What exactly is a "truck gun?"

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If you are going to get free with your fancy... A Rhodesian gentleman (Ian Smith may have surrendered but he never did) told me of a device called a spider that consisted of 16 12 guage shotgun barrels arranged in a circle mounted to the top of the cab of a vehicle. To fire the weapon a crank was inserted into the central hub and turned firing each barrel in turn. Since the Spider would be part of the truck it would be in essence a "truck gun."



I would question it's usefulness against coyotes though.


I have seen an electric motor driven version of a similar arrangement of shotgun barrels somewhere. What it lacks in usefulness for dealing with coyotes, it likely makes up for in any zombie apocalypse scenario.
 
A criminal is a criminal. Lawful gun owners are not responsible for what a criminal may do. I own a nice TV, should I be afraid a criminal may steal it and sell it for meth?
That said, I find a trusty, double stack, blocky, semi automatic pistol of the Tupperware variety, that is kinda beat up but regularly PM'd, make's a fine "truck gun". I would rather chauffeur an AR around though.
 
A criminal is a criminal. Lawful gun owners are not responsible for what a criminal may do. I own a nice TV, should I be afraid a criminal may steal it and sell it for meth?
That said, I find a trusty, double stack, blocky, semi automatic pistol of the Tupperware variety, that is kinda beat up but regularly PM'd, make's a fine "truck gun". I would rather chauffeur an AR around though.

From a farm woman's POV- I already carry a handgun as does hubby, my brother and several of the employees. The function of a "truck gun" would be to handle work that a sidearm would be less than adequate. That criteria implies a rifle of sufficient caliber and accuracy to (as my uncle would put it) reach out and touch something. As I said before, the "standard" equipment here is an ancient 30-30 but in my own truck it is often a Lee Enfield or my great grandfather's little Winchester. Either is capable of if not ruining a coyote's day at least making him consider that he is less than welcome here.
 
But I also don't leave a firearm in my vehicle unattended. Have a gun in your truck while you're out? Okay. When you get home, take it inside. If you stop somewhere and have to leave the vehicle, lock the weapon to something solid.

Do you take all your guns with you when you leave your house unattended?
 
That's not an apt analogy. Secured in your home is the highest practical level of security almost any owner can accomplish.

Saying that anything left in your car is even remotely as secure is foolish.
 
That's not an apt analogy. Secured in your home is the highest practical level of security almost any owner can accomplish.
Hogwash
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics there are about 3 times the number of firearms stolen from homes in burglaries than from all other property thefts combined.
 
And that means absolutely nothing, since there are many, many, MANY times more firearms stored in homes than in any other sort of property.

If there are 300 million privately owned firearms in this country there are probably 299,900,000 stored in homes and (by a reasonable guess based on responses here) maybe 100,000 that get routinely stored in vehicles. Of COURSE almost all of the gun thefts are going to be from homes! That's where the massive majority of guns ARE. That tells you nothing about relative rates of thefts from vehicles.

Good heavens, think about this stuff before you come to a conclusion based on it.


Secured in your home IS the highest practical level of security almost all gun owners are going to be able to accomplish, in any practical way, for their collections. Doesn't mean those guns aren't still occasionally stolen, as they surely can be. And anyone who'd somehow conclude from that that storing a gun in a car is "secure" has got their thinkin' cap screwed on exactly backward. Maybe upside down!
 
Secured in your home IS the highest practical level of security almost all gun owners are going to be able to accomplish, in any practical way, for their collections. Doesn't mean those guns aren't still occasionally stolen, as they surely can be. And anyone who'd somehow conclude from that that storing a gun in a car is "secure" has got their thinkin' cap screwed on exactly backward. Maybe upside down!

Nice ad hominem attack there and from a moderator at that. A locked house is no harder to get into than a locked car. The most secure weapon is the one loaded in your hands and even then it can be taken if somebody is willing and able.
 
Ok, If you're honestly contending that items left in a car outside on a street or in a driveway are no more of a target than items left inside a locked house (generally inside a locked container or safe as well) then that must be what you believe, for whatever reason you choose to believe it.

I completely disagree with the implications of the opinion you're expressing, but obviously that's as far as we're going to get with it.

(And ad hom is not ... sheesh, never mind.)
 
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officer's wife - " ... If you want to get into definitions- our "truck gun" is an ancient 30-30 lever action made by a company called Glenfield that either Dad or my uncle bought sometime before I was born. ... "

O.W., just as a point of clarification, your Glenfield rifle is actually a Marlin 336, but with a Maple stock, rather than the walnut stock of the Marlin 336 rifles. Exact same mechanism. Glenfields were sold by -- I believe -- Sears Roebuck (??), Western Auto, etc.

Nothing wrong with a Glenfield .30-30 WCF.

L.W.
 
Ok, If you're honestly contending that items left in a car outside on a street or in a driveway are no more of a target than items left inside a locked house (generally inside a locked container or safe as well) then that must be what you believe, for whatever reason you choose to believe it.
Because if my truck is parked the alarm is on and I'm within earshot or it's in a lot patrolled by security.
 
O.W., just as a point of clarification, your Glenfield rifle is actually a Marlin 336, but with a Maple stock, rather than the walnut stock of the Marlin 336 rifles. Exact same mechanism. Glenfields were sold by -- I believe -- Sears Roebuck (??), Western Auto, etc.

Nothing wrong with a Glenfield .30-30 WCF.

L.W.
I never said there was anything wrong with it, just that it was ancient. If you prefer then "Glenfield" is the house name. Either way, when my brother goes to check fences the machine is riding- if you will pardon the pun- shotgun.
 
For the record, police say that most car thieves target items in plain sight. This is mostly electronics. I doubt many people leave guns in plain sight and even though Ford F150s are the highest selling vehicle, they are not the vehicle most often broken into.
 
Do you have any statistics to share on the number of guns stolen from vehicles? Perhaps if we had that and could compare it to my rough assessment of total guns owned and the number of reported gun stolen in a year we could determine whether guns are stolen from vehicles at a higher rate than from homes, a much higher rate, a lower rate, etc.

Just because most car thieves target items in plain sight doesn't say anything to the fact that many cars are completely rifled (not just smash and grab of whatever's left in plain sight) and it takes less than a minute to search an entire car for whatever valuable things might be left in it.
 
A "truck gun" is whatever I have in the truck at the time. It varies a lot by season, location or what I am doing at the time.

Could be a handgun, varmint rifle, AR, a shotgun or any combination of them.

Just as there is no one gun that does everything, there is not just one type of truck gun. It's whatever fits the need at that particular time in my estimation.

There is usually rifle and a handgun in the truck at all time and the others come and go as needed.
 
My truck gun is a Bulgarian Makarov (9X18). It is cheap, rugged, and oh so dependable. The only time it comes out of my truck is when I punch out a few rounds at the range, then clean and lubricate it.
 
I have seen an electric motor driven version of a similar arrangement of shotgun barrels somewhere. What it lacks in usefulness for dealing with coyotes, it likely makes up for in any zombie apocalypse scenario.

Since the average person is not likely to be ambushed in a jungle by zombies or Rhodesian rebels I still need to question it's practicality. Considering that in any city with a crime problem bad enough such a device would be useful generally have firearms restrictions for a simple handgun the point is moot.
 
Do you have any statistics to share on the number of guns stolen from vehicles?
Sure do not that it'll do any good, from what I've seen most here can't admit their ideas just aren't true.

here are some #s from the Bureau of Justice Stats on firearm thefts.
"This number represents an estimated average of 232,400 firearms stolen each year— about 172,000 stolen during burglaries and 60,300 stolen during other property crimes. "

"From 2005 through 2010, firearms were stolen in about four percent of the 2.4 million household burglaries and in less than one percent of the 13.6 million other property crimes involving a completed theft that occurred during the period."

Full report here
 
It's way harder to break into my house than my truck. That being said I find around here a lot of people forget to lock their vehicle and criminals go through neighborhoods checking handles and then rifling through the car. Many are caught on camera. Under the seat is a common place they search.

I have a ccp. There is no reason that I would need to leave a gun in my truck.

Funny story. I once purchased a truck from a private owner that left his .357 smith under the drivers seat. Had it for a couple days before I found it while vacuuming it out. People do get complacent or forgetful.
 
Sure do not that it'll do any good, from what I've seen most here can't admit their ideas just aren't true.
Oh, the irony. :)

here are some #s from the Bureau of Justice Stats on firearm thefts.
"This number represents an estimated average of 232,400 firearms stolen each year— about 172,000 stolen during burglaries and 60,300 stolen during other property crimes. "
Ok! Let's look at that. Again, going off my numbers from before, that there are an even 300,000,000 guns in private hands, and maybe 100,000 are "truck guns" or "car guns" or "trunk guns" left out in a vehicle routinely...

Guns are then stolen from houses at a rate of 0.06% per year.
If we take a guess that let's just say 1/4 of those "other property crimes" (might as well go low, just to keep this fair), then 15,075 are stolen each year from cars. 15,075 out of 100,000 is FIFTEEN percent.

That's a helluva long way from six HUNDREDTHS of a percent.

Even if our guesses here are way off, we're orders of magnitude away from proving that guns are "just as secure" in a house as a car.

To put a fine point on it, if I'm off by an entire order of magnitude, and there are A MILLION guns kept in cars or trucks routinely, 15,075 of those stolen in a year is 1.5% which is still TWENTY FIVE TIMES more than the rate for thefts from houses.


So let's look at this set of numbers:
"From 2005 through 2010, firearms were stolen in about four percent of the 2.4 million household burglaries and in less than one percent of the 13.6 million other property crimes involving a completed theft that occurred during the period."
It would be great if those numbers said something directly to the question we're debating here, but they do not.

Approximately 4% of household burglaries involve a stolen firearm. That might give us some rough idea of how many firearms were stolen -- from households where a gun is stored inside -- but we don't have anything more than rough guesses based on polling and extrapolation of how many residences actually contain firearms, and certainly nothing there that says how many of the houses that were burgled contained firearms at that time. That would at least be a solid baseline number to start with if we wanted to prove that guns are "just as secure" in a car as a house. But we don't have that.

Further, we have even less information here about how many of the "other property crimes" involved cars, how many of those "other properties" contained firearms at the time of the burglary.

So this would be misleadingly condemning of the car/truck-gun idea.

If about 4% of home burglaries saw a gun stolen, then that would be 96,000 gun theft incidents where some guns are stolen from homes. To match that 172,000 number then there are about 1.8 guns stolen during each burglary.

If we were to say that some percentage -- let's just guess 25% to be generous -- of the "other property crimes -- were from cars or trucks, and that "less than one percent" might be 0.75%, again low to be fair, then that's 51,000 stolen firearms from cars.

And surely there can't be 30% as many guns stolen from cars than from houses each year, even though that's what the numbers COULD look like.

Sure, guns left in cars or trucks are more vulnerable to theft than those in houses, but the sheer number of people leaving guns in cars is enormously less than storing them in houses. Heck, my seat-of-the-pants guess before figured maybe only 100,000 guns routinely left in cars, period. So over half of them are not being stolen each year.



Again, be careful tossing out numbers and saying that your theory is correct because you have some numbers. The numbers have to mean <something> and they have to say what you think they say.
 
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