Storing Your Firearms

If you’re going to receive your PAL or RPAL soon, then you’ll be starting to think about how to store any firearms you acquire.

Yes, your key concern should be keeping in line with the law. The legal minimums are there for a reason, but you also have the opportunity to think about how your storage fits into your life and design accordingly. Remember this is about protecting yourself and your loved ones, so, why wouldn’t you? It’s also about feeling good when you take your guns to the range!

Safes and Lockers

If you have the room, consider buying a specialized safe or gun locker, to keep your investments secure. Chances are you’re going to buy more than one firearm, so plan ahead and buy something with some capacity. Major retailers have at least one major sale every year, so watch out for opportunities.

We tend to prefer the nice heavy safes with the large vault style doors — because we think they’re super cool looking but also super secure. Find a good spot for it to live in your home, preferably somewhere where you can use the lag bolts that are provided to pin your safe in place. If you rent your home, a nice heavy safe is all the more important since you might not be able to secure the safe with the bolts.

Remember to plan ahead for help moving it to your desired locations. It’s usually more than a one-person job — safes are heavy for a reason!

Gun Room

If you have the space there’s nothing quite like a dedicated gun room where you can tinker with your collection. Keep in mind this room has to be secure. First, no windows! Or if it does have windows they need bars on them. Either way it shouldn’t be easy to look into from the outside. You want this room kept secret. Second, you’ll need a nice secure door with a heavy lock on it. The door should be quite solid, either a heavy wood or steel reinforced door with a good quality deadbolt lock.

Cases

If you don’t want a safe or the space for a gun room, storing your firearms in cases can still be prudent. You want to ensure your cases are high quality, difficult to pry open.

You Can’t Go Wrong with Nanuk

Here’s our shameless plug for our own Nanuk Cases: The plastic shell is tough as nails, the marine grade steel hardware makes them super tough to break into, and the TSA approved locks are designed to be hard to cut off. These cases definitely keep your collection secure. Whatever kind of case you have, it’s good practice to have them hidden away, preferably behind a locked door so they can’t ‘walk off’, and as impregnable as possible.

Range Storage

If you’re primarily shooting at a range, some offer secure storage on-site for an extra cost. It can be a great way to get storage out of your hair and keep things convenient for your range visits.

Going Above and Beyond

To reduce all our lessons to one: you really can’t be too careful with firearms. This includes how you store them and limit access to them. Going above and beyond keeps you legally protected, but it also means your friends and families won’t be at risk of accessing things they shouldn’t, and can’t hurt themselves.

Whichever solution is right for you, exceeding the legal responsibilities you have as a lawful firearms owner is always a good idea! On top of that, the legal guidelines provide for a variety of approaches because there is no one-size fits all solution.