With firearms, it is about usefulness and access when needed. Hence the reason Police carry their firearm on them. If they left them at the precinct or locked in the trunk, they would not be available in time to serve their purpose. It is the same in preparing your home for safety. If the guns are locked in a safe, etc somewhere, you may not be able to access it in time or at all depending on the situation. Say you lock your firearms in the basement in a safe. You are sleeping at night and hear someone breaking in. And now they are in between you and your firearms. They are now useless to you. So you say to fix that, you place them in a safe in your bedroom. What if you are downstairs in your office and someone comes in you houses back door. The stairs going up to your bedroom and safe in not accessible due to the bad guy is closer to the stairs then you are. Your firearms are now useless once again.
I am not saying it is a good idea to buy a bunch of firearms and leave them in every corner without any education to your family. But placed in strategic areas, you now have means to defend your self and your family and home.
But the biggest part of all of it is training. Your family or anyone who may have access to the firearms need to be trained on how to handle them. And the firearms do not become accessible till proper training has been achieved. They require the utmost respect (firearms) as they can cause such an impact on your life and others. There are no mistakes with firearms. It isn't Call of Duty where you just respawn and play another round.
God forbid you ever have to use a fire arm on someone. I pray I never do. But I have them for the enjoyment of using them and for protection. I pray I never have to use one on a human being. But I am prepared to, in order to protect myself and my family. If something bad were to happen, I do not want to wait for law enforcement to show up. it could be 10 to 15 minutes if not more in some cases. Someone intent to harm you or you family will not chill out on the couch and wait. They will use that time to do their thing. I think being prepared to handle that is a "responsible" thing to do. I will not have something bad happen to my family and know that there was something I could have done about it. But that includes one of them doing something improper with a firearm. The training comes first, then access to protection tools such as firearms becomes available. It is only me and my Fiance right now. but even though she hated firearms when I met her. She has taken classes on using them and is comfortable will all aspects of the ones I have. From loading them to using them safely, she knows what to do. She doesn't own any of her own as that is her choice. But even though she doesn't desire to have her own as I have enough for the both of us. She is comfortable with them and where they are. And no, nothing is laying out in the very open. But they are in places where they can be accessed regardless of the situation.
Chances are that there will never be a need for them. And I hope so. But I think of it in a way like car insurance. You have it in case you need it as the impact of not having it can be devastating.
