Stash Guns

A post by Massad Ayoob referenced something Rich Grassi wrote over at The Tactical Wire about having a little gun like a Ruger LCP for a "house gun".

This ties into a discussion we had some months back at pistol-forum.com, where a detective described a homicide he worked, one where the decedent had loaded guns stashed all over the house:

"One of my very first murder scenes as a uniformed officer was a guy toes up halfway in/halfway out of his door and in his boxer shorts. Someone had dumped a mag of .25 in him. Evidence indicated he was gut shot, fell down, and they they emptied it into his face. I spent over 3 hours clearing guns to transport to the property room for safe keeping until next of kin could be notified. Eleventy bajillion loaded guns in the house, dead on the door step in his boxers."

A lot of people apparently spend more time nekkid around the house than I do. I'm usually dressed within about thirty minutes of waking up and stay dressed until bedtime. And my holster is already on my jeans before I pull them on in the morning.


For me, I guess, it's reached a point where it's just not that big a deal. To quote my very smart friend Kathy Jackson:

"Sooner or later, every person new to concealed carry asks this question, sheepishly, of other people they know who carry. “Would you carry a gun to _______?” they ask. The blank can be filled by any number of things.  Would you carry a gun when you go camping? Would you carry to your mom’s house? to work? to church? to the movies? to your kids’ Little League games?

The question, earnest as it is, always bemuses me somewhat. You see, I don’t usually carry a gun to anywhere in particular, but I do go places and do things. And I simply carry, wherever I might be.

What I’m getting at is that years ago I made a decision that my default setting would be to carry my gun wherever I went and whatever I was doing. As a result, if I’m ever not carrying, it is because I made a deliberate decision not to do so right then, based upon some specific reason not to do so. So I don’t have to look for reasons why I might want a gun wherever I’m going. I’m taking my gun with me unless I have a good reason not to."

...and that includes around the house.

It's a safety thing, too. If you just put the gun on in the morning and leave it there all day, it eliminates a lot of unnecessary administrative gun-handling, and as anybody who's ever looked around the walls of the sally ports, locker rooms, and restrooms of the local cop shop can tell you, unnecessary administrative gun handling is when most of the unnecessary loud noises happen.
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