How To Secure A Gun Safe In An Apartment?
Since the late 1990s, the number of American households living in rented housing has increased substantially. Apartments, townhomes, and rental houses are popular options for people for various reasons.
However, apartment tenants often struggle with a shortage of storage space when storing a gun safely. Most small living areas, such as apartments, do not have extra storage space, such as a garage, attic, or basement.
Gun owners need to secure their firearms in a quick access bedsides gun safe. But if you live in an apartment, installing a safe can be difficult. Your landlord probably won’t be too pleased when you drill holes in the floor.
Currently, home security has never been more critical, with protests often turning violent and a high amount of stay-at-home orders being issued. Your firearms can offer protection to you and your family if someone attempts to break into your home.
You’ll find it tricky to store a firearm in an apartment or condominium property. A gun safe should be installed discreetly in an apartment.
But how will you do that? What are the pistol gun safes for quick access? Is it possible to install a gun safe without damaging the walls or floor?
We have some advice on securing a gun safe in an apartment if you are a gun owner considering moving into an apartment or a tenant thinking about buying a firearm.
Things To Consider Before Securing A Safe In An Apartment
People who rent houses prefer to install safes, but many do not know how to install them properly. Installing a safe improperly can damage the property and make you a target for burglars. When installing a safe in your apartment, be sure to consider these installation tips.
1. Ask Your Landlord
A safe needs bolts to be mounted firmly, which means that the wall or floor would be affected. It’s important to get the owner’s permission if you don’t own the apartment.
Most tenants are going to impose some restrictions when they let you move out. Eventually, you may have to leave the apartment and the safe, and your landlord will demand that you do.
2. Bolt The Safe To Two Walls
If you want the most protection, you should bolt the safe between two walls. Unless the burglar is highly skilled, most criminals will leave your safe behind if it is secured to two walls. Your closet corner is a good place to mount your safe.
3. Don’t Rely On A ‘Good’ Hiding Place
A burglar won’t hang around for long. Burglars typically stay in the house for eight minutes, but this doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re looking for.
Many homeowners believe their safes will never be found by burglars, so they head straight for the safe. You may be surprised if you think you can hide a safe under the sink or inside a storage unit.
How To Secure A Gun Safe In An Apartment?
You should make sure you have a secure, discreet place to store firearms in your apartment if you are allowed to have them. As you have neighbors within close proximity, the four rules of firearm safety are even more essential in an apartment setting.
Smaller living spaces don’t have enough room for a traditional budget gun safe. You can immediately attract unwanted attention to this bulky, heavy item.
Furniture for firearm concealment can assist you in planning for safe gun storage by utilizing space that otherwise would go unused. These steps can help you figure out how to store a gun safely in an apartment.
1. Strategically Place Firearms
In a break-in, a burglar will check your bedroom first for valuables, including a gun. When an old-fashioned gun safe is kept in the bedroom, its contents can be exposed immediately. The concealment furniture is designed to conceal handguns or rifles from the eye of a thief. Also, storing your valuables in separate places makes it harder for someone to find them all in one place.
2. Plan Out The Placement Of Your Firearm To Maximize Safety
A typical apartment is a small space with neighbors above, beside, and below. The weapon should be positioned so that it faces the outer wall of your unit. You definitely do not want to discharge your unit accidentally onto a neighbor’s property.
3. Assess Your Apartment Space
Determine the best places in your apartment to store your firearms. The weight of a conventional safe may exceed the weight limit of your floor if you live on an upper floor. You can keep your weapon secure in a gun concealment safe without having to carry it around.
A concealment picture frame or clock can be placed on shelves, mantels or tabletops for a handgun. Consider using concealment art for storing a rifle if you have a larger firearm. Using this type of storage helps you keep the gun off the ground and uses space you wouldn’t normally have.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s have a look at how you can secure a gun safe in an apartment if you are a tenant.
Keep in mind, no perfect solution exists (that we know of), but we recommend a couple of things to our readers that will hopefully work for you.
4. Bolt To The Walls
Bolting to the wall may not be an option if your landlord does not want you bolting to the floor, but if the walls are fair game, then this method is an option.
*Warning – the DIY process for this method is more complicated than the next method.
It is best to choose a corner location instead of a straight wall, because then you can bolt securely to both sides of the room instead of just one; the corner of a closet is a good choice.
In order to secure your safe, you need to identify the walls’ studs. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to mark a hole exactly where each bolt needs to go so that it aligns with the center of the studs into which the bolt is going.
The process can be complicated, time-consuming, and frustrating, so it is recommended that professionals handle this, but that does not mean it cannot be done on your own.
5. Bolt To A Steel Slab
These are the methods we often recommend to our readers in such situations. It is easy to do, fast, and effective. Steel about a quarter-inch thick is what you need, but it needs to be larger than the width of your doorframe. This will enable it to fit through your door. This ensures that your safe is solidly attached to this large, heavy object.
No burglar will be able to remove your safe from the room, much less from your apartment. A steel slab should be installed on the floor where the safe will be, and the safe should be mounted onto it.
Secure the safe to the steel by bolting it down through the bolt hole(s) on the bottom of the safe. Only an extremely well-trained burglar can break through a steel slab that thick, which is not an easy feat.
The bottom line is that a large piece of steel weighs significantly more, is stronger, and is much larger, making safe theft almost impossible.
6. Hiding Your Gun Safe
The best way to avoid burglars’ attention is to keep your safe out of sight. Keep it hidden even if it’s bolted to a wall or floor.
It is not a good idea to bolt a safe near the front door and leave it open for everyone to see, whereas repurposing it as a switchboard near the entrance is a clever idea.
If you have a common piece of furniture, like a couch, closet, or mirror compartment, you can make boxes there also. Another good idea is to install a wall safe and enclose it with a large mirror.
It takes a lot of effort to secure a gun safely. Even so, these measures ensure you have exclusive access to your firearms.
Is Apartment Gun Storage Legal?
You must first find out the policy regarding firearm ownership in your apartment building. A tenant’s ability to store a firearm in a rental property is determined by two factors: state law and the landlord’s lease policy.
There are just a handful of states that explicitly prohibit the use of firearms on your landlord’s property. Your landlord is typically responsible for this.
It is important that you respect your landlord’s decision and arrange safe storage of your guns elsewhere if he/she does not allow firearms.However, most landlords and rental property companies allow their tenants to store firearms in apartment units.
Some apartment complexes may have additional rules regarding gun ownership, such as not carrying in open areas such as the office, pool, gym, and other shared amenities. Your lease agreement must be reviewed, and further details should be discussed with your property manager.
Benefits Of Installing A Safe In An Apartment
We have listed a few of the many benefits that a secure safe can bring to a homeowner below:
- Keep burglars and thieves out by preventing unauthorized access.
- Owning a gun, you have a responsibility to protect children.
- Your visitors cannot access your gun.
- Your safe is readily accessible.
- It can protect your firearms and ammunition from fire.
- Keeps valuable documents, credit cards, and cash safe.
Hopefully, these advantages will help you decide whether you need a safe in your apartment. Despite these security measures, you should still make sure that your portable gun safe is protected from intruders looking to enter the safe easily.
Final Words
You are more secure with a firearm. Safekeeping a firearm helps prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. For safety reasons, you should keep it easily accessible and away from family members and children.
Guns and gun safes must be secured at all costs. Whether you choose to bolt it to the wall or hide it, the choice is yours. It is possible to combine several methods for keeping them secure at home.
You can use whichever method you prefer to maximize your safety; it’s not complicated, so go ahead and use the method you feel most comfortable with. And that’s all there is to know about how to secure a gun safe in an apartment.
