less than 20 seconds. But, the area was too high up for the kids to reach until they were older...and knew not to bother. they also knew not to tell anybody about our "secret compartment".

my son on the other hand, has a special drawer in his nightstand that locks. when he comes home, the gun goes in the drawer, and it is locked, and the key is on a hook above the door. at night, he unlocks the drawer. his off duty weapons are in lockboxes on top of the closet. the grandkids are now old enough to know better, but the routine still holds for them.

it has worked, at least for this family. if it is something that you desire, you can make it work for yours, also.

 

[Ignatius J]

For home defense, the best rookie weapon to get is a shotgun, preferably semi-automatic (not a pump action). Easy to operate, hard to miss.

I have a Browning 12 gauge over/under and just leave the gun cracked underneath the bed.

God bless any robber coming down my hall when the shell leaves the chamber.

Plus, if you live anywhere down South/Midwest, dove/quail/duck/pheasant hunting is pretty fun.