Accessing your firearm within the home is not an area most would think requires training. Responsible gun owners know where they keep their guns and the condition in which they’re stored. Likewise, they typically have some sort of plan to retrieve them if needed. So, is it important to train to get to your guns in an emergency? Let’s discuss.

Accessing Your Firearm in the Home

Whether firearms are kept in a safe or beside the bed on a nightstand, most people feel prepared. They know there is a firearm within reach if they need it. The training gap, however, lies within the moments between knowing you need your firearm and having it in hand.

You may think this sounds absurd. You know where your gun is, and you’ll just grab it if you need it. Fair enough, but humor me, if you will, with some scenarios. I’ll start with the classic “if glass breaks in the middle of the night” scenario.

“I Think I Heard Something!”

You wake up to a loud noise and know someone is in your home. Your gun is beside you on your nightstand, loaded and ready. You retrieve the firearm, lock the door, get to the corner of the room, point your firearm toward the door, retrieve your cell phone, and call 911.

You hope the authorities arrive before the threat tries to enter your room, but if not, you are prepared. In that example, your home defense protocol was followed perfectly.

Now, let me add potential reality to that scenario. You wake up to a loud noise and know someone is in your home. Your heart is racing. You’re scared, maybe angry—definitely flustered.

Hurriedly, you throw the covers off as you reach for the loaded firearm on your nightstand. One leg is twisted in the covers, and you’re struggling to get both feet on the floor. You’re still groggy from sleep, but try to move quickly because you know seconds matter.

You have one foot solid on the floor while your other is still tangled in the blanket. One hand relentlessly deals with the blanket, and you use your free hand to reach for your gun on the nightstand.

As you reach for it in the dark, you misjudge the distance and accidentally knock it to the floor. Your other foot is finally free, and now you’re scrambling on all fours to locate the gun in the dark. Meanwhile, the threat could be moving towards your door.

This was not the plan whatsoever.

Forcible Entry

Let’s do one more. It’s the middle of the day, and you’re washing dishes. Suddenly, you see someone outside your patio door. They’re forcibly trying to open the door to enter. You’re terrified and struggling to get your thoughts together.

Your handgun is in the handgun safe just a few feet away. You spend a good amount of time on the range, are a great shot, and are confident in the defensive training you’ve taken. So, you run for the safe to acquire your gun. You scan your fingerprint for biometric access. It doesn’t work. Your hands are still wet from doing dishes.

You try to input the code manually, but your mind draws a blank as you cannot recall it. You see the intruder break the barrier. So, you grab the handgun safe, make a run for your designated safe room, and hope for the best.

These scenarios and the different ways that they could play out are endless. The common denominator in any threat scenario is that you must access your firearm. It will never matter how skilled you are as a shooter or with defensive tactics if gaining access fails.

Thankfully you can train for access and build your procedural memory.

Training Procedural Memory

Procedural memory is how we automatically retrieve learned processes and execute the steps involved to complete a procedure. This is how something becomes second nature to us, like cooking, riding a bicycle, or driving a car.

If you begin training to access your firearm, it will soon become part of your procedural memory. Then, even when stress or fear hits you, you will move step by step with what you need to do, like it’s second nature.

To train for access, you need to determine which firearms are designated for home defense, where they will be stored, and what condition you plan on storing them. Will they be loaded, unloaded, safety or no safety?

However you choose to store them needs to be incorporated when you train. For example, if it is loaded with a manual safety on, then you need to practice releasing the safety each time. This is a personal choice for each individual, but what you choose needs to be practiced the same way every time.

Scenario-Based Training

From here, you can begin scenario-based training. Create scenarios of possible threat situations from different areas in your home happening at varying times of day, including in the dark.

Walk yourself through the steps needed to access your firearm. Whether you must access a safe, open a drawer, closet, cupboard door, or retrieve it from your nightstand, each step involved needs to be practiced for each location where a home defense gun is stored. 

Once you have mapped out the steps, have a solid plan, and become comfortable with it. Start timing yourself and create timed drills.

Scenario-based training and running timed drills will help build your procedural memory to make you better prepared. This training will also work out any possible issues. You may think you’ve found a foolproof way to store your gun, but running scenarios could reveal an issue you hadn’t realized.

For example, not realizing it was on the same path as the loose Legos your children never put away. Or maybe you find during a timed drill that you cannot move your fingers fast enough under pressure to open your safe. So, now you need to find an equally secure alternative.

You could even discover that your storage location makes your firearms easily accessible to others. This can result in access to unwanted hands or arming potential threats. The possibilities of what you will learn are educational and valuable.

Final Thoughts

This article is a mere introductory overview of in-home firearm access training. There is a lot more that goes into it. But I wanted to begin at least getting people thinking about important, overlooked training aspects.

Just because you have a gun in your home does not mean you have an absolute equalizer. A potential threat could be more skilled than you, or multiple threats could outnumber you. Without training, you can go from being confidently protected to becoming a victim or a liability in the blink of an eye.