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Gun owner and am dual licensed to do foster and daycare here...
To answer the original question...everything I've ever heard in regards to this situation regardless of state or agency licensed through stipulates all firearms are to be kept unloaded and either locked up or child safety locked (in my case I use a cable-style gun locking device from Project Child Safe). Ammunition MUST be kept separately from said firearms and be locked up.
Does keeping the two locked up separately defeat the purpose of personal protection? Yes. But those are the rules. Don't like 'em, that's fine, but should you chose not to comply you won't obtain your license. Should you chose to fib, complying temporarily just to get through the licensing process only to return your weapons the way they were originally stored then you're opening up yourself and your family to all sorts of legal ramifications should a surprise inspection ever reveal you've changed how you originally vowed to store them.
On a side note to those so opposed to having firearms in the home with children....the way my firearms are stored make them safer than many items/situations my kids have access to on a regular basis, in the craft boxes...simple sissors, up on my kitchen counter ....knives (although stored in a knife block to keep me in compliance), bathroom....bathtub and toilet, playing outside...stranger abduction, your own vehicle used to transport your child...the number 1 leading cause of death in children is car accidents. Using the logic that kids should never reside in a home where there are guns "just in case" then the same should apply to vehicles and children should NEVER be allowed to ride in or be around them "just in case." Although to be fair, being around vehicles should be considered vastly more dangerous because of the number of children injured/killed by them on a daily basis compared to the number of children injured/killed by firearms on a daily basis - there's absolutely no comparison when looking at the statistics which is by far more deadly. I could go on and on and on about the dangers that surround our children every day but I think I've made my point.
We can sit in fear of an object or we can educate our children and be dilligent through supervision. I chose to educate and supervise.
And there absolutely is a reason to keep firearms in my home...I hunt. What I hunt I use to feed my family. I save hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year in grocery bills harvesting the game I do and it's LOADS healthier than the meat products one usually buys in a grocery store.
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