[Lin Robinson]

The gun safe is a good idea. Just don't install it where it will be vulnerable. A gentleman in a nearby town had his gun collection in two massive safes. The problem was he installed the safes in his garage. Someone broke in, hauled off the safes - they were not bolted to the floor - and dismantled them at their leisure. My personal safe is in my basement and weighs 800 pounds. No one is going to get it out of the house easily and if they manage, then they have to haul it uphill between two neighboring houses into a wide open front yard. And they are not going to be able to open it in place because the alarm is going to be going off the whole time.

The alarm is a good idea. If there is an alarm then the thief will be rushed and should not have the time to break into or haul off a heavy gun safe. Alarm systems need not be real expensive to be effective. Shop around. We installed one last year and were amazed at the variations in installation cost, types of systems and monitoring available.

Here, however, is an idea I did not see mentioned, and which has a lot of merit when you are faced with a non-professional thief or group of thieves, which is what most of us can expect. Leave some cash lying out in a conspicuous place. It is a lot easier for the average sneak thief or druggy to pick up a couple of hundred dollars than to haul off a collection of guns or swords, jewelry or whatever, then fence it or pawn it. Quick in, pick up the cash and exit. I wish I could say that was an original idea but it isn't.

Vigilance is the best way to guard against break-ins and theft. Good neighbors, a neighborhood watch, like we have, non-display of your collection, a secure storage area and an alarm system will give you more peace of mind.

[M. Eversberg II]

Locks on the doors, windows, etc.
Alarm system.
Bedside hand gun.
Vigilance.

I find the safety of my loved ones a *tad* more important than the swords, but there is no telling what an intruder might just be up to. Your best bet is to put the "better" items to steal up where he'll see them. Unless he's breaking in to specifically find your swords and take them (while the alarm is going off, too!) he or she will never get to it.

M.

[E Stafford]

Well, first off, I must say that I disagree with most of the "if they want it, they will get it" ideology. Any car, truck, house, room can be made to where IT SIMPLY ISN'T WORTH THE TROUBLE to take/destroy.

Let's look at it from a second standpoint: guns. If you have guns in an urban neighborhood, you want the guns to stay in the house. So, that dictates a safe. Ok. Do you want a fire safe, one that is going to keep dang near EVERYTHING from getting to it, or what passes for a locked cabinet? If you want display, go the second route, bolt it to the floor and the wall, install shatterproof glass and a good lock, and you should be ok. If not, get the biggest, meanest, most fire proofest safe you can, and THEN bolt it to the floor and the wall. I triple dog DARE a teenager there to muss up your house to tip it over.

I also agree on keeping it in an inner room, preferably behind a solid core door, similar to a safe room (just google safe room and you'll get more specs.) a good lock, and that door is going to take some damage to get through. It is possible, but hopefully they'll give up before that point, esp. when the tv and kitchen is easier. Note that the inner room does not need to be "fortified", just hard to get into without your blessing and presence.

Alarms, well, that's up to you. Which brings me to the last point: do your homework. You said you don't have a "place", so I'm assuming apartment/dorm/living at home. In that case, awareness is your best bet. Know what's going on in the neighborhood, neighborhood watch, that kind of thing. When you do get your own place, first thing, look at the crime stats, look at the neighborhood. If theft, home invasions, that kind of thing are up, probably not a good place to live ANYWAY.
Oh, and last thing: right after you read this, grab a camera, and do an inventory of your blades. pictures and descriptions. Stuff one copy under the mattress at home, the other in a safe deposit box. That way, any thing happens, and the young pups do take it to a pawnshop, you can just give the police the photos and inventory, and the pawn shop owner has got a bit of a...dilemma on his hands.

Hope this helps. Other resources are online, self defense websites, as well as a book I read for a self defense class where I pulled most of the above post. If you want it, send me a mail and I'll give you the details. Hope this helps.

[Stu C]

[Lucas LaVoy]

As far a physical security of the building is concerned, since you and your family are all living there, presumably you've already done everything you are prepared to do, right? Theft (or destruction by flood, fire, etc.)of your collection is pretty much a continuous and largely unavoidable risk, which is exactly the type of thing that we have insurance for. You should probably check your homeowners (or renter's) insurance policy to see if there are any funny exclusions for items more than 25 years old, and to make sure that the policy covers the actual replacement cost of each item, rather than its actual cash value. If your policy isn't going to cover your collection adequately, you can probably purchase a rider for it that has broad coverage for all kinds of loss. Just make sure you've got good documentation of everything, especially custom pieces.

[Josh MacNeil]

Ok, obscure reference here...

In the movie, The Crow, the main bad guy had what looked like a giant armoire that housed a collection of swords. I always thought that was pretty awesome. Someday when I buy my own house, I'd like to build something similar.]