Responsible gun ownership means that you handle and store said weapons in a safe and responsible manner. I have several safes in my office. My handguns stay in the safe UNLESS I have one on my person in a holster. Our children are adults and are no longer living at home. I never had a loaded gun laying around the house without my being within arms reach of it. I have guns in my home purely for self defense reasons. All of my handguns are loaded and accessible to me and my wife. Obviously, if you have kids maybe it is a good idea to unload the weapons and keep the ammo in a separate location. The harder you make it to access the safer the environment will be. That is of course we are assuming that a home invasion will never happen and you might need fast access to your defensive weapons. Unloaded weapons are pretty useless when it comes to self defense scenarios. Thanks for the well reasoned article about gun safety.