Gun Safety

(Glock 9mm pictured)

A comment was left asking why we were planning a handgun.  Well, that would be for me, surprisingly.  Garret is amazing with a rifle, but neither of us has much experience with a handgun.  

But the thing is, I am absolutely terrified of guns.  Hence the asking my FIL to take me to the range.  I used to do a lot of acting, and in one play we had to use guns.  We originally were going to use old revolvers with blanks, but when I shot it off, I cowered, and my character was not supposed to cower.  So we ended up using toy capguns which in the end suited the play better anyways.  But from that day I knew I needed to learn to be more comfortable around them.  

When I married Garret one of the debates we had was the safety of having a gun in a house.  I was totally against them, other than rifles locked in a big safe.  I knew Garret has a few guns waiting at his parents house, and as his dad is retired from the police force when his father dies (hopefully not for a very long time) most of the guns will go to Garret since he's the only son.  So, basically we will own a small arsenal of firearms (mostly hunting guns) and I feel a strong desire to learn how to shoot the damn things so that I will feel a little more comfortable about having them around.  I think people who have guns in the home should know how to handle them safely.  

The handgun is my idea.  If we are to have a gun in the house for personal safety, I feel that a handgun is a tiny bit easier to wield than a shotgun.  But I am against any child having access to a loaded gun, and really what is the point of a gun for personal safety if it's not loaded?  So we have begun to look into special safes for handguns, that require codes, and are even searching for one that might take a finger print scan (the more difficult to get into the better).  I have read the research that shows it's pointless to have a loaded gun in a safe since if anything happened it would be difficult to get it out quickly enough, but I move fast and type even quicker so I am not too worried.  And really, with the option of being able to get to it or not, what's the difference?  If I can't get to it I'm screwed, and if I don't have one I'm screwed.  But hopefully if I ever did need it, I could get it in time.  

I know this post might throw some in an upheaval about the safety of guns in households with children (that we do eventually plan to have).  But we don't have a child, nor will we have a child old enough to worry about guns with for years.  And I know that some of you will agree with me, some will strongly disagree, and others won't care either way.  But feel free to leave comments either way.  Do any of you have guns in your homes?  Or any of you feel you would never keep them in your home?  Do tell!