It's MY gun.. and it is vulnerable

neboob · Mar 24, 2015

So I'm required to turn in my firearms to the Arms room while I am on post and I need a signed memo each time I want to withdraw it... eh not optimal but I can deal with that. But when I turned in my Benelli M2 today I was told that I had to remove all of the locks on its case in order to store it there... I bought an expensive Patriot case and it went toe to toe with the TSA during Spring Break and kept my Accurate Iron M2 accurate... The Arms room guys really loved it but now everyone is telling me that the Arms room guys will enjoy my shotgun more often than I will if you catch my drift

I Googled trigger locks but it seems that they are almost worthless (at least the ones I've seen). I tried googling for Arms room SOP but no luck. Is this normal?

What is a man to do?

If I find one smudge of residue on there I'll flip. I'll know it wasn't me since I haven't even been able to fire one round since I bought it! :/

charger arms · Mar 24, 2015

remove the bolt. Remove the firing pin. Hell, remove the trigger group, magazine spring and follower, turn the butt pad screws around 180. Tons of shitty ideas.

neboob · Mar 24, 2015

Haha I removed some of the parts but my only worry was that I could "get in trouble" for construing having firearm parts out of the arms room as something bad, so I put them back. I need to do more reading but I think that's my best bet though. Thank you!

edited: to fix "it" to I

02Fatboy · Mar 24, 2015

Find a gun range near you and see if they have lockers for rent.

Tuflehundon · Mar 24, 2015

I am going to assume that you are military, sounds like it. If that is the case, then they cannot take your gun out of the armory. That would be grounds for court martial. Only the person with the weapons card (10520) can check a weapon out. That card has to be present in the place of any weapon if the weapon is not present in the armory. They will finger f^&$ it, but you can't do anything about that, and only at first. There will be plenty of cool toys (government owned) there that they can check out and play with and not get in trouble for it.

I used to put a cable lock through the action of all of my personal guns that I turned into the armory. We had a saying in the Marines, "locks keep honest people honest." Locks may be easy to defeat, but they would have to break them to use it. You would know that the lock was gone and call them out on it. Which in turn would stur up a hornets nest of trouble that they don't want.

striped1 · Mar 24, 2015

For all the BS that you are going through, find a climate controlled storage facility with 24 hour access and drop your gun safe in and use that as your private gun room.

wav3rhythm · Mar 24, 2015

Finally! A topic that I know a little bit about!

Ask to see the arms room SOP (it has to be stored in the arms room per regulation), and also check to see if there is a posted POW regulation/policy letter (this can be either unit specific or installation specific. I will tell you that more and more posts are forcing people living in barracks to keep their guns in the arms rooms. My personal feelings aside, many installations have a policy that as long as you live in the barracks, you will keep you POWs stored in the arms room. This means that the storage locker is technically out of the question.

As far as storage in the arms room, I would leave my stuff with my parents/siblings/weird uncle before I left them in an arms room. There is too much stupidity around the military to trust people blindly. A common problem people run into is not having access to their guns. As an example, I had several Soldiers who liked to hunt, but the armorer would frequently oversleep when they wanted him to let them into the arms room at 0430 on the weekends. Also, keep in mind that the armorer has to do an inventory/barrel count everytime he opens and closes the arms room. So they don't like to do 45 minutes of work to let you have at your shotgun.

If you have any other questions, shoot me a PM.

poopgiggle · Mar 24, 2015

Real Name said:
For all the BS that you are going through, find a climate controlled storage facility with 24 hour access and drop your gun safe in and use that as your private gun room.

This is what I did when I still lived on campus.

Tuflehundon · Mar 24, 2015

Josh Cobb said:
Finally! A topic that I know a little bit about!

Ask to see the arms room SOP (it has to be stored in the arms room per regulation), and also check to see if there is a posted POW regulation/policy letter (this can be either unit specific or installation specific. I will tell you that more and more posts are forcing people living in barracks to keep their guns in the arms rooms. My personal feelings aside, many installations have a policy that as long as you live in the barracks, you will keep you POWs stored in the arms room. This means that the storage locker is technically out of the question.

As far as storage in the arms room, I would leave my stuff with my parents/siblings/weird uncle before I left them in an arms room. There is too much stupidity around the military to trust people blindly. A common problem people run into is not having access to their guns. As an example, I had several Soldiers who liked to hunt, but the armorer would frequently oversleep when they wanted him to let them into the arms room at 0430 on the weekends. Also, keep in mind that the armorer has to do an inventory/barrel count everytime he opens and closes the arms room. So they don't like to do 45 minutes of work to let you have at your shotgun.

If you have any other questions, shoot me a PM.

That's the biggest pain of all. My unit allowed guys who wanted to hunt take our guns out on Friday at the end of the day, as long as we didn't stay on base that night. So we'd crash at a friends house off base that night and get up early. Checking a gun out on the weekend was a huge pain in the butt.

One of the many reasons I moved off base as soon as I could. What most of my friends ended up doing once I moved off base was store their guns at my place. It was so much easier. They just had to "sell" them to me. If they still owned them and they lived on base it had to be back home with family, or in the armory.

luke.reninger · Mar 24, 2015

Get the smallest storage unit possible.

Move off post.

Quit buying firearms

Build a hidden storage locker in your truck or SUV (Don't laugh, I know people still using some I built) (good way to get in trouble)

Really the Military has you by the balls. Either get married or get off post or store your guns off post.

Josh Cobb knows what he is talking about.....Big baller that he is

wav3rhythm · Mar 24, 2015

It really kills me that the Army Soldiers gives so many incentives to get married then complains about the money we spend on dependents. Marriage for enlisted Soldiers is a ticket to receiving the basic housing allowance, not having a roommate, getting a house (make a little extra money if you live off post usually)...

There are several workarounds for the regulations that were hastily enacted following some type of incident without a lot of analysis. A lot of the issues and solutions are definitely going to depend on your chain of command and what they are willing to allow. I personally did not like having POWs in my arms rooms because it's once more thing to keep track of and additional memorandums every month to sign. The storage of POWs with a friend off post is a great workaround depending on the procedures to hunt and shoot on post. Most places require some type of registration to bring a firearm, or bow on the installation and they will also stipulate that you can only transport it in your vehicle if you are going directly to the range or hunting area and then home to store it - you're not supposed to have them at work and swing by the range on the way home.

Every different unit will have a different interpretation of the regulations, and each installation will have a different policy on POWs. I've never been to West Point, but typically training/TRADOC posts will have more strict interpretations.

There are several retired and active senior NCOs on the boards, you might want to shoot them a PM to see what they think.

Have you received your branch and duty station yet? If you have any questions regarding that stuff, shoot me a PM... Although between Fort Polk and Fort Sill, I might not be the guy to ask...

runawaygun762 · Mar 24, 2015

Here's the deal with single soldiers with POWs. You can absolutely follow regs to the letter and most units require single soldiers to keep POWs in the unit arms room, even if someone has off-post quarters or you have a storage unit. If you choose that, good on you. When I was a single soldier, I knew I would never shoot on the POW range on post and would never bring my guns on post for any reason anyway, so I didn't register them and kept them at a friend's house off post. Yep, technically against regs, but with POWs, as long as they don't find them in a health and welfare inspection, nobody really cares. If you've already registered them on post and don't plan to ever take them onto the installation, "sell" them and have them removed from the VRS (Vehicle Registration System). I have some guns registered, some others that aren't. Ft Leonard Wood doesn't have a rifle range and only allows shotguns for firearms deer hunting, so no need to register my rifles. Leonard Wood is good in that anyone with an RSO card can open the POW range and shoot, so my pistols and shotguns are registered.

neboob · Mar 24, 2015

Thank you for all of the ideas. I'll work down the list and find something that works. Until I figure out a more permanent place for the firearm(s) I'll ask for the SOP, pull key components out, and put a locked cable through what I can.

I haven't put in for my branch/post yet but branching happens next semester and posting the semester after that a few months before graduation. I'm thinking the following

Branching (17 branches now but it won't matter what I put past the first one or two)
1. Infantry
2. Signal (branch detail Infantry)
3. Field Artillery

Posting
1. Ft Bragg. I went on CTLT (a 3ish week "internship" where you are hosted by a unit) this past summer at Ft. Bragg under a USASOC unit and the post seemed huge & well resourced. The 82nd guys seemed motivated and sure loved their gym time, but I only got to see them from afar since we were so busy. Another bonus is that the 82nd will be the Global Response Force under the Army's regional alignment.
2. Ft. Campbell - Vicenza, Italy - Ft. Lewis - Ft. Carson etc... The Army has great unit's/places available and I would be happy to lead anywhere. The only place I hear consistently bad reviews about is Ft. Polk.. No judgement on my part though
3. Anywhere in Alaska.. I hate the cold and I love sunshine. I'd STILL be pumped if I posted there though

runawaygun762 · Mar 24, 2015

Ft Polk is the butthole of the nation.

wav3rhythm · Mar 24, 2015

David Marlow said:
Ft Polk is the butthole of the nation.

Yep! Luke and I both spent the some of the best years of our lives there. They actually still have the "Reninger Room" at "The Pegasus".

neboob - I branched Infantry and absolutely love it. Good luck!

dennishoddy · Mar 24, 2015

Josh Cobb said:
Yep! Luke and I both spent the some of the best years of our lives there. They actually still have the "Reninger Room" at "The Pegasus".

neboob - I branched Infantry and absolutely love it. Good luck!

David Marlow said:
Ft Polk is the butthole of the nation.

Went through AIT at Polk in 1970. You assessment is correct.

runawaygun762 · Mar 24, 2015

I did six rotations in JRTC, one month as a "pucker" during a CPX because I was a PLT RTO at the time, and Rappel Master there and there ain't ****. The only cool thing was the barber shop on North Fort had a male barber that looked like Wolverine and a female barber that looked like Aunt Jemima and the Wal Mart parking lot in Alexandria had a 12 MPH speed limit sign. 12. Not 10 or 15, but ****ing 12. Still pisses me off.

Wall · Mar 24, 2015

12? WTF?

luke.reninger · Mar 24, 2015

There are a lot of weird things like 12 MPH signs in sleezeville.

Pretty easy place to get in trouble. Lots of boredom, drive through liquor joints (I'm not kidding) and strip clubs where your pregnant buddies wife works.

I don't miss that place. The police HATE military as well.

If you like to shoot, FT Sill is a great place. Being Infantry will have you lost here though. Not many of us around.

dennishoddy · Mar 24, 2015

Trigger said:
There are a lot of weird things like 12 MPH signs in sleezeville.

Pretty easy place to get in trouble. Lots of boredom, drive through liquor joints (I'm not kidding) and strip clubs where your pregnant buddies wife works.

I don't miss that place. The police HATE military as well.

If you like to shoot, FT Sill is a great place. Being Infantry will have you lost here though. Not many of us around.

Actually if you like to hunt, Ft Sill has programs for elk, hog, upland birds, etc for active duty and retired personnel. Adjacent to the Wichita Mtn National wildlife refuge that also has hunting opportunities or just hiking and camping. Stay out of the strip joints and bars, the Lawton area does have a lot of things to offer.