Sto­ring guns at home: how safe is safe enough?

Anyone who owns one or more fire­arms bears a great respon­si­bi­lity: towards them­sel­ves, their fel­low human beings and society. This respon­si­bi­lity does not end with the pro­per hand­ling of the fire­arm, but also extends to its safe sto­rage. The law sti­pu­la­tes that fire­arms must be stored carefully and pro­tec­ted from access by unaut­ho­ri­sed third par­ties. But what form of sto­rage truly pro­vi­des secu­rity?

It’s not­hing new, yet still sur­pri­sing to hear: Switz­er­land ranks 14th inter­na­tio­nally among the most armed count­ries in terms of the num­ber of pri­va­tely owned fire­arms. Figu­res from 2018 indi­cate that around 2.3 mil­lion wea­pons are in civi­lian hands in Switz­er­land, with the num­ber of issued fire­arms licen­ses ste­adily incre­a­sing since then. This means that more than one in four peo­ple owns a fire­arm. One rea­son for this high num­ber of pri­va­tely owned wea­pons in Switz­er­land is the militia system, which allows all mem­bers of the armed forces to take pri­vate owner­ship of their wea­pons after com­ple­ting their ser­vice. Howe­ver, the main moti­va­tion for owning wea­pons in Switz­er­land is not a need for secu­rity, but rather a tech­ni­cal fasci­na­tion with fire­arms and an inte­rest in shoo­ting sports, which enjoy great popu­la­rity in the coun­try.

But those who pur­sue this hobby also bear a great respon­si­bi­lity. Pistols and rif­les are not just sport­ing equip­ment, but wea­pons that can cause serious harm if misu­sed. The dan­ger posed by a fire­arm is signi­fi­cantly influen­ced by the per­son hand­ling it. For sport shoo­ters and gun coll­ec­tors, respon­si­ble hand­ling of fire­arms is a given. This inclu­des secure sto­rage at home, a cru­cial aspect that is often neglec­ted.

Swiss fire­arms law does not pre­scribe an expli­cit sto­rage pro­ce­dure or spe­ci­fic stan­dards that must be met for sto­ring fire­arms in pri­vate hou­se­holds. It merely sti­pu­la­tes that fire­arms, ammuni­tion, essen­tial fire­arm com­pon­ents, and access­ories must be pro­tec­ted from unaut­ho­ri­zed access and stored carefully. For gun owners, this means, on the one hand, free­dom of choice regar­ding the spe­ci­fic imple­men­ta­tion, but on the other hand, it also neces­si­ta­tes a tho­rough exami­na­tion of the topic and various sto­rage opti­ons to ful­fill their respon­si­bi­li­ties.

When choo­sing a lockable sto­rage con­tai­ner, price is often an important fac­tor, but this com­pro­mi­ses the most important aspect: safety. Because the majo­rity of com­mer­ci­ally available gun cabinets or gun safes lack cer­ti­fied theft pro­tec­tion and can be bro­ken into very quickly with force, allo­wing the con­tents to be sto­len. Unlike other items, the theft of wea­pons not only means a loss of value, but above all a loss of con­trol, which can have fatal con­se­quen­ces. Pre­ven­ting such sce­na­rios is of para­mount importance.

Anyone who has so far stored their wea­pons in a simple gun cabi­net or a poorly secu­red solu­tion should the­r­e­fore check whe­ther this level of secu­rity really meets their own requi­re­ments. A cer­ti­fied gun and valu­ables safe can be a well-desi­gned solu­tion here, sen­si­bly com­bi­ning respon­si­bi­lity, burglary pro­tec­tion and the secure sto­rage of valu­ables.