Protecting Your Family: A Parent’s Guide to Gun Ownership

By Cassandra McBride

Last Updated: Jan 29, 2026

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Cassandra McBride

With a Criminology and Sociology background, Cassandra blends advocacy and research to write data-driven articles on the outdoors, politics, and firearms. A staunch Second Amendment supporter, she empowers women through firearm training. At Ammo.com, her work sheds light on gun deaths, ownership trends, and overlooked angles in gun debates.

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Cassandra McBride, "Protecting Your Family: A Parent’s Guide to Gun Ownership"
(https://ammo.com/articles/parents-guide-to-self-defense-concealed-carry)

Millions of American parents wear concealed firearms every day. This natural right isn’t merely a self-defense tactic. It’s also a duty and responsibility.

If you’re a gun owner or concerned about your children, the article will give you practical tips about family defense and handling firearms.

Related Articles: 4 Essential Firearm Safety Rules Every Shooter Must Live By, Youth Gun Safety: A Smart Parent's Guide to Keeping Kids Safe, Youth Hunting: A Smart Parent’s Guide to Safely Hunting with Kids

Gun Safety Must Come First

According to the CDC WONDER database, 125 children (0-17) were unintentionally killed by firearms in 2024.

A multi-pronged approach to adolescent gun safety is ideal. Safe storage, adequate training, demystifying guns, and ensuring your children can uneventfully coexist with firearms (in your home and in others) are all paramount to preventing injuries.

Your approach to gun safety in your home depends on your family's specific needs and may require modification over time.

Ages 0-4

Children in the 0-4 age group are the most likely to be involved in an accidental shooting. Here are some tips to keep your younger children safe:

1. Teach the "Do Not Touch" method. Similar to touching a hot stove, your young children should be taught the dangers of firearms in a way they understand. You could say, "No, that's hot," or other verbiage that your young child understands as dangerous.
2. Firearms should be out of reach of children 4 and under. You don't have to sacrifice home security in the name of gun safety. Make sure loaded guns are kept somewhere young children can't access them (the same goes for other people's homes).
3. Demonstrate gun safety to model best practices (you can even use less-lethal airsoft guns or toys to teach best practices if you don't have a firearm in your own home). Refrain from pointing guns at other people, unnecessarily pulling the trigger, or treating your firearm like a toy.

Ages 5-10

Although less likely to accidentally shoot themselves or someone else, children in the 5-10 age group still require gun safety knowledge. Here are a few age-appropriate tactics for this age group:

1. Introduce more hands-on gun safety training. Using a toy gun or an unloaded firearm (ensuring you clear the chamber or cylinder), let your child teach you how to safely operate a firearm.
2. Review the four rules of gun safety regularly and explain why they are important. If you feel comfortable doing so, take your child to a gun range to demonstrate why these rules are important.
3. Safe storage is still the best option for this age group, especially if your child isn't responding to education and training.

Ages 11-14

Children and adolescents aged 11-14 are the second most likely age group to be affected by a firearm-related accident. At this age, your child likely knows the difference between right and wrong, meaning these accidents can be avoided with education, discipline, and safe storage.

Here are tips for reinforcing gun safety for your preteens and younger teens:

1. Practicing safe handling is essential for this age group. Allow your children to exercise gun safety often so that it becomes second nature. Doing this in a safe and controlled environment also demystifies guns.
2. Teach your child how to clear the chamber or cylinder and ensure the firearm is safe to handle. This may save their life – or someone else's, if they're ever in a situation where another person is improperly handling a firearm.
3. Continue using safe storage methods in conjunction with education to ensure your child's safety. But beware: at this age, safe storage can provide a false sense of security. Curious teens are intelligent enough to bypass standard safety protocol.

Ages 15+

When your child (or anyone in your home) reaches this age, safe gun practices should already be their second nature. But that isn't always the case. If a teenager is totally new to gun safety, make sure they understand every lesson they would have learned had their parent followed each tip detailed so far in this article.

However, other issues come into play for teens that may counteract everything you've taught them. Here are some tips to help teens and young adults safely coexist in your home with guns:

1. Beware of any mental health issues that your child or other loved ones may be experiencing. Pay attention to your child, and seek professional help if necessary.
2. Alerting the authorities and practicing safe storage – or removing firearms from the home altogether – may save your child and others if they're experiencing mental health issues, idolizing violent offenders, or planning attacks.
3. Regularly reinforce gun safety practices.

Gun Safety Programs

The NRA's Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program teaches gun safety to children in pre-K through third grade by giving them four easy-to-remember steps:

1. When you see a gun, stop what you're doing.
2. Don't touch the firearm.
3. Leave the area.
4. Find an adult and tell them about the gun.

Project ChildSafe offers excellent guides for children and offers free resources to parents, including information on properly handling mental health-related issues in homes with guns.

Be SMART is an Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund program intended to help parents navigate raising children in a world with guns. The campaign is especially helpful for families without guns in their homes who want to educate and protect their children.

Although national programs are limited, local shooting clubs and instructors may also be available to help children learn to safely handle firearms. This is an appealing option if you do not own guns, as gun ranges and instructors offer access to them for instructional purposes.

Demystifying Firearms

Between 2009 and 2018, X victims of unintentional firearm fatalities were under 15 years of age. More than half died because they were playing with firearms. A significant number of children shot themselves (or others) by accidentally pulling a trigger or failing to check if a gun was unloaded.

In addition to firearm education, firearm demystification may save a child's life. It doesn't matter if you don't own guns. You must still expose your child to firearms often and early. Doing so will ensure they feel no sense of mystique should they ever encounter a firearm. Essentially, you want your child to regard a firearm as a mundane and unremarkable object, rather than something their curiosity compels them to mishandle.

Here are some things you can do to familiarize your child with guns:

• Teach them to clear the chamber.
• Take them to the range.
• Allow them to explore firearms and talk openly about them.
• Entertain a child's healthy curiosity about firearms. Let them examine your unloaded gun under supervision. Even if you are ardently anti-gun, you owe it to your child to give them at least some exposure to a potentially dangerous (and frequently glamorized) object they may encounter at some point during their life.
• Teach them that showing off can get people killed, and to stand up to their friends if doing so can keep others safe.

Although this may be an uncomfortable task for you as a parent, there's nothing you wouldn't do to keep your child safe. Demystify guns so that your child (A) won't be attracted to them, and (B) will know how to keep themself safe around them.

Teaching Kids to Handle Guns

Generations of Americans were raised with loaded and unsecured firearms in the home. Children who are taught to handle guns the appropriate way and to understand when and where it's okay to use them are less likely to play with or otherwise misuse guns. These children understand the importance of gun safety and know the damage guns can inflict; therefore, they're less likely to handle them unauthorized.

Once your child reaches the appropriate maturity and size (typically around age 8), you can start teaching them the basics of gun handling. Here's how:

Take a Class

1. Daisy and over 2,000 U.S. Jaycees chapters offer supervised gun handling classes to boys and girls ages 10-14. These classes teach children proper gun handling, as well as marksmanship.
2. 4-H clubs throughout the country offer shooting sports programs. These teach children to teach them gun safety, proper handling, and marksmanship.
3. The NRA offers a variety of youth programs, including challenges, events, and educational courses. Contact your local chapter to learn more about what's available in your area.

Practice at Home

You and your children can practice gun safety at home. Whether you're practicing your draw for concealed carry or your child is practicing clearing the chamber, handling firearms safely at home builds skill.

• It's easy to forget safety precautions, even if you're an adult who's been shooting for years. Practice range safety at home with an unloaded firearm or less-lethal gun (airsoft, Nerf, etc.).
• Use dummy rounds while teaching your child how to load and unload a firearm safely.
• Practice what to do in the event your child may be around a gun without an adult: namely, secure the firearm and go to a safe adult for help.

To Carry or Not to Carry

Concealed carry is a hefty responsibility. But in today's society, it's also a necessary duty. Having children doesn't mean you shouldn't carry, but rather that your methods should evolve to mitigate additional risks.

When you have children, your ability to flee from an attacker is severely inhibited. Children slow you down, meaning your gun can quickly become your family's only defense. Keep your firearm secure and concealed on your body, and practice what you would do in potential self-defense scenarios with your child to gain a better chance at better outcomes.

Concealed Carry Considerations for Packing Parents

Carrying a firearm with children present means you must also take additional precautions to keep your firearm secure and the child safe.

Holsters - Keep Your Firearm Secure

Concealing a firearm is ideal for parents who carry because you don't want to draw unwanted attention to your weapon. The best way to conceal carry is to use a holster designed to keep your firearm secure and accessible only to you.

These are the best holsters for parents who conceal carry:

• Inside the Waistband (IWB) - IWB holsters keep your firearm affixed between your body and waistband.
• Belly Bands - Belly band holsters secure your firearm to your body while also providing extra storage for magazines, phones, etc.

When you've got kids you need to think beyond the hip when it comes to concealed carry holsters. The best bet for parents is typically a shoulder holster, where the pistol is positioned under the nondominant arm. This keeps the gun out of the way yet easily accessible.

Keeping your firearm on your body is safer than in a diaper bag, purse, or vehicle. Furthermore, make sure your holster has a complete trigger cover. You don't want wandering hands to find it under your shirt and accidentally squeeze the trigger, firing the handgun.

Practice, Practice, Practice

When it comes to carrying concealed and using a weapon in self-defense, you have to practice real-life scenarios – especially when you normally have children in tow.

Think about potential self-defense situations that could arise when you're with your children at home or in public. Prepare for them by working out what you would do ahead of time. Where would you be? What would you do? Are you carrying your child? Are they in a stroller? What if you've been hurt and are on the ground? What if you've been grabbed and the attacker has your dominant hand? Can you shoot with the other?

Next, help your child understand what your expectations are for them during such situations. If they're old enough, teach them to get behind you or seek shelter. If you're incapacitated, they should be able to call 911 and let officers know you're armed.

Practicing real-life scenarios at home can help you and your child process a defensive scenario safely.

A Special Note to Foster and Adoptive Parents

If you've opened up your home, heart, and family to foster children, or are considering adoption, then you may have certain gun laws to consider. Certain states require applicants to adopt or foster to forfeit their Second Amendment rights.

In Oklahoma, foster families and prospective adoptive parents must sign a Weapon Safety Agreement. Among other things, this agreement requires any gun present in the home to be kept unloaded in a locked storage container, and ammunition to be stored in a different locked container. The agreement also states that a concealed firearm is not allowed in a vehicle with the potential foster child.

In Illinois, potential foster families must either certify that there are no firearms in their homes or complete the Foster Family Firearms Arrangement. Families entering this agreement must list all guns, ammunition, and locations where they are kept within the home and are subject to home inspections. All firearms must be kept locked, and the key must be carried by an adult or kept off-premises.

In New Jersey, foster parents are permitted to have firearms and weapons so long as they are locked in an approved steel gun vault and kept separate from their ammunition.

In Michigan, potential foster families must store firearms in a locked safe and separate from ammunition. And all handguns must be registered.

5 Recommended Firearms for Safety-Conscious Parents

When it comes to concealed carry, you want a firearm you're comfortable firing and can easily hide on your person. You also want to make sure it's small enough to maintain control over and has adequate stopping power to halt an attacker.

With that in mind, here are five recommended firearms for parents with safety in mind:

1. Glock 26 or Glock 27: Although small enough to carry and conceal, the Glock 26 and 27 both have a big punch enough to stop an attacker, and are reliable and easy to handle.
2. Smith & Wesson M&P Shield: This handgun is available in both 9mm and 40 S&W. It's small enough to conceal and control, but is still effective.
3. Ruger LC9: This lightweight, deep-concealment pistol is only 6" long and easy to carry. Those who prefer less recoil can choose the .380 version.
4. Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 38: If you're looking for a revolver instead of a semi-automatic pistol, consider the S&W Bodyguard. With its optional built-in laser sight and double-action mechanism (meaning you don't need to cock the hammer between shots), this gun helps you feel safe and fire more confidently.

Wrap-Up

Firearms are one tool in any parent's arsenal of safety devices. However, they also pose unique risks to children. Training and educating yourself – then passing that education and training onto your child – is a gift that may save lives.

Written by

Cassandra McBride