Handling Guns and Guns in the Home

Handling Guns Safely

• Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. 
  
• Make sure the muzzle is pointed in a safe direction. Only point a gun at something or someone you want to shoot.
• Treat every firearm as it its loaded. If handed to you, check if it is or is not loaded, even if you saw someone check prior.

Storing Guns Safely

• Never leave a gun unattended.
• Unload firearms when not in use. Remove all ammunition from the firearm, including any rounds in the chamber.
• Keep your defensive firearms where you can get to them. Use a touch safe to allow those trained and capable in your home to access them quickly.
• Keep the firearm locked. Secure firearms in a lockable touch safe. I recommend one on the ground floor, one in the bedroom. Both safes should be secured to the home. These safes allow you virtually immedate access to your guns and ammo via touching the pads. For example, you program to tap index finger, middle finger, middle, middle as a combination. Many of these safes can do fingerprints as well, but I don't find them reliable enough. I prefer the tap method. I use a cable to attach my main floor safe to an appliance. The cable is secured inside the safe and the safe must be opened to detach. 

  

  Touch Safe
  

  
  
• Store ammunition in a lockbox or safe separately from firearms. Keep the keys to the firearms and ammunition storage in separate locations.
• Talk with children about what to do if they see a gun. Make sure they know not to touch it, but to tell you or another responsible adult.

VERY IMPORTANT Legality of Using a Gun in Self Defense

• The castle doctrine creates an exception to the duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense if the individual under attack is in their own home. The law in New Jersey allowing the use of force in defense of one's home or personal property (NJ Rev Stat § 2C:3-6 (2013)) follows the castle doctrine.
• For deadly force against an intruder to be justified, the intruder must have already used or threatened deadly force against the property owner or someone else present, or the individual must reasonably believe that someone else present would be in substantial danger of bodily harm without the use of deadly force.

Tip for using Guns

• Use pistols that you are comfortable with in or around the home.
• Practice. Practice. Practice. Even one month can degrade your skills.
• Keep a flashlight and the ability to turn on home lights available.
  
  My preference is a Maglite. 4 battery or similar. If I can't shoot an intruder, because there isn't a physical threat, then 6'1" and 275 Steve and the Maglite are the only option. Insert Rottweiler or Cane Corso if available in your home.
  
• Do not shoot anyone you have not seen/identified. DO NOT shoot sounds.
• Learn to move around your home in the dark.
• Any caliber can work. I recommend at least .380. For home defense, smallness is not as much a concern (.380 is small, for small carry guns), you should use 9mm, S&W40, 10MM or .45 calibers. I prefer 9mm and S&W40, both of which you can carry 10 or more rounds and have good energy to take down intruders. Note that current NJ law limits magazines to 10 rounds. A gun can have 11 rounds - 10 in the magazine, 1 loaded in the chamber.
• Which gun for you? Revolvers are simple, usually .38 or .357 (which can shoot .38) are the go to calibers. They are simple to use, reliable, typically accurate but limit you to 6, at most 7 rounds. Most people today use semi-automatics, but you have to learn how to use them, how to fix them in a jam, and how to change a magazine. They allow you to have 10+1 rounds in NJ, and more, 13+1 or more in .380, 9mm, S&W40 calibers.
• Shotguns, AR's and other rifles can be used. Note they are harder to use in the small confines of rooms, doors, stairs, etc. 
  
  
  
• I recommend ammunition designed for defense, such as Hornady Critical Defense. Critical Defense is designed to take down intruders without going through walls. Critical Duty, designed for law enforcement, has more object penetration abilities.