You’re right to hide it. Guns are very dangerous, and shouldn’t even be in the same house as children. Most gun shot accidents involving children happen because there was a gun in the house. Children think the gun is cool (especially if their father thinks it’s cool), pick it up, show it off to their friends, and before they know it, shots are fired. Someone ends up in hospital. Someone is killed. Child services and the police are involved.
If your husband must have a gun, it should be kept locked in gun safe, unloaded, and the ammunition should be kept in a separate safe, also locked, far away from the gun. Ideally, he should keep his gun somewhere else entirely. Perhaps he could store it in a gun safe at a friend’s house who doesn’t have children. LEAVING A GUN LYING AROUND WHERE CHILDREN ARE PLAYING IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. This is a recipe for disaster. Your husband is asking his child and/or his child’s friends to get shot, permanently injured, and possibly killed. I know that I would never allow a child to play at a house that had a gun on premises. I know that if my child were shot as a result of a gun on the premises, I would want the owner of that weapon to see jail time.
A few years ago, I read the book, Protecting the Gift by Gavin de Becker. The author has worked for the FBI and now runs one of the most sought after security teams in the country. He specialises in preventing violence; preventing kidnapping, shootings, rape, molestation, stalking, etc. He helps people to get out of dangerous situations and consults with corporations to prevent workplace shootings. His company has provided security for high ranking government officials and A-list celebrities. Protecting the Gift is written with children in mind. How do we protect our babies, children, and adolescents? What poses a threat to them? How to we arm them to protect themselves? He writes in detail about the dangers of keeping a firearm in the same house as a child. He shares that, in his experience, children always seem to find a way to play with that gun and it will go off. It will hurt someone. The best thing you can do to protect your child from being shot is to get that gun out of the house. He’s in much greater danger from that gun at home - accidentally shooting himself, his friend accidentally shooting him - than from an armed intruder or a school shooting. Do not play with fire. You will get burned.
