Do people keep a bed side gun?

[Dragunov]

Bersa .380 on nightstand.
SU-16 close at hand, full mags in buttstock.
SKS with stripper clip close by.

Why? Because I can.

[Kid Stanislaus]

Deal, sleeping with doors or windows unlocked is just asking for trouble. I'll run the AC and pay the bill rather than sleep in a house that is not locked up.

[Ironchef]

Deal, sleeping with doors or windows unlocked is just asking for trouble. I'll run the AC and pay the bill rather than sleep in a house that is not locked up.

ALso, if entry is made by someone unarmed through an unlocked door, and you blasted them, things won't look good for you. Sadly, if you plan to defend your family, you must lock down your house. I'm also thinking that it's not against the law for someone to wander into your unlocked house..definitely not a felony for which lethal force can be applied to "stop" such a crime..if it is one. If they don't leave upon request, then you have a trespasser..but still can't shoot them.

Also, I'm one to employ varied types of locks or baricades where possible because with burglars sometimes using bump keys (no signs of forced entry), it becomes even more important to properly identify a threat. Too many people have the mentality to shoot first and ask questions later, to which I cringe. Just heard a friend brag about his wife who has that mentality.

[Deal]

Deal, sleeping with doors or windows unlocked is just asking for trouble. I'll run the AC and pay the bill rather than sleep in a house that is not locked up.

It was a different place and time. Certainly not a big city at the time and frequently the desert summer nights had people opening windows at night to capture the cooler night air. Things were different in communities like this back in the 70's. Gun, seat belts,and helmet laws were nothing like they are today. We even let our kids ride in the back of pickups back then. We just made them sit on the bottom of the bed rather than sit on the rails of the truck bed as we used to in the 50's. Looking back we ask, how did we do such things, how did we not have the laws we have today and no one got killed? I don't really know, maybe some did. I just know everyone did it.

I would agree today, you would not dare leave the windows or doors open and it is almost unbelievable that we did it often (like most people) and never thought a thing about it. We did have loaded guns should we need them but things were different. I guess if we look back even one generation we would be apalled that our parents always knew where the keys to the car were, they were in it. I remember as a kid, everyone would leave their keys in their cars. Now days you wouldn't think of even leaving a window down while you went into a store for a few minutes, let alon unlocked with the keys in the ignition.

ALso, if entry is made by someone unarmed through an unlocked door, and you blasted them, things won't look good for you. Sadly, if you plan to defend your family, you must lock down your house. I'm also thinking that it's not against the law for someone to wander into your unlocked house..definitely not a felony for which lethal force can be applied to "stop" such a crime..if it is one. If they don't leave upon request, then you have a trespasser..but still can't shoot them.

Also, I'm one to employ varied types of locks or baricades where possible because with burglars sometimes using bump keys (no signs of forced entry), it becomes even more important to properly identify a threat. Too many people have the mentality to shoot first and ask questions later, to which I cringe. Just heard a friend brag about his wife who has that mentality.

Again the time was different. The laws were different and people had different perspectives than today. Since no was "blown away" and all that was necesary was to rack the shotgun and the perp ran off all is well that ends well. I guess we will never know for sure if he was armed, but if he wasn't and I had a dead bead on him coming into a dark room, I can say with certainty I would not have just blasted as he came thru the door in any case. I am not nor have I ever been a ""shoot first ask questions later kind of person" so that remark certain doesn't apply in this case.

I would have made him stop, disarmed him if he was armed and would have him waiting when LEO showed up. That is unless he forced me into something else.

Again guys, I appreciate how you view it today... me too. But times were different.

Either you are too young to remember, lived in a big city, or just forgot how it was.

[retired]

Retired le. My XD is in the nightstand, loaded and one in the chamber. I keep my Surfire E2E on top of the stand. I live in a nice, fairly new neighborhood.

Crime, of course, can occur anywhere. As used to tell people when I would take burglary and related reports: "You live in a nice neighborhood and you have nice things; that is why the bad guys come here."

[Kaisake]

Unchambered. Unloaded. Magazines in the desk.

Because I learned as an adolescent, that I might not be here today -had my father not answered the door fully armed a couple times when I was a toddler.

Crime, of course, can occur anywhere. As used to tell people when I would take burglary and related reports: "You live in a nice neighborhood and you have nice things; that is why the bad guys come here."

Quoted For Truth.

[BitterVoter]

Only recently

I used to have only magazine not loaded, but I have since changed.

I don't exactly know why, but something in me changed my mind. It is holstered protecting the trigger from "accidental" pulling and being an XD .40 it has a trigger and grip safety so I feel safe in doing to.

I am thinking I might go back just for the extra level of safe against malfunction or something.

[CD MCKINNEY]

10mm, condition 1, under the pillow for fast acquisition.

Dan Wesson PM10-S [pre-CZ] w/ [8+1] Double Tap 180 gr. Gold Dot JHP's [1350/695]

PM10-S.jpg

[Flying Bones]

The xd45 is within arms reach in a clip on paddle holster. It's in the holster and going on the hip because it's a secondary pick to my Remi 870 Tactical. I've been fortunate enough to shoot in enough tactical classes to know I could hit most anything I wanted to in my house, but i fear pass throughs could claim a victim in the house.

[CnCFunFactory]

Yep, ready to go (no children just me and the wife). I live in a very nice neighborhood and certainly I am not paranoid by any means. I am not looking for a fight but on two occasions the fight was brought to me and on both occasions the firearm was the deciding difference (not a shot fired). Both times I got a pat on the back from the LAPD, rare, I know, but it does happen.

[TheBundo]

Same here. As much as I teach them safe gun handling, I just don't trust them yet with a gun. If my kids are like me when I was a kid I sure wouldn't trust them around guns with chambers that are loaded. They are still not strong enough to rack the slide. I rather have revolvers as my standby guns, but they are too easy to load. I've had my 8 year old boy demonstrate to me how to reload my revolvers. He unlatched the cylinder, picked up the speedloader and closed the cylinder. Good boy! We're going to the autos... I'm sure by the time my youngest boy reach the age of 8 I can go back to revolvers. The minimum age for the shooting ranges is 8 and that's keeping me from teaching my kids how dangerous guns can be.

Take them to the BLM land. It's not that far

[scr83jp]

Is a pigs butt pork?

[Parabellus]

Walther P99 AS for my nightstand and P5 for my wife's. Both set for double action first shot. These have no manual safeties. Son is 20 years old and knows where to find one and how to use it if he needs it while home alone.
We live in a good neighborhood and plan to keep it that way.

Russell

[duck814]

10+1 holster'd for me.

[JJ1911]

Springfield XD .40 Tactical, with a TRL-1, loaded with 180 gr. Hollowpoints. However I don't keep one in the chamber.
Also keep a shotgun handy, for close encounters.

Edit: Live in an area where drug deals commonly occur about 20 feet from the apartment complex. Down the street apprx 3 houses were robbed, and the perps climbed through a second story window to get the laptops/computers they saw in the window. This is WHILE people were home.