Do you always keep your guns in a safe? You need to think about incorporate that into your training.
December 12, 2023
By Jack Oller, Digital Editor
I just can’t get enough of good training, and I highly recommend anyone who owns a firearm to get some quality training to go with it. From my time in the U.S. Army to many different civilian schools like Gunsite Academy , I’ve been fortunate to get some of the best training available. It’s a lot of fun, and more importantly, you get a sense of security and confidence with yourself and your firearms. Whether you’re interested in basic defensive pistol skills to extreme long-range competition shooting, there are many experts out there that offer tons of different classes.
An awesome group with a great instructor equals some of the best fun you can have. As I said, I’ve had the chance to do a bit of everything when it comes to training, but I’ve never considered spending extensive amounts of time training with my home gun safes. Recently, I had the chance to attend a unique course at The Site in Mt. Carrol, Illinois . I don’t typically associate exceptional firearms training with the state of Illinois, but I can tell you from experience that it is an outstanding facility with some of the best instructors I’ve ever had the chance to train with. I’d attended a long-range shooting course and a defensive carbine course at The Site before with Director Jim Kauber, and I am a better shooter today because of it.
SecureIt Safe Training This time, I went to The Site to attend an event hosted by SecureIt, a gun storage company that makes everything from big, double-door gun safes to small box and vehicle safes . They tailored a unique carbine course for a group of us that incorporated training with their line of gun safes in various scenarios. The course raised some excellent thoughts on firearms training, but the main takeaway is that if you always keep your firearms locked in a safe, you absolutely need to incorporate that safe into your training routine. Before getting into some interesting concepts about safe training, let’s walk through the course itself.
This SBR LMT with a Trijicon MRO and a can shot like a dream! It was primarily a carbine course, and LMT was kind enough to send a spread of their fine rifles that I very much wished I could’ve taken home with me. With an assortment of Trijicon red dots and Leupold LPVOs, we got started on some static range training. The first thing I realized is exactly how perishable firearms training can be. It’s not enough to attend a firearms course every now and then; you need to take what you learned home and practice regularly. After a few basic drills for the instructors to get a feel for the class, we started getting into the fun stuff.
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The Site has one of the best live-fire shoot-houses I’ve ever trained in, and it’s set up to simulate a home or office environment. SecureIt set up some of their new Agile and Fast Box gun safes in the shoot house to practice retrieving a firearm from a safe when something goes bump in the night. As you’d expect, there is a big difference between accessing your gun safe casually and when the adrenaline is pumping. We ran through several different scenarios with safes placed in different locations one may have in a house. Some of the situations included shoot/no-shoot drills, moving to secure your kids and family through the house, and escaping your house. All of it was done with the rifle starting out in one of the SecureIt safes. We did spend some time discussing specific tactics when it comes to home defense, but the main focus was on incorporating a gun safe into those tactics.
Everyone can shoot stand up facing a target, but how well do you shoot around barriers? I'm also a big believer in training how you'd fight. I wear jeans and a t-shirt to training becuase that's how I'm dressed most of the time. Home Safe Setup I’ll start with the caveat that I am 100 percent against any form of legislation that would force people to get and use a gun safe to store their firearms. I think there are many great advantages to gun safes, but forcing people to use them is just as bad as the anti-second-amendment legislation being forced around the country.
The training was a lot of fun, and I worked on bringing what I learned home. Here are my thoughts on optimizing a safe for home defense. My first thought is that it’s a lot faster to grab a gun that’s not in a safe. I’m recently married with no kids yet, so I don’t have to worry about little ones or anyone else accessing one of my firearms without supervision. I have a number of bedside guns that I’ll cycle between at any given time, and simply having a firearm at the ready is always going to be faster than trying to access one from a safe. When I travel, I do secure my guns in a safe. I know many people will teach their children proper gun safety at a young age, so there is no need to worry about them mishandling them. However, accidents can happen, especially with kids, so I completely understand wanting to keep your guns in a safe. For those who always keep their firearms in a safe, here are some points to consider that I learned from the event.
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First, you need to think about staging your firearm. Is it a rifle or a pistol? Will you be standing or kneeling when you try to open the safe? Is there anything it might snag on when being removed from the safe? These are just a few of many things you need to consider when setting up a bedside or other quick-access safe. The most important thing is to optimize access to the firearm to be as fast as possible. That brings us to the second point, which is practice. If you’re going to leave a gun in safe all the time, you need to practice accessing it on at least a weekly basis. The last thing you want is to be fumbling with the keycode or lever in a high-stress situation. Practice does indeed make perfect, and repetition will ensure you can do it quickly, even in the dark.
The SecureIt crew came with a big cooler of Hoist , which I found to be an awesome beverage. It also happens to be the official hydration of choice by the U.S. Miltiary. Let’s get into the specifics of staging a firearm, starting with long guns. The AR-15 rifle is a great choice for home defense, and the way you’d want to stage an AR is more or less identical for any long gun (shotgun, carbine, PCC, etc.). For those whom have never considered home defense before, make sure your magazines are loaded with your defensive ammo of choice. It sounds obvious, but there are horror stories of people trying to load a magazine with bad guys in the house. Also, go ahead and store your primary defensive gun with a round in the chamber. Having to charge your gun just adds more time and makes noise when you’ll want to be quiet.
My home-defense AR has a red-dot sight, white light and sling attached. If you don't or can't have a weapon-mounted light, then make sure you have a handheld in the safe with your firearm. I like to use some painters tape to hold the sling tight against the rifle so it doesn’t flop around while still allowing me to operate the rifle. If I need to use the sling, the tape rips away quickly and easily, and the tape prevents the sling from snagging on anything when removing it from a safe. However you keep your safe, store the firearm with the muzzle pointed away from you. When you go to draw the gun from the safe, the buttstock should come out first and directly into your shoulder as you would normally carry it. For handguns, you have many more storage options, but the same principles for rifle storage also apply to handgun. Wherever is best for you, still store the pistol away from you and in a position so that you can quickly grasp it without having to manipulate it extensively. It should come out with one hand and into the other for a good hold. Make sure your safe is big enough to account for the gun itself and a white light attachment and possibly red dot sight.
Ammo was provided by Detroit Ammo Company , which was a first for me. The 55-grain FMJ shot well. But what about the rest of the house? Well, if you’re like me, then you pretty much always have a firearm handy or are carrying one with you. Again, however, I recognize that’s not a practical option for many people. SecureIt proposes what they call their Decentralized Gun Storage method. Basically, instead of having one big safe with all your guns in one place, consider having several smaller safes spread throughout the house that can be accessed quickly. To me, this is just a clever way to sell a lot of gun safes, but there is a logic there. If you ever need a gun, you’re going to want it quickly, and running upstairs to the bedroom safe may not always be the fastest option.
For the actual training, you need to do it in the many different natural positions you’ll find yourself in. Start by laying down flat in bed and trying to access your firearm as quickly as possible. Get nice and comfortable in your recliner or couch and have a timer go off. How long does it take you to get from one side of the house to your safe? With repetitions, you’ll be able to do it pretty quick, and you can use a timer to keep track. Once you have a good hang on it, do it at night or with the lights off. Can you get to your gun and turn on your white light in the dark? It’s a skill you need to have. Firearms News Executive Editor David Fortier and I discussed this, and he made a great point. High-stress scenarios rarely happen the way you’ve pictured they will in your head. They happen at the worst possible time and in a way you may not expect. Good and regular training will alleviate that and give you a winning edge to keep you and your family safe.
The shoot house at The Site is a unique tool to live-fire practice inside a simulated home enviornment. Final Thoughts It's also important to note that you don’t have to secure a firearm with a gun safe. A lockable drawer, ammo can or any other container that can be secured are perfectly good options to store a gun. Regardless of your storage method of choice, you need to train with what you own to the point it becomes second nature. Look, SecureIt is a gun safe company that exists to sell gun safes. However, I have to applaud their efforts on creating awareness and training pertaining to including training with a gun safe. They’ve even built out an impressive video training series on their website , and they also acknowledge that the training will work with other gun safe manufacturers’ product, too. The takeaway, ultimately, is that if you’re always going to keep your guns in a safe, you definitely need to include the safe in your training.
About the Author Jack Oller is a U.S. Army veteran, having served in the Military Police with one deployment to the Camp VI Detention Facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has extensive firearms training from military and civilian schools and is a passionate shotgun shooter and hunter. Jack has an English degree from Illinois State University, and he started his career in the outdoor industry as Associate Editor for Guns & Ammo magazine. After Gun & Ammo, he worked as Brand Manager for Crimson Trace and now is the Digital Editor for Firearms News.
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