Which is faster: A gun in a nightstand drawer or in a gun safe

Published March 11, 2014 by
Filed under Carry, Equipment, Mindset, Practice, Self Defense

I’m not a big fan of leaving loaded guns lying around the house because it’s kinda like leaving the bleach jug in the refrigerator next to the milk jug: Something bad is going to happen, it’s not a question of IF, it’s only a question of WHEN.

So we decided to test things to find out if a gun safe safe is a better alternative to leaving your gun in a nightstand drawer, and the results really surprised us.

A few notes about this test:

  • Jaci and Robert are almost identically-skilled as shooters
  • They used guns they were familiar with
  • Robert was not familiar with how to use that gun safe because we wanted to simulate the stress of figuring out how to open it correctly under stress
  • The shots were so close together, the shot timer app on my phone couldn’t tell them apart. 

The gun safe we used was this model from Paragon safes, but if I’m honest, I prefer GunVault safes. 

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Comments

7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 TeamGunBlogger // Mar 11, 2014 at 9:36 AM

    Which is faster: A gun in a nightstand drawer or in a gun safe http://t.co/bM5KbPMhfD

  • 2 YKLWEF // Mar 12, 2014 at 2:59 AM

    This “test” is rigged. I’d like to see the guy open the safe that fast in the dark! As for the girl with the sock drawer, why is her gun unloaded? I keep my bedside gun loaded, with a round in the chamber. All I have to do is flip off the safety and cock it, and I’m ready to fire.

    And yes, if there were random children wandering through my house, that would be unsafe. But there aren’t, so it’s not. The one non-adult who visits regularly (granddaughter, 11) is well educated. On the rare occasions she brings a friend, the gun(s) are put away for the duration of the visit. But you can be certain that every night, while I’m sleeping, I have protection close at hand.

    I wouldn’t use a gun safe even if it were a felony to fail to do so. My life is worth more than obeying BS laws written by thugs who want to micro-manage me.

  • 3 KevinC // Mar 12, 2014 at 7:42 AM

    There’s little to no way to account for all the variable in something like this: All we did here was literally take a gun safe I had at home and the drawer nearest to my bed and take them to the range, To be honest, I expected the safe to do much more poorly than it did.

    And for nighttime, we’ll be testing that soon as well with a pair of welding masks, and I have a feeling it affect both [people equally.

  • 4 Antonio // Mar 12, 2014 at 2:28 PM

    I agree. What about a loaded gun in a drawer? I understand that some might feel safer (better) if the gun was locked away, but why is that the only way to do things? Because the government says so?

    I’m getting so sick of things being labeled crimes when nothing has happened, and there is no criminal intent. It obviously would be safer for all of us if there were no guns…(yeah, right!)

  • 5 mygunculture // Mar 14, 2014 at 9:43 AM

    “Which is faster: A gun in a nightstand drawer or in a gun safe” http://t.co/QOQK3NzMv6

  • 6 Totelnet1 // Mar 14, 2014 at 9:49 AM

    RT @mygunculture: “Which is faster: A gun in a nightstand drawer or in a gun safe” http://t.co/QOQK3NzMv6

  • 7 Your Viewpoint Determines Your Vision - Misfires And Light Strikes // Mar 30, 2015 at 5:33 AM

    […] gun safe for home defense pistols. We did a simple test over at Teamgunblogger that showed that getting a gun out of a safe was just as easy and just as fast as finding one in your sock drawer, so I’m pretty confident in both the security of my guns and the security of my […]