(TacticalNews.com) – On any given day, you can do a search for tactical weapon storage items and furniture and absolutely get lost salivating over all the cool options. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the budget to go on a shopping spree for those items. However, we can start saving for what we need and in the meantime, get creative with what we already have.
Weapon Identification
The first thing we have to do is change the way we think of weapons. The truth is, you can turn just about anything into a weapon if you have to. And, if you have children in the home, you probably want to keep your actual weapons locked up anyhow.
The key here is to look at items that are most like the weapons you practice with, and put them in strategic places. If throwing weapons are your thing, for instance, that brass coaster on the coffee table can be a lethal device in your hands. This is also a great time to start thinking about your experience with melee weapons, because a firearm may not always be within arms reach. Take a look around your house? What items could you effectively use as a weapon?
Critical Placement
When it comes to your guns, you need to keep them out of reach and sight of any visitors or children. Sure, you can hide a handgun in a teddy bear, but there’s always that one kid who wants to play with that bear even more because you said not to. But, you could hide it in a vase or even better, a shelf designed just for that purpose. What you really need to consider is where it will be safest, yet in the right spot for that critical moment.
Bedrooms: Your bedroom is a great place to start, as intruders tend to like to visit in the dead of night. Think in terms of your nightstand or a headboard with a spring-loaded drop shelf. This allows you to have your weapon in hand before the intruder even gets to your room, but also access it quickly if the intruder is already in your room. Even more covert is a weapon stashed between your mattress and your headboard.
Entry Points: Another hot area is an entry point to your home. You don’t want to answer the door to someone who wants to do you harm while your closest weapon is in a vase on a shelf across the room. You don’t need to keep an actual weapon by the door, either. A well-placed broom doesn’t look out of place by the door, and neither does your kid’s first ball bat hanging on the wall near the door. Even an umbrella can be useful as a self-defense tool.
Essentially, you want to keep a weapon close to any area where you might be relaxing and caught off guard, or where someone can enter a room.
Decorating for Defense
Sure, you want your home to look nice, but you also need to be able to defend it. You can always modify your decor to be a useful weapon. Here we go back to the vase again. Sure, you could throw it at an intruder or even hit them with it, but that light weight is only going to stun them for a moment. Add some sand or other weight to it, and now you’ve got a club that can even potentially blind them for a moment, even if it will break on impact.
Think in terms of view and access. You want easy access, but you also don’t want any actual weapons to be seen, and you don’t want to hurt yourself while getting them. Things like a shelf over the door with your favorite little stuffed animals on them are a great place to hide a knife or gun. Put a few of your collectible shot glasses on that same shelf and you might knock yourself out while trying to reach for your weapon.
Camouflage
They say the best way to hide something is right out in the open, and they aren’t wrong. Again, this is another example of how you can use normal household objects as weapons. You aren’t really camouflaging them; you’re just having them pull double duty. This is especially effective if you happen to collect weapons as decorative items. Hanging swords on the all might look cool, but hanging them close to entry points is just being smart.
You can even make your own covert storage system right out in the open. Cut a hole in your wall about the size of a heat vent. Insert a 2×4 horizontally between the studs. (It should be about 16-inches long.) You can buy a vent cover to fit the hole or you can cover it with a piece of decorative vented metal and trim the outside of it to look like a frame. People will just think you got fancy with your heat vents, but in reality, you can easily punch through it to access your weapon, stored inside on the shelf.
Always Be Prepared
It’s best to be prepared any time someone tries to enter your home. That could mean discreetly carrying a weapon to the door each time you answer it. It also means preparing those who can’t effectively use weapons, like small children. As you plan where to hide your weapons, you might also want to plan where the vulnerable in your home can hide, because under the bed is the first place an intruder will look. And remember that owning a weapon is just the beginning. You need to learn how to be effective with it, too. And that is only accomplished with practice.
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