Approaching firearms with a degree of expeditiousness has its perks, but when preparing your home for a baby, new stances on safety and prioritization often materialize. Babies are often curious and tactile without prejudice and for a young set of parents, this can be new territory: aiming towards the highest good for the child instead of the adult relationship. With a few simple habit changes and considerations, gun owners do not have to abandon their passion for protection.
Ali “Upnorth” Juten is a firearms and outdoor enthusiast of the first-degree but she was a first-time parent too. There’s little that can kick the creative juices into overdrive quite like contemplating how to protect the youngest ones of our family, especially when those tykes don’t understand the difference between right and wrong.
Ali addresses the comprehensive scope of firearm safety – stretching from a gun’s physical location and level of accessibility, to ammunition and its degrees of removal from safes and other methods of gun storage. Although this may seem excessive, professionals and parents agree that there is little about the feral pawing mitts of babies, toddlers and children that can be overemphasized. Anyone that has passed out, like Arnold Schwarzenegger from “Kindergarten Cop,” after chasing even one child around all day can intimately attest to this.
Perhaps one of the simplest and noteworthy gems of Ali’s preparation techniques is simply asking for the advice of someone that’s “been there.” One of the best attributes of those seasoned in years and experience is their abilities to see the world through different lenses. Even surveying an unfamiliar home for safety concerns lies, most often, within their repertoire. -IBR
Having a secure place to store your firearms will make all the difference, especially once your baby is mobile. Keeping them in a locked cabinet, safe, gun vault or storage case when they’re not in use is super important. You really want to make sure that your firearms are not accessible to children or those who don’t have permission to use them. Like always, when they’re not in use, your firearms should be stored clean and unloaded.
The other thing to think about is ammunition. Where should you store it? According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, your ammunition should be stored separately from your firearms, in a locked location.
View the rest of the original post for more on safeguarding the little ones. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the NSSF’s important program, Project ChildSafe.
The Women's Outdoor News, aka The WON, features news, reviews and stories about women who are shooting, hunting, fishing and actively engaging in outdoor adventure. This publication is for women, by women. View all posts by The WON
