Safety Precautions for having both guns and children in house?

[Rich Parsons]

Just interested in hearing how most folk go about dealing with this situation, do you lock weapons away or just train the children to respect them? Basically what precautions do you or would you yourself take in situation to ensure safety and prevent accidents?

Im coming from the point of view of someone who lives in a country with neither readily available guns nor a gun culture. So my views when thinking of firearms within society tend mostly to concern safety issues rather than self defence or how availabilty might affect crime.
Here its not that likely in any assault that a firearm will be involved, and quite frankly if criminals wish to procure firearms, they will regardless of the they're legality. What with being criminals and all.
So sfae handling in the possession and use of a firearm tends to be what I'd mainly be interested in as a concern.

Yes.

They should be secured.

The children should learn respect.

A friend from work had taught his children respect as well as having them locked up. Well the Mom was interrupted checking and moving a firearm so it did not have a trigger lock on it. It was sitting on the top of a high chest dresser. He asked the oldest one of his daughters, (* It works for both sexes equally *), to get something from the bedroom. She went in and came out and told her dad she could not as the gun was not safe. She saw that it did not have a trigger lock on it. She did close the door (* her younger sisters and brothers also knew not to go into the bedroom without permission if the door was closed *), so her younger siblings would not go in.The mom had stepped around the corner into the bathroom, and by the time the dad got to the bedroom to check the firearm was secured again and in the storage location.

The point was that the kids respected the weapons. They understood what was considered safe and NOT safe and was able to come tell a parent.