I don't store my guns to satisfy the legal requirements. I store them so they are as safe and secure as I can possibly make them.
That sounded snooty and extreme to me... ...until I realised I do, too.
My guns are locked inside gun cabinets that are bolted to the floor, inside a locked steel folding-door closet, which is in a locked room. The restricteds are further trigger locked.
The whole idea is to make them bloody inconvenient to walk off with. I'm not inconvenienced because all my trigger locks are identically keyed. The doors locks as well. Both keys are permanently on my key chain and totally handy. The cabinet keys, though, are well secured.
Guns that are stored to the guidelines provided by the RCMP are safe from unauthorised use. As trebor2880 correctly pointed out, preventing theft and accidental or environmental damage to your guns are important considerations. Not all of us have the same needs, either. The youngest person in my household is 20. I don't have to worry about children getting their hands on guns. My target shells are at great risk of walking off, though.
In some situations/neighborhoods the best security is to keep your mouth shut. In other words, talking about your guns anonymously in a forum is much safer than doing the same thing within earshot of the neighborhood teenagers. No offense to most teenagers, but property theft is more common in that demographic. Us older folk tend more to fraud, embezzlement, and stuff you can do from your chair.
Look first at your personal risk factors, then decide on appropriate storage. A few common risk factors:
- children in home
- lots of people coming and going
- residents or friends with mental health issues or suicidal tendencies
- people with financial problems
- vindictive spouses
- proximity to flood zones
- value of gun(s)
- purpose of gun (ie. hunting or home defense?)
- humidity and/or direct sunlight
- people with short fuses
- locations where nobody is home for extended periods
- high risk property crime neighborhoods
...you get the idea.