Firearms sales have spiked since the onset of the pandemic, meaning more homeowners than ever are keeping guns in their homes. Whether you’re a new gun owner as a repercussion of COVID-19 or had planned to buy one anyway, your safety is most important.
In addition to practicing gun safety, you also need to protect your new gun adequately. Check out the checklist of do’s and don’ts below, from knowing the laws and following proper use and storage to insuring firearms and updating your home insurance.
Gun Safety Tips
While owning a firearm is your right as an American, gun ownership isn’t something that should be taken lightly and treated casually.
Your Gun Is Only as Safe as the Operator
When you carry your gun, you’re in control of it, so take that responsibility seriously and learn how to use your gun safely. Guns are powerful tools, capable of both saving others and causing harm depending on who holds them. It may be fun to carry your new handgun on your hip, but if you don’t know how to use the gun safely and correctly, you should wait until you learn.
A Gun Safety Class Is Worth the Time
A concealed carry class is one way to gain an introductory knowledge of gun safety, but your endeavors to become a master operator shouldn’t end there.
Perhaps you bought a rifle and would like to go hunting. Chances are, you’ll have to complete a hunters’ safety course to get your license. But once again, these required classes just provide surface knowledge.
Gun safety basics include the following practices:
- Treat every gun like it’s loaded.
- Don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you’re ready to shoot.
- Don’t load your weapons until you’re ready to use them.
Introductory classes will teach you the essential parts of a gun, how it works, and how to operate it.
There’s No Substitute for Practice
When you spend time shooting, you’ll gain confidence as your skills improve. Instead of being scared of your gun, you’ll become its master.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Gun Ownership
You should and shouldn’t do many things when it comes to owning a gun, and we’ll look at just a few of them.
Do Know the Law
It’s your responsibility to know what’s required of you by law. If you need a concealed carry permit, get one. If the rules in certain buildings and property forbid guns on the premises, follow those restrictions.
Do Improve Your Skills
As mentioned earlier, take a class, practice, and become skillful with your gun. When you know what you’re doing, you’re less likely to have accidents that are associated with inexperience.
Do Keep Your Guns Safe
If you have a safe, use it. If you have a locked gun cabinet, take advantage of that extra security. Taking the step of locking up your guns will discourage people with ill intent from stealing them. Keeping guns locked up also helps prevent accidents, especially with children in the home.
Do Use Ear Protection
Firearms are loud, and depending on your gun, even just a couple of shots could cause long-term ear damage. And any gun used over time could also damage your inner ears. So, when you practice, make sure you wear ear protection to keep your hearing healthy.
Don’t Purchase a Gun From Shady Dealers
The last thing you need is to buy a new gun only to lose it because it’s been associated with a crime. If you buy your gun from a reputable dealer, you can ensure that it has a clean history and a legitimate serial number.
Don’t be Haphazard
Don’t point your gun at anything you’re not prepared to destroy. This concept goes along with treating every firearm like it’s loaded. Never point your gun at your friends and family, even in jest.
Don’t Show Off
Treat your gun with respect, and don’t use it as a way to earn street cred. Be careful about what you post about your collection on social media because that information could fall into the wrong hands, and you could become the victim of a break-in and stolen guns.
Gun Ownership and Home Insurance
You might think that owning a gun would increase your liability and thereby increase your home insurance rates, but it doesn’t. At least it doesn’t increase your rates. It may increase your liability, though.
Liability Risks With Gun Ownership
If you’re a new gun owner, you might want to consider the possibilities of your liability risks. If you’re concerned, you can increase your liability limits. You don’t need to give a reason. Instead, you can simply ask your insurer for higher benefits. Of course, you’ll pay a little bit more monthly for that, but it’s probably worth it.
Even if you shoot in self-defense, you could still face a civil personal injury lawsuit. Accidents could happen. People who don’t like guns could target you in unrelated ways. The list could continue with many more unpleasant possibilities.
Insurance for Guns
Besides increasing your liability limits, you might want to consider a firearm policy. While your home insurance covers the items in your home, it likely has a limit on losses you can claim for items within certain classifications. For example, they’ll usually have a $1,500 to $2,000 limit on jewelry.
If you built a custom jewelry collection worth more than your policy limits on jewelry, you’d have to purchase a jewelry rider or stand-alone protection package.
Insurance works similarly for guns. If you only have a couple of firearms, you don’t need an additional policy because standard home insurance covers an average of $2,500 for the loss or damage of guns.
If you build an extensive collection worth more than that $2,500 limit, you should protect that investment with insurance. Otherwise, someone could steal everything, and you’d have no recourse to recoup your losses.
The best way to protect yourself from needing to file an insurance claim related to guns is to store your firearms safely and properly and learn how to operate your firearm within the confines of the law so you always have the law and your skill on your side.
Melanie Musson writes and researches for the insurance comparison site, TheTruthAboutInsurance.com. As an avid hunter, she’s passionate about gun safety and gun rights and wants others to understand the importance of training to prevent problems and the necessity of insurance for maximum financial protection.
