Gaye Levy
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A dilemma for many of us is how to keep a personal weapon accessible if we need it, yet safely hidden from prying eyes. Here in my own household we have a safe but keeping our weapon of choice locked up is not going to help us if there is a middle of the night intruder and we can not get to it. The compromise, and not a very good one, has been to keep our accessible firearm a drawer in the nightstand.
When Minutemen Cabinets came to me a couple of months ago and told me about their “bookshelf” cabinet, I became excited. This could possibly be the answer I had been looking for – namely a nicely finished wooden shelf that matched my décor and allowed me to hide a firearm in plain sight.
Since that time, Minutemen Cabinets has become a sponsor of this website and additionally, has offered to provide one lucky Backdoor Survival reader with a Minutemen Concealed Storage Cabinet of their own in a fantastic new giveaway.
I will get to the details of the giveaway in a moment but first let me tell you about the cabinet.
Minutemen Concealed Storage Cabinets for Firearms and Valuables
Minutemen Cabinets look like bookshelves. They include a completely hidden set of latches, locks and hinges that when activated, reveal a drop down box. Inside the box is a light as well as a foam insert that can be custom fitted to your firearm.
The included foam insert was easy to configure. First we traced our weapon with a sharpie, then cut the foam away with a knife.
As you can see, in our 21” cabinet there was room for two personal weapons.
The way you open the cabinet is with a magnetic key. It is a bit tricky to use at first (okay, a lot tricky for a dunce like me), but once you figure out where to place the key, a quick squeeze to the shelf itself will open it up. The there are two keys so that you have a spare, always a good thing.
Installation is easy but is best done using two people. All of the hardware is included along with instructions for pre-drilling the holes to match up with the studs in your wall. Note that the load capacity of the 21″ concealed storage cabinet is 20 pounds. I found that even when fully loaded, the shelf did not budge – no doubt a credit to my two good-looking installers!
I could go on abut the cabinet but honestly, the best thing to do is to pop on over to the Minutemen Cabinets website and check out the specifications of the various models they offer. Each comes in a variety of finishes and if my review unit is any indication, the finish work is going to be as nice as a piece of high quality furniture.
Is the Minutemen Cabinet a Gun Safe?
No. Minutemen Cabinets are not a replacement for a gun safe. What they are is a “hide in plain sight” option for firearms and valuables offering quick and easy access. Personally, I believe this is a much better solution than a nightstand where it is easy to leave the house and forget it is there.
The Giveaway – Win a Minutemen Cabinet
To enter the giveaway, you need to utilize the Rafflecopter form below. Select one or more of the options after signing in using your email account or Facebook, the choice is yours. The best way to start is by clicking on “Free Entry for Everyone”. After that, each option you select represents an additional entry. There are a number of different options so pick and choose or select them all.
Update: This giveaway if open to our friends in Canada as well as the US.
The deadline is 6:00 PM Pacific next Tuesday with the winner notified by email and announced on the Rafflecopter in the article. Please note that the winner must claim their prize within 48 hours or an alternate will be selected.
Note: If you are having difficulty with the Rafflecopter, attempt to clear your browser cache to see if that helps. Instructions are here: //www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browsers-Cache. If that does not work, contact support at [email protected].
The Final Word
It has always bothered me that we had two handguns sitting next to the bed, basically out in the open. To have an easy-to-access storage solution is a godsend. Now that I have practiced using the electronic key (Shelly never did have a problem), I can get to the items stored in the Minutemen Cabinet in just the few seconds it takes me to walk over and open it up.
At night, we go to the cabinet, remove our handgun of choice, and leave it by the bed until the morning when we tuck it safely away again in the cabinet.
Let me close with a quote by Samuel Adams that is prominently displayed on the Minutemen Cabinet website.
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”
I know you will be impressed by the workmanship of a Minuteman Cabinet. Please do visit their website, and, of course, enter the giveaway!
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye
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102 Responses to “Minutemen Cabinets: How to Hide a Firearm in Plain Sight”
This is a great product. Thanks for the give-a-way!
Baseline…I feel it’s important to know of the potential situations and prepare to deal with them in a way that you are comfortable with. So, first taking a class(es) on personal safety is a must in order to think about what challenges you might encounter and formulate a plan for your responses. It’s so important to know what to do to reduce chances of a personal attack or home invasion (there are community classes, online lists w/ explanations, and articles that cover a lot of ideas). If you haven’t thought it through, you are vulnerable! Once you consider WHAT can happen, you can learn HOW to respond and plan out your responses to varied situations.
Best class I ever took was a personal safety class a women’s church group offered (really hadn’t thought about some of the situations and was given great ideas on how to avoid or handle problems/attacks.
It’s also important to know your options. If you’re comfortable with a gun…find the right one for you, get training on use, care and safety. If you’re not comfortable with a gun, not prepared to use it…don’t get one or it could be used against you. Just occurred to an acquaintance. Her house had been robbed so she got a gun, stuck it in her nightstand and a few weeks later some guy broke into her house again (it was a friend of her son, high on drugs). She pulled out the gun as a threat, but he took it away from her and demanded money.
So many good answers out there from how to break out of a choke-hold to answering the door with a can of wasp spray…Learn about potential situations and prepare for them. Baseline is making an effort to gain information and think through what you can do to respond.
Good advice, any good gun shop will have people to help and train, also the concealed carry classes are excellent, they also teach you your state laws regarding carrying, using, defense etc etc plus you have to to go to the range and fire a few rounds, all very well worth the fee imho
Each person needs to assess their basic risks and prepare for them. I believe owning a firearm is one of our most basic rights and we should take the necessary training to responsibly own one.
One should understand gun safety and shooting fundamentals before buying a gun. Otherwise, the new owner and others are in danger.
Gun safety, yeah I guess you can learn basics before hand but how do you learn any shooting fundamental or other without something to shoot?
Although shooting a gun seems like a baseline, knowing basic personal defense would be an obvious starting point. Think of the young man who was murdered on a DC metro on the 4th of July, in front of dozens of other people who did nothing to help. He could not have carried a gun but any form of self-defense mindset might have prevented a tragedy. I guess it starts with a mindset to fight, no matter what.
This is an wonderful idea. Should have one at every door!!!
I would love to have one!!!!!!!
Baseline…? I feel that should be up to the individual and their capabilities…whatever it is, be the best you can be. Always practice what you would do in different situations…even if it’s in your head and you’re just “thinking” about what your response would be.
Sensible solution, very nice, would love to have!
Before getting a weapon you should know how to use it and to take care of it.
Well Valerie it’s not really necessary to know to use a particular weapon before you acquire that cool AR,hand gun,shotgun… before you acquire it but definitely need to thoroughly acquaint yourself with it in short order