I think having the "master's" guns in his private study is one of the great traditions of literature. If they're his alone and the family knows that that's Dad's place and not to mess with it, then it seems the best place, unless another room is designated as a strong/safe room of some sort.

Kalshane, where and when is the house? I mean, if you're talking a country house in the UK, there's always the basic gunroom: dedicated storage with lock-up capability (although the two places I stayed with gun rooms, the lock-up had glass doors.....)

US, Modern day. Character's father was a gun afficionado. Taught her how to shoot and even got her her first gun. Her parents died several years previously. She no longer lives at home (is currently attending college several hours away) but can't bring herself to sell the house she grew up in. (The family housekeeper still handles the house's upkeep.)

The shit has hit the fan and she decides she's going to need her gun (or a gun, anyway), so she makes the long drive home to get it. I'm just trying to figure out the logical place for the gun safe to be. She would probably keep hers with her fathers guns since she only has the one anyway (and it's where she would have stored it when he was still alive) and I don't think he would have enough to dedicate a whole room to storing them, though I suppose if he wanted to have a place to display them, a dedicated room would make sense. Never thought about people having actual, secured, gun rooms. I'm still leaning more towards the gun safe in a room with other uses idea, since collecting and shooting guns was more of a hobby than obsession.

I'm still leaning more towards the gun safe in a room with other uses idea, since collecting and shooting guns was more of a hobby than obsession.

A study makes sense, then. Is it rifles or hand guns? Some gun safes are the size of refrigerators.

It would be a mix. ETA: Mostly hand guns, though.

Bearing in mind that A) my family was far from wealthy, and B) I know damn well this wouldn't be considered safe gun storage and plan something more secure if/when I start my reproduction 18th-19th century gun collection, my dad kept his guns in the master bedroom closet, unloaded, with the ammunition on the shelf above, which at least was well out of a small child's reach.

Your character's house would probably be somewhere between "English great house with designated gun room" and "blue collar rural Southern good ol' boy."

Heh. Susan, I'm thinking the "guns locked in a nice walk-in closet in the study" is probably right around the midway point.

Another possibility is to put the gun safe in the garage or his workshop, with the other cabinets of tools.

On the extreme end of the scale, he could do like B. W. Edwards and get a museum to keep his collection for him: [link]

Okay. Thanks, all. Sounds like I was pretty much on the right track.

On the extreme end of the scale, he could do like B. W. Edwards and get a museum to keep his collection for him:

Yeah, that is just a tad bigger a collection than I was aiming for.

Speaking of guns, I have a an honest-to-gosh question about a book I'm working on.

I have a backwoods Grizzley-Adams kinda guy who goes into town once a month for supplies. This is modern day. He carries a gun, and it needs to be in plain sight. Where in the US would it be legal to carry a sidearm in plain sight? Or a rifle, which he also has?

Not because this guy gives a crap about the law, I just don't want any complications with the legalities.