Storage Clarification

ModerateSniper

ModerateSniper

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 98.4%
61   1   0
So paperwork is in the mail, and I thought I'd start setting up a safe storage area for my future firearms while I wait for everything to be sorted out. Just needed to get a couple things clarified.

1. I have a sliding door closet, if I securely place locks on both sides of it, would that count as a "room" for safe storage of firearms?

2. Is there a rule against living inside of your firearms storage room? If I put a lock on the door to my bedroom, would it count as a legal storage room for firearms? This is a silly question, but I'm curious to know.

Just trying to keep costs down, I expect to only have a few firearms within this year, and would rather not haul a steel storage locker up to my apartment. If none of these options are available to me, I'll just store them in locked cases in my closet.
 
As far as I'm aware, it hasn't been tested in court and due to the vague language the law is written in, there probably isn't going to be a definitive answer.

I'm not sure what your closet door is made out of, but I would say it could be readily broken into. As for putting a lock on your bedroom door...that would meet with the readily broken into rule (IMHO)...but again...it would need to be tested in court.

Buy or build a cabinet with a lock on it and trigger lock any restricted firearms you happen to have, that way it would be very difficult for anyone to say you were not following the intent of the law.
 
The problem here is what the word "easily" might happen to mean.

When the police arrive on a raid, they are equipped with battering-rams and axes. Does the use of a battering-ram and an axe constitute "easily" breaking into a locked room? Simply, we don't know.

So you make up a basement room, carefully sheeting the outside of the thing after you equip it with tubes installed transversely into the studding and rotating rebar rods inside that. THAT certainly oughtta do it.

But with the availability of hydro power and relatively-cheap chop saws..... what is it then? Is it now "easily" broken into? We don't know; it hasn't been tested yet in court.

This is a problem with poorly-written, intentionally-vague legislation: it leaves too much to the discretion of the courts.... and the courts vary wildly. I know of one judge (male) who almost breaks into tears if he has to sentence a "young woman" to 3 months for 38 counts of break-and-enter, identity theft, fraudulent conversion, theft and defrauding the Government. Also, working in the same courtroom at times, I can show you another judge (female this time) who is viciously anti-male, pro-Government and treats male defendants as if they were heretics and she the Spanish Inquisition. But the door is wide open to either of these two actually MAKING new law from the disorganised, poorly-written assemblage put together by Parliament and then dumped on us.

One thing I DO know for sure is that the last 2 guys who invaded MY home used a tire-iron to rip off the basement window in order to gain access. I was wide awake, sitting only 15 feet away, just upstairs at the time they did this. Both my vehicles were here at the house and the lights were on at the time. When they ripped off the window, I thought my cats were playing (they used to have a "Crazy Hour" that lasted about 5 minutes because they both were very old). At the time I was doing a ramp job on a .45, so I slapped it together very quickly and with a lot of noise and they extricated themselves from my premises with great alacrity and ran away.

So, was it "easy" to break into my house? We don't know because the case never went to court.

I do know that the local police, half a block away, refused even to investigate. No file was even started, which means that it never happened.

But that is an indication of what we are up against: cops on one side, crooks and politicians on the other and US right in the middle.

But there still is no legal definition of "easily". Friend Garlond has a pretty good idea. Just do what he says... and pray a bit.
 
I always look at storage requirements as a "due diligence" kind of thing. If you can prove that you met or exceeded the legislation surrounding firearm storage using the spirit of the law, ie. you did your best to story and secure your firearms against potential misuse, theft, etc, then you should be ok.......

That being said, should you end up being charged with unsafe storage for whatever reason, you might end up paying a lawyer a metric assload of money to prove otherwise in court. My best advice? Buy yourself an approved gun safe to take the "what ifs" out of the equation.

Paul
 
PLease don't forget the Firearms instructor from Toronto who had his guns locked in a very secure vault,trigger locked and was away for the weekend when his apartment was broken into WAS charged with unsafe storage!!! Just because the neighbor below called to complain of the noise from the apartment above went un-investigated. Your best bet, build a false wall in the back of the closet and store them there. As in Canada there is no such thng as safe storage until proven in a court of law. Just my 2 cents.
 
Get a safe or a metal cabinet for restricteds (if cabinet - you'll need a lock on them too), non-restricteds can be stored either with bolt out or with cable or trigger lock on...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom