Today’s lesson…How Do You Safely Store a Self-Defense Shotgun?
We’ll get into various self-defense and home defense weapons on another post, because there are pros and cons to everything, but I wanted to answer the question of safe shotgun storage because it came up with one of my Family Fortress clients. They chose a shotgun as their primary bedroom bunker defense weapon, and they wanted some tips on how to properly and safely store it.
This is still a tricky subject because it varies for everyone based on a lot of factors. The primary factors at play are usually…
- Kids in the home
- How secure is the bedroom from invited guests
- How accessible do you want the shotgun to be
- How comfortable are you with it
So, let’s address these main factors as I did with my client, and then I’ll tell you what I suggested, which may or may not work for all of you.
Kids in the home
My clients have no small children in the home, no visiting grandkids to worry about yet, and their kids are grown.
How secure is the bedroom from invited guests
Their bedroom is very secure from guests. The door is almost always shut when guests are present, and the general vibe given off is that the bedroom is a private homeowner-only zone. They don’t have an “Employees Only” sign or anything, but the vibe is palpable.
How accessible do you want the shotgun to be
They didn’t want it immediately accessible without even leaving the bed, but they wanted it easy to get to in the bedroom if an emergency situation warranted it’s use.
How comfortable are you with it
I would classify them as complete novices with a shotgun.
Here’s my considerations for the home safety plan I developed for them…
- With no kids or guests around, it didn’t need to be locked up in a gunsafe. I didn’t even suggest a trigger lock.
- With no desire for immediate access and their comfort level, I DID NOT suggest mounting it on the back of the headboard, under the bed frame, or standing it by the nightstand like a lot of people do.
- I never suggest the sitting beside the nightstand tactic for way too many reasons to go over here.
And my recomendations…
- Buy an inexpensive but quality pump shotgun, like the Mossberg Maverick 88.
- Purchase it from a gun store where the store owner or salesman will go over it’s use with them.
- Immediately sign up for some training and range time. A tactical shotgun course would be a great idea for secondary training, but first I want them to get confident using it.
- Mount it inside the closet just above the door on simple hooks.
- Practice the safety plan I built for them. Getting the shotgun ready for use is only a small part of that and not even the first step.
There’s a lot more that went into it that I detail in the one page round-up, but what you just read should help give you an idea of what’s needed to get started.
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Click to check out the Prepared membership and download a one page round-up of this lesson. Don’t forget- the one pagers always include extra information not found in the email above.
If you don’t wish to join the membership but would still like to have the one pager, you can purchase individual ones from the store HERE.
This information may not be relevant to you right now, so I recommend one or all of the following…
- Saving it to an email folder titled “Prepared”
- Saving it as a PDF in a file called “Prepared” so you don’t have to worry about your email provider
- Printing it out and putting it in a binder with a word on the front in big fat letters…yes, you know it…”Prepared”.*
*No. 3 is the gold standard EMP proof recommendation.
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My Family Fortress coaching, onsite or online, is expensive. There’s a reason for that, as a whole house audit and training for a family is pretty extensive.
With that in mind, I created short 30 minute brainstorming sessions via Zoom.
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Use these sessions for anything you want: Go over how to do CPR or aply a tourniquet Teach your son or daughter how to change a flat tire Do a walkthrough of your home for security analysis
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