Snakeman721 wrote:Here's a thought I've had if you don't have kids at home....Velcro a holster (with gun) to the backside of the front door. It can't be seen from the outside, nor when the door is opened. If there are bad guys at the front door ringing your doorbell trying to gain entry by first seeing if anyone is home, you have a gun at your fingertips when you answer the door. If the bad guys bust down the door, they're not going to see the gun there. I was just thinking it's a good spot in case of a home invasion scenario where you open the door expecting the UPS guy and it's not. Thoughts??
If I were to do that, I would affix the holster in more sturdy manner than velcro and I would think it would be better to be mounted to the wall that is concealed by the door when open. I would worry that with velcroing it to the door itself creates an unnecessary risk that it might fall off. Velcro might make sense if you were sticking a gun in a pocket holster and before opening the door, you take it off the wall and stick it in (with pocket holster) in your pocket—but it seems easier too just carry all the time.
Personally, I don't think that I would keep a gun on the door or next to it, regardless of how it was held in place. In a home invasion situation, there is a good chance that if you started opening the door the invaders would just kick or push it open with enough force to make it difficult to obtain and wield the gun and more likely for the invaders to grab you and prevent you from shooting and even managing to get the gun from you. That said, while having the gun on your person should make it easier to get out and on target, depending upon the strength of the invaders you still may be screwed unless you already have the gun out when you start opening the door.
More important is ensuring you don't put yourself in that situation in the first place. Make sure you get a visual on the person before opening the door. I can see the outside of my front door from my window. I also have a Ring video doorbell (https://ring.com/), which has a motion-activated camera that rings my cell phone and allows me to see and talk to whomever is at the door. To be honest, though, the video doorbell is more of a fun gizmo. The real door security, and much cheaper, is I've installed a door club (http://store.winner-intl.com/the-door-club-p50.aspx) at each door. You can have the club set so you can open the door a crack if you want to talk to someone you don't recognize. They won't be able to push their way in and it would take a lot of strength and some time to kick in, because they'll need to break it off its hinges (giving you time to get your gun from wherever you keep it).
Another thing with the velcro idea, depending on your typical house guests, you might not always want a gun on display like that. Personally, I like to have guns secured away and unseen, but easy to get to. Even if I didn't have kids, you might have someone visit with kids and forget to think about securing your guns because you're in the practice of leaving them out. Also, while it is probably not an issue for many members of this board, I do have visitors who are very uncomfortable with guns. Concealing one on my person with others hidden away in quick-access safes makes for more pleasant visits without compromising much on safety.
