My father, after stomping my ass for playing with my 22 without his permission when I was 9 or 10, taught me "there is nothing in this world more useless than an unloaded gun when you need a loaded gun."
He keeps an m1 carbine in the gun rack in their bedroom a 1911 in a biometric safe. I have the M4gery and pump action in the closet, and my glock 22 in a hide holster behind my night stand. No munchkins, so they stay loaded until kids come over. Everything goes into the safe with kids in the house though. I don't know if I'll feel as comfortable keeping so many loaded guns, even in a big fort knox safe with my eventual demon spawn running amok. Probably just get a biometric safe like my old man and deal with the fact that I can only shoot an intruder with 1 calibre weapon, instead of 3 or 4.
I still remember the beating. The message he imparted stuck with me since, too.