Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about storage and safety. If you have children in your home, or if children ever visit, it is essential that all weapons be securely locked. Even those without children living at home can have a surprise visitor by friends with children. So even if you are 100% confident that you will never have children in your home, just from the standpoint of a burglar stealing your gun when you are not home, it is necessary to keep your guns secure.
Hiding you gun isn’t enough. Most guns used by criminals in violent crimes were stolen from someone’s home. The use of a push-button combination-lock gun safe is a good idea. These safes come in all forms, including under-bed models such as illustrated in the above photo.
This acknowledged, for a tactical shotgun to be of any benefit in an emergency situation, it must be close and readily accessible. For this reason many people keep their shotgun behind a bedroom door, or in their closet. Personally, I appreciate the logic of storing a gun close to where I sleep, but I still believe in the use of gun locks or safes that can be unlocked quickly in the dark. If children are ever in your home, their safety is worth this 2-second delay. If you feel nervous at night, or during the day due to some other circumstance, unlock your gun and keep it with you. But don’t forget to put it away. Make sure you develop gun safety as a habit.
It’s important to note that most gun locks do not provide a high level of safety, and they certainly don’t keep a burglar from stealing your gun. Yet, they are far better than no lock when it comes to protecting children.
Ammunition also needs to be safely stored.
The risk may not be huge in regard to children gaining access, but it is an important
courtesy which we need to extend to our firefighters. If your house ever
catches fire, a firefighter shouldn’t have to deal with exploding ammunition.
A standard all-steel military surplus ammo can is a handy and reasonably safe
container for the storage of ammunition. (Locks for these metal boxes are also
available). A used .30 caliber or .50 caliber (photo) ammo box can be
purchased at a gun show, online, or at a military surplus store. These are
great for grab-and-go situations, and they also provide a basic level of
protection for a firefighter who is trying to save your burning home.
Be safe, but be prepared.
And, don’t be dissuaded. Please don’t let a naysayer talk you out of getting a home defense shotgun. Since sporting shotguns and birdshot are inferior for the task of personal protection, many self-proclaimed “experts” don’t understand that a tactical shotgun is the best gun for self defense. Please understand, I don’t know of any true firearm self-defense expert who doesn’t agree that this type of weapon is the first-choice for at-home self defense.
Beyond its effectiveness in stopping an attacker, in my experience there is yet another benefit to the use of a tactical shotgun, particularly a pump-action shotgun. Just the sound of racking a shell into the chamber is often enough to scare-off a home invader. Interviews done with burglars in prison indicate that the #1 most recognizable sound to a criminal who has entered your home, is the distinctive sound made by a pump-action shotgun.
As a police officer armed with my Remington 870 Tactical shotgun, I’ve experienced several occasions when a fellow police officer was pointing his handgun at a criminal who refused to drop his gun—even though my fellow officer was pointing a handgun directly at him from short range. Usually when I approached with my 870, as soon as I racked a shell into the chamber, they immediately dropped their gun—a far better outcome than having to shoot the cretin.
On one occasion, having responded to a silent burglar alarm at a sporting goods store, I encountered a burglar loading a shotgun. My partner, who was standing 20-feet away from me and to the side of the burglar, pointed his handgun at the burglar and yelled at him, demanding that he drop the gun. The burglar looked at him and kept loading his shotgun. Then I racked the action of my tactical shotgun and pointed it at him, he hesitated as if he was considering his chances against me, and then dropped his shotgun. Later, when I interviewed him after booking him into jail, he admitted that he would have shot me if I had been holding a handgun rather than the tactical shotgun.
On a number of other occasions when my badge wasn’t enough, the business end of that big 12-gauge was very persuasive. Sure, someday you may need to shoot. And if you do, it’s nice to know that you can decisively neutralize the threat. Yet, for me, one of the greatest benefits of the tactical shotgun is that it looks and sounds intimidating, which means there is a good chance that you won’t need to pull the trigger.