For decades, a large gun safe, kept somewhere in the home, was the hallmark of a firearms enthusiast.  If you have guns in the home, then the responsible thing to do is keep them locked up so as to be out of the reach of children, unauthorized adults, thieves, and burglars.  Large gun safes prove the most resilient option against unauthorized access, as most residential burglars are time-constrained and do not have the needed equipment to break into a serious safe.  For such reasons, the large gun safe still serves its purpose.

However, the downside to the large, robust gun safe is that it can lock the homeowner out of accessing his own weaponry as well.  This author has experienced two failures over the years in which the large safe broke, rendering the contents inaccessible until the safe manufacturer, combined with a regional locksmith, was able to get into it and fix the problem.  While resiliency against entry is the strength of such a safe, it quickly becomes detrimental if the lock or mechanism fails.  Like any other manmade machine, these gun safes can fail.  Your own in-home weaponry storage should certainly take this into account.  

The only sound way to deal with this potential failure is to de-centralize and diversify the locations of the tools that you would need should the large safe fail.  This is not an encouragement to leave guns in the open and unattended in the home.  Instead, take advantage of the many excellent quick-access safes and other safety options on the market.  Except for the gun on your person at any given time (this author is an advocate for home carry as well), all other weapons should be locked away in some manner.  Quick access safes make it possible to deploy a defensive firearm quickly yet still secure it from unauthorized users.  

A large gun safe should not be relied on for accessing any firearm that would be used for home defense.  To begin, such large safes are usually accessible in a specific location of the home that may not be ideal.  Relying on the ability to access a single, central safe in the home during a crisis is not a sound defensive tactic.  

Even if the large safe is in a good location, perhaps the closet of the master bedroom, these safes are typically designed for strength against unauthorized access, not speed of access for the homeowner.  The idea that you will have time to enter a keypad combination or turn a dial to unlock the large safe while under duress is not sound.

Third, as my own experience proves, as well as that of many, many other gun owners, these large safe mechanisms can fail, thus leaving you locked out of accessing your own defensive tools.  

For the above reasons, this author suggests that large gun safes should be used to store the firearms you own that are not dedicated to a defensive task.  Extra gear and ammunition should be placed in such a safe.  Never put home defense tools that are intended for defensive use in such a safe.  These large safes are, however, ideal for storing your expensive hunting guns, your extra defensive guns, family heirlooms, etc., but home defense guns and needed-to-carry guns should not be in this storage device as there is too much that can go wrong.

Quick Access Safes for Home Defense Guns

Any gun intended for home defense use should be stored in a quick-access safe. Handguns are the easiest to manage in this regard, as a large selection of small hand safes are available that keep the gun secure from children or unauthorized adults but also facilitate quick access to the weapon if needed.  

Likewise, suppose a long gun does factor into your home defense plan, whether a shotgun or rifle. In that case, there are a number of options on the market in the form of under-the-bed gun closets or wall-locking mechanisms that allow you to secure the long gun yet still provide quick access.  Even if you rely primarily on a pistol for home defense, having a long gun secured in the home outside of the large gun safe makes good sense so that you have it in the event the big safe goes down.

Magazines and Ammunition

Having guns accessible does you no good if you don’t also have an ample supply of magazines and ammunition.  Once again, if reliant on the large gun safe to store all such accessories, you may be locked out of your own supply when things go bad.  Having at least several loaded magazines for each defensive firearm kept for home defense or carry, be it pistol or rifle, makes good sense.  

A great way to store additional ammunition and magazines is to do so in a go bag of some kind.  A go bag is an already packed bag kept in the home for an emergency that may require you to leave home quickly.  Having spare magazines and ammunition in your go bags fills this need for emergency evacuation but also provides access to spare ammunition should the large gun safe fail.  

An age-old maxim, often called Murphy’s Law, states that “what can go wrong, will.”  Gun safes are mechanical devices that can break, so be sure to have defensive tools available in the event that you face such a circumstance.