The risk of having a gun in the home

[markpkessinger]

78. I think a great deal depends on how guns and ammunition are stored in a home...

... I am no "gun nut," and am certainly in favor of stricter gun regulation. Yes, there is a problem with gun violence in this country. But I also grew up in rural Pennsylvania, in a small hamlet in which virtually every house had not one, but likely many, guns of various types, mostly used for hunting. Our family, too, had an assortment of hunting rifles and shotguns used for that purpose. But here's the thing: my father was fanatical (and I mean that in a good way) about gun safety. And indeed, most of other families in town were similarly concerned with gun safety. There were some basic protocols that were followed in our house when it came to guns:

• loaded guns were never, under any circumstances, permitted indoors (or inside a vehicle);
  
  
• guns were stored in a locked cabinet that was in my parents' bedroom, and for which my father had the only key;
  
  
• Ammunition was stored and locked away completely separately (in a big, antique, steel safe with a combination lock that sat in my father's study. Only he and my mother knew the combination; and
  
  
• My siblings and I were taught, from as early as I can remember, NEVER to point any gun -- NOT EVEN A TOY GUN -- at another person (and we would get in serious trouble if Mom or Dad ever saw us pointing a toy gun at someone else).

One can safely own a gun, and safely keep it in one's home. But it requires serious intentionality and attention to gun safety.