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”
Depends on the physical ability of the person. I can’t shoot a handgun due to arthritis so I have to use other means to protect myself.
Hmmm….one baseline would be knowing how to defend oneself with different weapons. Another baseline would be preparing mentally, psychologically, and emotionally for a self-defense situation. No gun in the world will help you if you’re not prepared to shoot it at another human being.
Ideally it would be great if we always had access to weapons or our “stuff” when we need them. There will be times when you only have your skills of self defense for safety and should really know basic self defense moves. Can’t stress enough, especially in this time of everyone’s heads buried in their electronic devices, that just being aware of your surroundings is huge.
Baselines. Non-weapon defense classes. Knife safety and how to sharpen with a wet stone. Go to batting cage. How to shoot and clean a gun. Situational awareness, don’t walk with your face in your phone. These 5 things once learned are your baseline for personal defense.
Baseline… well, probably common sense and being “street smart”.
As a baseline, be knowledgable in different items that can be used to defend yourself. At home, this might include a gun. But if you don’t, or can’t, carry a gun, realize there are many other things that be used if necessary. Carry a pocket knife. A sturdy pen or pencil to the eye socket can fend off an attacker. Years ago, I knew a gentleman who always carried a small pouch with a 1″ steel ball bearing in it. He said it was for protection and he could he carry it everywhere he went without questions.
I have found in bathrooms and other places where the cabinet does not go to the ceiling, this is a nice place to set a weapon, flashlight, and a communication device on top. Bag the gear to keep it dry and dust free.
What I am trying to do in my area is put in a CB radio that if you go to channel 9 to call for help all the radios in the net will automatically pick you up on channel 9. The whole neighborhood knows your in trouble. Some have even hook up an outside siren to let folks know there is trouble.
We try to find the safest room to set this up, some folks have a safe room up and down stairs. The coolest one I saw, was when some friends built their home, they had the bathroom encased in a concrete wall / ceiling with a steel door. I also cut a hole in a closet floor to get to the crawl space under the home. Set up the trap door with wedges to lock the trap door down from under the floor.
Great info .
RangerRick
North Idaho
Why I wish I had concealed my guns.
When I was in basic training, one of the things Drill Sergeant Wireman pounded into my head was that I personally responsible for my weapon at all times. Losing your weapon is literally a court martial offense. However, the military would rather have the weapon back than court martial someone; so standard procedure when a weapon is lost is to immediately cancel everything and have the entire unit search for the weapon until it is found, even if that takes several days. Losing a weapon is a very serious matter.
In civilian life, the responsibility of owning a weapon and safely securing it is no less serious. My Dad taught me that the first rule of being a responsible gun owner is keeping your guns away from people who might use them in irresponsible or unsafe ways. We’ve all seen the stories on the news about a child getting their hands on a weapon and killing themselves or someone else. Since there were six kids in my family, I was taught early that safely storing your firearms is no laughing matter.
So imagine what it feels like to have your guns stolen.
This has happened to me twice. The first time was when I was in college. The gun was a Lee–Enfield No. 5 Mk 1 “Jungle Carbine” that my father had bought surplus in the early 1950s. He had taught me how to shoot with it when I was a kid, and had given it to me as a present when I left for school. Since my apartment was in bad neighborhood, and I didn’t have any kids, I had decided to keep the carbine rolled up in a blanket under my bed. One afternoon, while I was in English class, someone kicked in the front door of my apartment and helped themselves to my stuff; including the carbine.
The second time I had a gun stolen I was on a trip to South Florida. I was visiting a friend, and after a ten-hour drive, I was tired. I found my friend’s apartment complex, and when I carried my bags into his apartment, I got sloppy and didn’t properly conceal my pistol case in my bag. Someone must have seen because when we got back from dinner a maintenance ladder had been placed up against his balcony, his back door had been forced, and my new .357 revolver was gone. Nothing else, just some cash, a couple boxes of ammo, and my gun.
When I filed the police report, the officer acted professionally, but he was obvious he was frustrated and angry with me. After all, I had brought my gun into Florida from another State, and within three hours of my arrival, it was in the hands of criminals. Thanks to my negligence another high-powered pistol was out on the streets he patrolled every day. To say he had a low opinion of me was an understatement. What was worse, I knew he was right. I had failed to be a responsible gun owner. I had allowed my weapon to fall into the hands of criminals. What they chose to do with my gun is their responsibility, but the fact they had my gun… well that’s my fault.
In the years since, the question of what happened to my stolen guns has troubled me. A couple of times I checked with my insurance company, but I had never written down the serial numbers, so they don’t have any way of tracing them, much less getting them back.
Bolt action carbines are generally not a criminal’s weapon of choice, so I have hopes that my father’s carbine may have found its’ way into a pawnshop or a gun show. With luck it may be in hands of a collector, or a hunter. Then again, I went to college in Houston. It’s not impossible that my Dad’s carbine wound up in Mexico, and Lord alone knows what it may have been used for if that happened.
The .357 concerns me more. A few years ago my friend in Florida got call from the police. They had recovered a gun similar to mine, and wanted to check if the serial number matched the one for my gun. There was no mention of what crime or crimes the gun may have been involved in, and without the serial number I couldn’t be certain it was my gun. In any case, I’m told the police eventually destroyed that gun.
I had worked hard to be able to buy my .357. It was the first gun I had purchased with my own money, and I had enjoyed many an afternoon practicing with it at the range. That was MY gun. The thought of it being traded for drugs, or shoved into the face of some innocent convenience store clerk makes me angry and frustrated, even though it was stolen almost 20 years ago.
The worst part is that if I had taken the time to properly store my guns, they probably wouldn’t have been stolen. If I had bothered to put my pistol case inside my bag properly, nobody would have known it was there, and my friend’s apartment wouldn’t have been burglarized. If I had locked up my carbine, or at least hidden it, the thieves might not have found it when they broke into my college apartment.
I know this is not all my fault. The criminals who stole my guns bear the responsibility for their actions. They chose to break in and steal my guns. Likewise, whomever finally wound up with my guns chose to do whatever they did with them. I’m not responsible for their choices.
What I am responsible for is not properly taking care of my guns. I failed to properly secure them, and I failed to properly conceal them. Because of that failure my guns literally wound up the hands of criminals.
Knowing that really stinks. So does the fact that there isn’t a bloody thing I can do to fix the situation. What’s done is done.
So make sure your firearms are always properly stored. It’s worth the extra effort and expense.
Trust me on that.
As soon as I am done writing this I am going to check with Shelly and see if he has written down the serial numbers of all of our firearms. Since I do not have a list of them, my guess is no. Thanks so much, Dan, fro sharing your experience even though it was a not a good one.
Dan, that was a very powerful story, and I am grateful to you for sharing that with us. It is not easy to admit our own mistakes, yet you did so that we all could learn from them. I can assure you that I will never forget what I just read.
I’d love to win
Having a gun and training is required but there is one other thing. You have to know that you can pull the trigger when it is pointed at another person in a crisis situation like a home invasion. You have to have the mental mindset to do it. If you can’t,then the preparation was for nothing and you and your family are dead.