I think I'm about 165 degrees into a 180 degree turn

[bubbaturbo]

I used to think a rifle for a truck gun was kinda suspect.
I don't need to put down predators attacking my livestock and I couldn't see myself charging into a "situation" to save the day. I couldn't envision a "situation" even occurring. I was a believer in "shooting at somebody 50 yards away isn't self defense" and "just drive away".

Then I saw some videos from October 7 in Israel with multiple bad guys with AKs shooting at cars and presumably hitting drivers and/or disabling the vehicles.
One of my first thoughts was, "Even if he has a handgun, I bet the guy in that car wishes he had a rifle. I bet he really, really wishes he had a rifle". An epiphany for me.

I consider myself to be a calm and rational person - not delusional or subject to bouts of paranoia. (Although I might be the last to know, my wife says I'm OK).
But....
I am concerned about who and what has been walking in across our borders and in my mind I have extrapolated the Israeli incidents to my neck of the woods.
Even the head of the FBI says we might be in some deep sewage.
At the same time, I seriously doubt - but not to a certainty - that a rifle in my vehicle would ever be of use. And since when I drive, I'll probably get out my car and go in some place, it would be unguarded.
Having a rifle locked in a vault in the vehicle and not immediately at hand seems ineffective. So, I'm still dithering.

I'll no longer critique anyone who keeps a long gun for a truck gun. But I'm not quite there yet - the logistics are considerable. However I don't think I could stand the embarrassment of getting shot in my car for lack of shooting back - even if I can barely imagine such a thing occurring in the first place.

I doubt that on October 6th, any Israelis anticipated what was about to happen. Some of those terrible videos and reports make you go hmmmmm though.
I think I'm on the line between an absurd flight of imagination and prudent preparation - and absurd is losing.

 

[jmorris]

That’s why it’s called terrorism: the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians.

That said, I don’t have a truck gun for them, rather the other stuff I actually do engage from time to time. Certainly more useful than my sidearm, for the tasks I use them for.

 

[lightman]

I used to think a rifle for a truck gun was kinda suspect.
I don't need to put down predators attacking my livestock and I couldn't see myself charging into a "situation" to save the day. I couldn't envision a "situation" even occurring. I was a believer in "shooting at somebody 50 yards away isn't self defense" and "just drive away".

Then I saw some videos from October 7 in Israel with multiple bad guys with AKs shooting at cars and presumably hitting drivers and/or disabling the vehicles.
One of my first thoughts was, "Even if he has a handgun, I bet the guy in that car wishes he had a rifle. I bet he really, really wishes he had a rifle". An epiphany for me.

I consider myself to be a calm and rational person - not delusional or subject to bouts of paranoia. (Although I might be the last to know, my wife says I'm OK).
But....
I am concerned about who and what has been walking in across our borders and in my mind I have extrapolated the Israeli incidents to my neck of the woods.
Even the head of the FBI says we might be in some deep sewage.
At the same time, I seriously doubt - but not to a certainty - that a rifle in my vehicle would ever be of use. And since when I drive, I'll probably get out my car and go in some place, it would be unguarded.
Having a rifle locked in a vault in the vehicle and not immediately at hand seems ineffective. So, I'm still dithering.

I'll no longer critique anyone who keeps a long gun for a truck gun. But I'm not quite there yet - the logistics are considerable. However I don't think I could stand the embarrassment of getting shot in my car for lack of shooting back - even if I can barely imagine such a thing occurring in the first place.

I doubt that on October 6th, any Israelis anticipated what was about to happen. Some of those terrible videos and reports make you go hmmmmm though.
I think I'm on the line between an absurd flight of imagination and prudent preparation - and absurd is losing.

Your post does stir some thought!

 

[herrwalther]

I am not of the mindset of a truck gun yet. While terrorist acts involving firearms are common place in places like Israel, they are nearly unheard of here. And for good reason. Planners of terrorist acts know that a firearm threat is easily met with another firearm in the United States. There is less "shock" and terrorist impact if a shooter kills a few civilians before being legally engaged by a lawful owner compared to...a plane smashing into a building. I hope we never get to the point of needing a rifle everywhere we go to engage any threat. I have lived that life and it has taken its toll. I do not wish to repeat it.

 

[The Night Rider]

If by truck gun you mean a gun of any kind that resides in your automobile at all times,

I still believe that I'm far more likely to have an unsecured weapon stolen from my vehicle than to need it.

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

You have some good points here...
I'm also in the camp of wanting to have a "truck gun" but keeping secure and also easily accessed is kinda an oxymoron... Of course having a 45 Auto handgun and a couple spare mags on your person that you are pretty effective with, is better than the rifle you don't have access to...
I'd be much more likely to floor it and drive through something in my way just to get the h e double hockey sticks out of there! Like I was at Mickey D's in Mustang Oklahoma and thought I was about to witness a shooting in front of me in line in the drive through, and of course I didn't have my gun... Apparently it turned out to be a friend of someone that was in line and they were all parked next to them and I swear it looked like a police dash cam video in front of me. All suspicious like and I was stressed out the whole time...
(Dads a retired OKC Police officer so I've seen my fair share of crazy stuff) Luckily it turned out to be just a couple dumb people... Sigh... Moral of the story is, I now get my gun every time I leave the house after work.

 

[armoredman]

I also hope to never live in that type of environment, and it can be said many of those murdered on Oct. 7th also hoped that, however, proximity to real terrorists and slavering bloodthirsty savages certainly should raise awareness. One of the things I would be doing, if an Israeli citizen, would be working tirelessly to remove every person from office who voted to strip the citizens of their lawfully owned private arms, and to expand civilian ownership to resemble a Constitutional Carry state in the US.
Having said all that, a rifle in a vehicle would be slow and cumbersome to get to, unless you have it roof mounted over your head. If you have to bail RIGHT NOW, the trunk gun will probably be left behind for the bad guys to play with. Other workable options would be the FoldAR system with a braced rifle, or the Sub2000 folding pistol caliber carbine in bail out bags discreetly carried in the passenger section of the vehicle, perhaps disguised as something nobody would want to steal, like portable toilet cleaning systems.
Heck, I'd be intrigued by a 10mm Hi-Pint, to be honest, betting 10mm will get a nice big boost from the longer barrel, but still unwieldy in deployment.
Food for thought.

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

I also hope to never live in that type of environment, and it can be said many of those murdered on Oct. 7th also hoped that, however, proximity to real terrorists and slavering bloodthirsty savages certainly should raise awareness. One of the things I would be doing, if an Israeli citizen, would be working tirelessly to remove every person from office who voted to strip the citizens of their lawfully owned private arms, and to expand civilian ownership to resemble a Constitutional Carry state in the US.
Having said all that, a rifle in a vehicle would be slow and cumbersome to get to, unless you have it roof mounted over your head. If you have to bail RIGHT NOW, the trunk gun will probably be left behind for the bad guys to play with. Other workable options would be the FoldAR system with a braced rifle, or the Sub2000 folding pistol caliber carbine in bail out bags discreetly carried in the passenger section of the vehicle, perhaps disguised as something nobody would want to steal, like portable toilet cleaning systems.
Heck, I'd be intrigued by a 10mm Hi-Pint, to be honest, betting 10mm will get a nice big boost from the longer barrel, but still unwieldy in deployment.
Food for thought.

Milwaukee Packout compact organizer with some foam inserts? Or would that also be too much of a target lol. I love Milwaukee stuff and they are NOT cheap.

 

[armoredman]

Something that has printed on it, "Johnson Company Portable Toilet Cleaning Kit - We're Number 1 in the Number 2 business!" Add some artful brown stains....

 

[DustyGmt]

Last thing you ever want to do is bring a handgun to a rifle fight. Even one of those stupid Turkish 12ga's for $120 would be a good hedge without much investment on your part. I like to have an AR pistol or a single shot 20ga or an old beat up Mossberg. I thing a long gun in the car is just as prudent and wise as carrying a concealed handgun. Sure the odds are against ever needing either one, but a handgun against an attacker with a rifle is a bad recipe...

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

Last thing you ever want to do is bring a handgun to a rifle fight. Even one of those stupid Turkish 12ga's for $120 would be a good hedge without much investment on your part. I like to have an AR pistol or a single shot 20ga or an old beat up Mossberg. I thing a long gun in the car is just as prudent and wise as carrying a concealed handgun. Sure the odds are against ever needing either one, but a handgun against an attacker with a rifle is a bad recipe...

I would argue training would be the most important thing, but I do agree that rifles are going to have much better ballistics. However, this is more of a "get me the heck out of here" type thing I'm my mind.

 

[dirtman]

I travel almost daily (broker) looking over large tracts of farm property... Daily drill for years, rifle of some sort, into the truck (often more then one)... any thing from 177 or 22 mag to 45/70.. when inspecting property.... I have shot untold number of rabid skunks and other vermin.... I have never shot a black bear..... but have encuntered a few angery momma bears... I probably should have shot a couple bears but was able to fake them out and scare them away... and changed my paints later.
End of day... all guns out and into safe storage.... as well, don't forget the dirty laundry...
dirt

 

[Frulk]

I have a couple (if not more ) rifles that would fill the truck gun role very well. However, I don’t press them into that use based on my immediate risk assessment…small rural town currently but slowly turning into a bedroom commuter community. Low crime. Very conservative population. No homeless etc.

Closest I came to a truck gun: from the late 70’s to about 91 always had one of those Mexican blanket bench seat covers with the gun scabbard in the front below/behind your knees. Depending what hunting season it was it either had a Mossberg 500 in 20 or 12 gauge or a Win 94 in it. So out of sight and comfortable I’d forget for a month or two a gun was in there. Those days are now over.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

It's a judgement call.

I submit that in the vast majority of the United States, the need for a truck gun (rifle) under the circumstances described in the OP are miniscule. A need for a rifle as a truck gun is far more likely to be dictated around farms or in rural areas where wildlife is otherwise a potential concern. Especially as one's actual time in and around the immediate vicinity of their truck is likely to be greater under such circumstances.

In urban areas, one is more likely to be in/around their truck for transportation purposes...unless it's a business truck (like you own a plumbing business, construction work, etc.)

And don't forget...when you dedicate a firearm as a "truck gun", you're implying the gun is maintained in the vehicle. Even if it's only taken to the vehicle when you first get in it and take it out at the end of the day, you still have security concerns to deal with. And those security concerns could affect the accessibility of the rifle in actual time of need.

The OP's location indicates OKC, OK. Is there really a such a concern on the other side of Texas, at 500 miles or more from the Southern boarder?

 

[shafter]

I'm not a fan of long guns in my vehicle. Theft is a concern and so is having a vehicle breakdown where I need to bring anything valuable with me. A pistol is easy but a rifle not so much.

Besides, as someone who's carried a long gun in a vehicle for a living even the best mounts are relatively slow to get to. Not something you will even attempt if rounds are coming through the windshield. Anything behind the seat or in the trunk forget about it.

Would it be a good thing to have in the OPs scenario? Yes absolutely it would. But the chances of that are extremely low compared to other situations where it would be a negative so until things get worse I'll skip the long gun for now.

 

[bubbaturbo]

I guess I didn't make my points as clearly as I thought I did.
I agree that the chances of needing a rifle are miniscule - but they are not zero. I already said that.
I'm just not sure they're as close to zero as they used to be.
I'm concerned that things have already gotten worse and we don't know it. FBI thinks so.

I don't believe the people I'm concerned about stayed near the border, 500 miles away, if and when they crossed. People have been bused all over the country. I don't know what distance from the border has to do with anything.

Like I said, the chances of needing a rifle for terrorists are probably extremely small, just like they were on October 6th in Israel.
My concerns about similar events occurring somewhere in the US are slight but I am becoming more uncomfortable with thinking it can't happen.
Look at the approval and acclaim the terrorists have gotten.

I don't know if I'll start putting a rifle in my vehicle or not. Theft is a real concern although I'm retired and my circumstances are probably different from many. I am very seldom out at night, for example. Anyhow, just some of my thoughts. Thanks for everybody else's thoughts too.

 

[AlexanderA]

Having the gun stolen from the vehicle would be far more likely (in the U.S.) than having to confront a terrorist.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I grew up in rural southern Iowa and we sometimes had a rifle in the farm pickup and now living in northern Colorado I have given thought to keeping a weapon in my truck (2018 Ford F150 King Ranch) but last spring my wife wanted to stay in the Gaylord Resort near the Denver Airport for a long weekend getaway so we did. Despite my truck being parked in the secure lot and directly in front of a security camera it was broken into sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. Hotel security didn't know it until I reported it to them even though the drivers door was left open about a foot. The vermin emptied the glove box and console well and left the contents scattered around the inside of the cab. Fortunately I did not have any weapons with us in the vehicle. They forced the door handle, apparently Ford doesn't make the electric door locks very secure because there was no other damage. It broke the inner parts of the door handle lock assembly which totaled up to around $1500 dollars which the Gaylord paid for, but that experience made me realize that a locked vehicle is really not all that secure with today's modern auto theft rings. I usually carry a pistol on my person when traveling but I don't think I will ever leave one in a vehicle again.

 

[shafter]

The chances of needing a rifle for a terrorist attack in Israel has always been astronomically higher than here in the US.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I guess I didn't make my points as clearly as I thought I did.
I agree that the chances of needing a rifle are miniscule - but they are not zero. I already said that.
I'm just not sure they're as close to zero as they used to be.
I'm concerned that things have already gotten worse and we don't know it. FBI thinks so.

Of course they've gotten worse.

However, the question is "how worse are they actually?"

People have a habit of making things sound much worse than they are for a variety of reasons, and other people have a habit of accepting what they say with little or no actual understanding.

This isn't a slight against you, it's a statement of human nature.

What this really amounts to is a risk assessment, and to do a risk assessment, you can't go by absolutes...you have to go by comparisons. We don't live in a world of absolutes, so it's futile to judge risks on those terms.

So the question about risk assessments which must be answered is "how does this risk compare with other risks I take in my life?"

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the risk of the average person dying of skin cancer over a 75 year life span where you live is 1 in 10,000. (I don't know what it really is, I just chose the numbers for ease of use.)

Now let's say you have a new job opportunity that pays significantly more and is in a much better area for you and your family. But the statistics for skin cancer deaths in the new area is 100% higher than where you currently live.

Is it worth the risk to take the job and move?

100% greater risk of dying from skin cancer SOUNDS horrible. However, the REALITY is that the actual statistic is only 1 more death out of 10,000 over a 75 year lifespan.

How significant a risk is that, really? It's actually a very small risk increase on its own.

BUT...I said it's in a much better area with a significant pay raise. What if that area has lower violent crime statistics? What if the increase in pay allows you to live in a better house, a better area, better schools for the family, better access to emergency services, better medical benefits, and the job moves you from an industrial work environment to an office environment?

The increased risk of skin cancer could be radically offset by the risk reductions in other areas.


ONLY YOU CAN EVALUATE THE RISKS AND DETERMINE WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU.

I can't do it for you, and not just because I don't know what all the risks involved are. I also don't know what risks YOU find acceptable in your everyday life.

None of us here can do this for you.

The best we can do is maybe comment on some of the risk levels as we understand them...and likely we're still going to do even that in comparison to other risks that we, ourselves, find acceptable in our own lives.


And don't make the mistake of thinking a rifle as a truck gun as the primary means of risk reduction. Whether you have such a truck gun or not, risk reduction is a process that involves many other factors, the most important of which are the skills needed to recognize and avoid violent encounters early enough to prevent such interactions in the first place. It's no different than taking it upon yourself to carry concealed.

 

[Barmcd]

If by truck gun you mean a gun of any kind that resides in your automobile at all times,
View attachment 1182257
I still believe that I'm far more likely to have an unsecured weapon stolen from my vehicle than to need it.

I cannot believe the number of guns that have been stolen from my neighbors unlocked vehicles in the last 5 years. Handguns, laptops, purses and other valuable items just left in an unlocked car overnight.

 

[P Flados]

One of the few "real uses" of a braced pistol AR would be for an under the seat truck gun. With a CC permit this is legal in my state where a rifle would not be. The current mess with the brace rule makes going this direction an iffy proposition, but it is ok for the moment if you are already so equipped.

 

[herrwalther]

Sub2000 folding pistol caliber carbine in bail

I may not be sold on the truck gun. But I would absolutely get a Sub2000 in 10mm. If they made one.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

A "truck gun".

11.5" 5.56 pistol in a small, nondescript rucksack. No need to leave it in the vehicle. Just throw the ruck on.

If braces are outlawed then the brace can be removed and the pistol fired using the cheekweld method. (Note the "pistol" RDO to keep ATF from claiming it's a de facto "SBR".)

 

[P Flados]

FYI, I feel the 5.56 looses too much effectiveness from a short barrel. My pistol builds were assembled a while back so I went with 300 BO. Someone getting into AR pistols now can get an even better short barrel thumper using a 350L while still having decent cost ammo options and retaining full magazine capacities.