I keep a shotgun and a pistol next to my bed for now, because a) my grand-kids are never alone in the house, b) they aren't allowed in our bedroom, and c) none of them are physically able to operate the pump or the pistol slide - yet. When they get older, that will change.

(Why so much firepower? we had a drive-by next door a couple of years back, and SWAT was called out last year to help evict some scumbags living on the other side. This is usually a good neighborhood, but renters in the area have been a mixed lot. Better safe than sorry.)

However, this is an accident waiting to happen. I can easily see me (or my wife) putting an arm up over the head and ending up with a shotgun bouncing off our noggins...besides, where would we store books for reading in bed?

but it would change my mind.

... it's your own house, and you locked your keys inside.

The racking sound is you racking your brain thinking of a way in that doesn't break things.

Years ago, my stepson didn't have a PC because he had just gotten out of the Navy, so he would come over and use ours for stuff. One night, about 1 AM, I heard noise in the living room. I got out of bed, grabbed my Mossberg 590 and racked the slide. Immediately I heard my stepson yell in panic, "It's just me!"

I tend to believe that the sound of a pump shotgun being racked has become so universally well-known that it is indeed a very effective deterrent, or at least a warning to miscreants that there's trouble a-comin'....

sound in the world. Or at least on T.V. and in the movies.

(now wife). Here roommate came home, heard the commotion in the wife's bedroom and then ran to retrieve the shotgun in her room. Assailant heard the sound of the 12 gauge shotgun's action being racked, stopped his attack and jumped out of the 2nd story window. I guess he didn't want to find out what a load of 00 buckshot fired from 10 feet away felt like.

As for the bedboard hiding place, I vote for "Bad Idea".

The damn gun would only fall out during acrobatic sex.