Gun Safety and Kids: 8 Crucial Rules for Parents to Follow

A good reason why families have guns in the house is to ensure protection from any invaders, especially since there are kids who don’t know how to defend themselves yet!

Unfortunately, with children in the house, guns can also be dangerous to live with since you never know when those little hands find the weapons and begin to play with it, only to end up fatally injured!

You will be surprised to know that your child might actually know where your guns are hidden. What’s worse, they may have already touched them out of curiosity as well!

Studies have shown that parents don’t believe children knew where the guns are kept. BUT, half of these kids already know where the guns are hidden and 22% of them already touched it!

That’s why it’s crucial to know how you can properly keep your guns in your household to avoid your children from touching and experimenting with it!

If you’re wondering what you can do, read on as I show you the top eight tips to follow!

Gun Safety and Children: Eight Rules for Parents to Follow

1. Getting a Gun Safe

You definitely need to consider getting a gun safe, which ensures that no one except you (or your spouse) will be able to get into it and retrieve any weapons or other valuables.

Another huge plus is that it keeps your firearm from burglars and robbers, so no one will be stealing it any time soon.

Furthermore, these gun safes also have locking mechanisms and the strength to withstand accidental fires, if any would occur.

So always keep your weapons locked in a strong and secure safe. It’s a worthy investment that will pay for your safety in the long run. I can’t stress this enough.

2. Keeping Guns and Ammo Apart

This is one of the most common rules not only to prevent the misuse of your firearm by your children but also for any dangers from thieves who may find and use your gun.

By having your guns and ammunition apart, your kids won’t be able to fire anything if ever they do find the gun, which keeps them safe.

Leave your guns without any ammunition to fire and store them separately in different locked safes or containers. It’s an important thing to do should do when acquiring guns!

This, however, doesn’t mean that you need to keep your firearm on the top floor and ammo in the basement. Simply keep them separated enough to avoid any accidents.

3. Educating the Family

You and your spouse will need to make sure that you both are educated with gun safety so you are able to teach your ​​children about it as well.

Get your partner on the right track and be comfortable with taking the steps of teaching your children together. It’s important that you both are on the same page.

While your guns are locked up, you never know what happens in their friends’ homes!

It helps to plan this conversation well ahead with your spouse and discuss how you will introduce the concept of firearms and the dangers associated with it to your children in a safe way and going at a good pace.

4. Securing the Carry Pistol

Of course, one of the main reasons you are keeping a gun for your home is because you want to be safe from anyone who may enter the house without you knowing.

Yes, it’s vital to keep your guns secure and unloaded but this isn’t the case for self-defense. 

That’s why you should make sure to secure your carry pistol by having a quick access gun safe.

This will ensure that your carry pistol is safe from kids but still easy to access for adults for any danger nearby,

5. Adding Gun Locks

For those who don’t have a safe yet because of budget or space reasons, then you can invest in something far less expensive but still an effective way to make your gun inoperable from the wrong hands.

Go for gun locks, adding it to all your firearms. That means you won’t be able to load or fire it.

Take note that this isn’t a substitute for a gun safe but simply another step to help keep the gun secure while you are in the process of investing in a gun cabinet.

6. Teaching Your Child the Rules

Now, it’s time to teach your child the rules. It isn’t just about telling them NOT to use the gun.

You have to know when to introduce your child to the gun and teach them that it is NOT safe to use unsupervised. 

Remember to teach them these four actionable steps when they see a gun: STOP, DON’T TOUCH, RUN AWAY, and INFORM AN ADULT.

They have to remember these rules in case they end up in a situation where they find a gun or their friends do.

7. Toy Gun Versus the Real Deal

Toy guns can actually look like real guns, with children not knowing what they are playing with.

That is why it’s important to let them know what a real gun is and how it is different from a toy gun.

There are many aspects (weight, feel etc.) to discuss here and you can even allow him to touch it (make sure it’s doesn’t have any ammo and is unloaded).

If they aren’t sure about the difference between a toy or real gun when they see it, then it’s best to teach them to inform an adult about it.

8. Running through Scenarios

Just like a mini-test, run through scenarios with your child and then ask what they would do during such times. 

Make sure you carefully observe how your child reacts during each scenario and lovingly correct them if they make a mistake.

Do this during different times so you are teaching the right behavior to your child and they will not forget.

Wrapping It Up

And there you have it! Through these ways on how to keep your guns away from your children, you won’t have to worry about harm and injury anymore.

It isn’t just about hiding the gun but to allow your child to learn about the dangers of guns to hinder him from trying to look for it!

I hope that this article on gun safety with children in the house helped you become more knowledgeable on what you should do for the p​​rotection of your whole family. So don’t wait any longer and begin following these tips today.

If you have any questions or would like to share your tips and experiences on gun safety in the household, then comment down below. I would love to hear what you have to think.