penguinfan, just a few thoughts on guns in the home.
initially, let me say that i was raised in a military home, with a family history of service and hunting that goes back for generations. as such, i was introduced to and taught to be proficient with guns of all types from an early age.
i am a criminal defense attorney, which by necessity means i am in contact with criminal types in my office, as well as significant sums of cash. until recently, i also practiced divorce and family law. i say this because, while i have never been threatened by a criminal client in twenty five years, i've lost count of the number of threats i've received from domestic adversarial parties - they're just not a rational lot.
as a result of this, i keep weapons in my home, my office and my personal vehicle. i have all licenses and permits to carry concealed weapons in my state, so everything's perfectly legal. the ones in my home and office are kept in private areas (i'm single, so no childen factor), but they are loaded. when i say loaded, i mean a revolver fully loaded minus a round in the chamber under the hammer, and an automatic with clip inserted but without a chambered round.
i tell you all of these things to put what i am about to tell you in perspective, and that is, for now anyway, to remove your gun from your home. simply put, if you took a gun class and then placed the gun in your home in the manner that you described, then i can assure you that a home intruder is far down the list of people most likely to be shot with your gun. a plethora of accidental cirmcumstances place you and your family close to the top of that list. you need much more training and familiarity to use a gun for home defese.
there is no substitute for adequate training predicating gun ownership, and one class is not enough. haven't seen the numbers lately, but i remember being particularly stricken years ago by the fact that most police officers who get shot are shot with their own service weapon. you say you have a locked gun and the ammo stored safely away from your gun, but you can get to it fast enough. what you are telling me is that, in a nighttime intruder scenario, you can be waken from a dead sleep, perceive the threat, find your gun in the dark, unlock it i in the dark, find the ammo in the dark, load the weapon, find the threat, identify the target as a threat, and then fire accurately and with no risk to other members of your family. all this right after being awaken. all in the dark. i'm sorry to say things just don't happen like that.
and remember, don't shoot the buddy whose wife threw him out drunk that night and who let himself in to sleep on your couch. or your high school daughter's boyfriend who's trying to swipe a few beers out of the basement fridge.
if you have doubts, try this. plan for for your wife to wake you some night at random, preferably after you've had a few drinks. tell her to wake you by yelling there's someone in the house. go through the whole ritual of finding your gun etc, in the dark. get some dummy rounds to use. now have a friend there in the next room, and tell him when he hears the wife yell to make his way to the bedroom to and try to find you and make contact enough to struggle for the weapon before you are ready to aim and fire. my money's on the "intruder."
my point is, you shouldn't consider placing a handgun in your home for personal protection unless you are willing to commit yourself to becoming completely proficient, no make that expertly adept, in its use and maintence. i'm not just talking about gun safety and range shooting, i mean becoming as comfortable with a gun in your hand as you are with your favorite power tool, or fishing rod, or whatever mechanical device you favor most. learn how to load and operate it in the dark. if you're not willing to go to this length, then you're better off without a gun in your home. get a good wooden baseball bat, saw off the fat end until you have about two feet left, drill hole throught the handle and put a rawhide strap through the end about ten inches in circumference. pick up the bat, put your hand through the strap and twist a couple of times, and go to town.
kids in the home are another matter. when my girls were young, i actually had an invisble compartment built into the wall of my bedroom next to my bed about seven feet off the floor. unless you are willing to go to such lengths, a gun for personal protection and kids in the same home is just not an option.
sorry to go on for such length, but in my career i have experienced dozens of tragic shootings of innocents with guns bought for home protection. i can count the number of cases where a homeowner has shot a criminal intruder on the fingers of one hand - - - with fingers left over.
