The Gun Safe

After all these years I've never had a gun safe.  I've always kept the long guns in their cases on a shelf in the closet.  I've always had these guns around the grandkids with strict orders that they can't touch them.  They never have.  (My son has, but that's for later in this post.)  I've always kept the handguns near my bed.  The grandkids have never gotten into them there either.  If they ever did, and they hurt themselves or someone else, then I would have been in lots of trouble. 

I decided it's time to be responsible.  I bought a gun safe.  Before shelling out my hard earned cash I figured I'd look for one that was used.  I scoured Craig's list.  I also looked on the local auction site.  Nothing.  Actually Craig's list did have some safes but there's no way I'd ever buy any of those as they were junkier than junk.  I ended up buying a Liberty Safe, http://www.tntlibertysafe.com/safe_franklin.php?tab=specs, the Franklin model. 

It will be a good place to store all my guns, ammunition, and even my silver coins.  It's larger than I need at the moment, but I hope to fill it in the future.  I will share the combination to the safe.  Not with any of my kids though.  Some of my sisters and brothers will be given the combination. 

By putting the guns in the safe, I will not have to worry about my son getting into them.  He has a tendency to get into my stuff and use them inappropriately.  For example, one year I wasn't home and he got into the fireworks and lit them off.  Now, these are the safe and sane kind that aren't supposed to be too dangerous.  Somehow, one of them went sideways and burned the trim to my patio door.  Another time he came over and got into my shotgun.  He decided it would be fun to target shoot with my gun.  I didn't find out about it for a while.  He thought it was funny.  I told him I'd call the sheriff if he ever did it again. 

One of the things I had to do was figure out where the safe is going to go.  The dealer said that many people just keep them out in plain view in the house as a piece of decoration.  He also said that many people put them into the garage so they don't take up space in the house.  I didn't like either of those ideas.   I think just the opposite about having the safe as what the dealer suggested.  I don't want to announce it to the world, I want it to be my secret. 

In my bedroom, I have a closet within my closet.  My closet is L shaped, and I've got the rack going straight, so unless you know the back part of the closet is there, it's a pretty hidden spot.  Right now I have some of my food storage in that space.  I decided I want to put the safe into this space.  There's still room for food buckets. The store has their own delivery and installers, they don't hire it out.  It's taking a chance by having someone come to the house to install it, but it's a chance I'll willing to take.  It weighs almost 700 pounds.  I have cement floor and subfloor and the installers are going to bolt it to the floor.  They are scheduled to come this Thursday.