MECHANICAL LOCKDOWN
In my home, a stern word and common sense served as gun safety

The only instruction I ever needed as a kid was, �If you screw around with this gun, you�ll kill yourself.�

No one had to tell me twice. The gun stayed in the dresser drawer, and I never had the desire (or guts) to tinker with it on my own again. From that one little warning, I also knew enough to stay away from the pistol on top of the fridge, avoid the three rifles in the closet, and basically not go anywhere near the cabinet in the den that was so full of ammunition and artillery that it could have blown the neighborhood into the sky with just one spark. In my home, a stern word and common sense were gun safety. 

I would wager that most responsible gun owners shared a similar upbringing in which they learned � first and foremost � a deep respect for the power of a firearm. Gun safety was learned with our ABCs and digested with our cereal. Today, however, as more and more novice (and stupid) people are buying and using guns, gun safety is as heated a topic as ever. 

The term �gun safety� implies that guns are intrinsically unsafe. And they are � in inexperienced hands. For those of you reading this and saying, �Shoot, guns don�t kill people.� I hear ya. But remember: There are never headlines about the misuse of a watermelon taking out a family of four. The majority of gun-related accidents are not usually caused by experienced gun owners, but more often someone who does not understand either the mechanism or the consequences. Children, idiot friends, a really pissed-off ex: These are hands that should not be touching your weapon. Regardless, it is the responsibility of the gun owner to be sure that his or her guns are secured, no matter who may come across them. 

One inexpensive way to keep your guns safe but still within reach is with the use of mechanical locks. Mechanical locks are devices placed on the weapon itself so a round can�t discharge. The two main types of locks include trigger locks, which makes it impossible to actually pull the trigger, and cable locks that run through the barrel or the breech so the weapon can�t be cocked. Both are good ways to secure a weapon if you don�t have a gun safe, and you can feel fairly confident that they will keep some knucklehead from blowing his knucklehead off. Always practice caution. Even with a locking device in place, I still wouldn�t recommend using your weapon as a backscratcher or a shoehorn. 

Those who have a firearm primarily for protection, like me, may argue that having a mechanical lock on a gun renders it completely impotent. My .38 snubnose is next to my bed in a lock box. True, if someone is coming through my window, I�ll have to shake off sleep enough to remember the code before I can even think about cocking, shouting �Freeze, motherfuckers!� then aiming; however, there is just as much security in knowing that my gun won�t go off without me being the one to pull the trigger as there is in my knowing that it�s there for me if I ever need it. 

Plus, I definitely have idiot friends and pissed off exes. So I�m not taking any chances. 

According to the 2007 Shooter�s Bible, the future of lock technology may include eye-sensors, fingerprint pads or even DNA recognition to make access for the owner quick and easy. Whatever way the technology may go, there will be less and less reason to leave a gun naked in a drawer, and you can bet that legislation will be quick to start mandating the use of locking devices. 

Start getting used to the idea, because it will hunt you down if you don�t.