Out of sight long gun rack accessible from front seat?

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labnoti

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Edmundo Mireles mentioned in an article he wrote recently published in Gun Digest that in the aftermath of the 1986 Miami shootout, "The FBI also researched, designed, and procured “gun racks” for all these new long weapons. If you look at a standard marked police car, you may see a shotgun rack in between the front seats of the car. It is placed there for faster accessibility. FBI cars are not marked, so you can’t have a shotgun racked in the front seat area without drawing attention to the car. Plus this would mark the car as a target for a break-in to take the weapon. The FBI designed a gun rack that was secure and out of sight yet still accessible to the agents in the front seat."

Can anyone point out how this rack worked or what it looked like?
 
Unless you have pitch black window tint any longuns in the cab of a car or truck are going to be visible to anyone peeking in the windows.

Even then there's the windshield that can be seen through.

Trunk is not visible but in today's climate where one runs the chance of running into a blocked off road due to riots and folks beating on your car the trunk could be breached fairly easily. Theres a video of this very thing happening floating around on the web.


Its for these reasons I've ditched the whole idea of trying to carry a long gun in my vehicle. I will rely on my EDC (not a low capacity pistol) and a couple extra mags to get me home.
 
I can store a long gun behind the rear seats of my truck and have it completely out of sight. If I felt that things were going that far south, I would do so in addition to my EDC. For now, I rely on my EDC, which consists of 29 rounds of .45ACP, to be enough to get me away from a bad situation. IMO, your best weapon when you're in your vehicle IS your vehicle. Get the heck outta there, rather than leaving your vehicle to engage with a rifle.
 
 
I have the one in the OPs video. It doesn't leave much room for my head when installed over my seat back. Plus they ride loose but haven't fallen out yet. I moved it to the back seat area. I have a Jeep tj. It serves its purpose.
 
labnoti said:
Edmundo Mireles mentioned in an article he wrote recently published in Gun Digest that in the aftermath of the 1986 Miami shootout, "The FBI also researched, designed, and procured “gun racks” for all these new long weapons. If you look at a standard marked police car, you may see a shotgun rack in between the front seats of the car. It is placed there for faster accessibility. FBI cars are not marked, so you can’t have a shotgun racked in the front seat area without drawing attention to the car. Plus this would mark the car as a target for a break-in to take the weapon. The FBI designed a gun rack that was secure and out of sight yet still accessible to the agents in the front seat."

Can anyone point out how this rack worked or what it looked like?
Click to expand...

Not hidden, but serve well in hunting vehicles. More selections today, but in 2003, couldn't find a rack to carry two rifles in handy position in my hunting truck so built this Rube Goldberg rack which rests on center console and dash. Held down to console and seats w/bungee cords. Easy in/out as needed yet still secured well for off road use. Added the higher center rest for an AR as an afterthought. 46126960514_84d8333b84_z.jpg 46126966504_631434785b_w.jpg


Adapted a Cabela's floor mount to the TJ and added a saddle scabbard over driver's left shoulder for NEF youth 20 ga. snake gun or short rifles (red arrow).
35946892786_e8a331938f_c.jpg

Regards,
hps
 
I'm not advocating carrying long guns concealed in a vehicle because of any particular condition of the present climate. I just wanted to see what Mireles was writing that the FBI had innovated. While there's no apparent connection to the FBI's project, I would guess that Warhammer's post in #3 must have been closest to how they did it. I agree the Fleetsafety under rear-seat drawer in post #6 also meets the criteria of concealment and access from the front seat, but it would be specific to pickup trucks or lower cars without a transmission/driveline tunnel so I'm more skeptical the FBI project was based on this design since pickup trucks and FWD cars are more of a recent adoption in law enforcement. Mireles was writing about the late 80's or 1990's, and it is apparent that the racks they developed were for routine fitment to many agent's cars, not unique special purpose vehicles, and they would have been fitting MP5, shotguns, and M16's.


Here's one other one I found. I think this would depend on there not being a high transmission tunnel between the front seats, but it could still work with a vehicle that didn't have a tall center console like this 1990 Oldsmobile

FloorMount-5.jpg

2a7ecc35a0b44a86f22e7348b66ce20e.jpg
 
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DocRock said:
There are several models of inside "roof" racks for Jeeps. Not invisible, but certainly low profile. Such as this:

I put one of those in my Jeep. It is not as user friendly as the video makes out, at least for me. I finally modified it by cutting off one side of the holders turning it into a one rifle rack and mounting it as far forward as possible and I haven’t bumped my head on it since. Now I like it. It’s not impossible for a person to look in and see there is a gun in it but they rill have to bend down to do so. Just walking by it’s out of sight[.

I use this to carry a rifle boondocking. A handgun fits nicely between the driver’ seat and console where it’s handy if a defensive need were to arise.
Click to expand...
 
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labnoti said:
I just wanted to see what Mireles was writing that the FBI had innovated. While there's no apparent connection to the FBI's project, I would guess that Warhammer's post in #3 must have been closest to how they did it. I agree the Fleetsafety under rear-seat drawer in post #6 also meets the criteria of concealment and access from the front seat, but it would be specific to pickup trucks or lower cars without a transmission/driveline tunnel so I'm more skeptical the FBI project was based on this design since pickup trucks and FWD cars are more of a recent adoption in law enforcement.

Here's one other one I found. I think this would depend on there not being a high transmission tunnel between the front seats, but it could still work with a vehicle that didn't have a tall center console like this 1990 Oldsmobile
View attachment 935532
Click to expand...
I suspect by "out of sight" this means out of casual view looking at the sedan (presumably) from ground level. Not totally concealed to prevent viewing in all cases. I suspect something on the order of the vertical mount shown in your post #9. Perhaps a box arrangement to conceal the gun (but would make one suspicious of 'why the box?').
Post #3 seems to be limited to rather short weapons and mounts in the front seat, preventing a passenger there.
 
I thought that big console replaced the passenger seat too, but looking at additional photos on the website, the consoles they sell fit between the seats -- obviously not in a Yugo but feds weren't driving Yugos in the 90's.

I agree that Mireles comments in his article suggest that the racks he mentioned simply kept the long guns out of casual view -- something he contrasted with standard marked cruiser shotgun racks.

If you look at the vehicles used by the feds in the 1986 incident, and roll forward from there no more than 10 years, I'm pretty sure they didn't have the bad-ass, black powder-coated, ball-bearing slide, stainless steel latches, super tactical stuff that vendors are offering today, 30 years later. Even Robocop had a Ford Taurus. The bad-ass stuff (some) cops have today make the cars in Demolition Man and Total Recall look little more than ordinary.
 
I was on the street the day that shootout occurred down here in paradise the day that terrible incident occurred - but I was about 25 miles to the north... Like most cops in uniform the patrol vehicles we had during my era (1973 to 1995) mostly had electro-lock vertical shotgun racks secured to the dash between the two front seats. Great for quick access as you exited the vehicle - but in any kind of a car crash downright hazardous.... And don't let anyone kid you that those electro- lock items were nearly as secure as they should be. In the late seventies I parked a marked unit in front of the Dade county courthouse (not the federal building - the one on 12th St...). It was mid morning and I had a court appearance scheduled. During the one to two hours I was in the building a sudden rainstorm, the usual weather pattern down here in south Florida, hit hard for about 20 minutes.... During that brief period two purse snatches occurred between the parking lot and the building - and my patrol car was entered and the shotgun taken from the lock... Yes, my agency did their best to discipline me for the crime.... but that's another story entirely. That shotgun was never recovered to my knowledge and since it was a basic riot configured item there's only one use for it that I know of...

That brings me to my point... From that incident I learned a hard lesson - and the remainder of my career my shotgun remained in the trunk of my vehicle, period. Having a shotgun in the passenger compartment sounds like a great idea - but not to my way of thinking. This is from a guy who always had a shotgun in hand on any call that might even possibly involve weapons -even as I was promoted to sergeant and then lieutenant on a hundred man department... With an electric trunk release that weapon is just as available as you exit the vehicle as when it's stored in the passenger compartment - and you'd better be out of that vehicle on your feet if things are bad....

As long as I'm still kicking I will maintain that your tactics in a critical incident are far, far more important than the actual weapons you have with you... The FBI learned some hard lessons in that regard on that terrible day.... Wish it weren't so.

One last item... during my years all the police vehicles that we had in our fleet started out brand new as the exact same cars that taxi cab companies purchased - all on Florida's state contract.... Simply heavy duty sedans with extra cooling capacity and heavier suspensions. When I started out we weren't very well trained and real life police vehicle chases were terribly dangerous... The biggest improvement as far as vehicles went during my era was the day that the state received word that none of us would have "sovereign immunity" for damages and injuries resulting from vehicle chases... after a decision in civil court that went all the way to our state's supreme court. That forced every department to employ serious restrictions on when and what you could pursue... I'm certain it greatly curtailed the danger to both officers and public from that point forward.... In my era those cars were a far greater danger to the average young officer than any gunfight ever would be...
 
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When I purchased my old '64 IHC crew cab, it had a cheap-looking cover over the front bench seat that included a pocket hanging down in front that ran the width of the seat.
A shotgun or rifle would fit in that pocket - if you didn't mind it swinging forward and banging into the back of your leg during sudden stops.
I tossed the seats and seat covers and replaced them with air-ride buckets out of an old Mack dump truck.
Long guns went on the back seat floor boards after that.
 
I don't know what design the FBI adopted, but back in the late 80's I bought a setup similar to the one described by theotherwaldo. The only differences were that instead of pockets, it had a long fabric tube running from end to end of the bench seat and elastic straps to keep it from swinging forward when you braked hard.

Concealment was excellent, but you could only access the weapon by exiting the vehicle and pulling the gun out of the tube from the side.

It worked great with pump shotguns and lever rifles, pretty well with an SKS, but poorly with an M1A or AR due to the protruding magazines.
 
With that kind of setup simply leave the mag detached and close by... When you draw the weapon - then add the clip... At least that's how I've managed it in the past.... with close fitting sock type cloth covers...
 
Swampman said:
I don't know what design the FBI adopted, but back in the late 80's I bought a setup similar to the one described by theotherwaldo. The only differences were that instead of pockets, it had a long fabric tube running from end to end of the bench seat and elastic straps to keep it from swinging forward when you braked hard.

Concealment was excellent, but you could only access the weapon by exiting the vehicle and pulling the gun out of the tube from the side.

It worked great with pump shotguns and lever rifles, pretty well with an SKS, but poorly with an M1A or AR due to the protruding magazines.
Click to expand...

I remember back when virtually all trucks had bench seats and most were vinyl. The standard seat covers always had that rifle scabbard feature, but I never once used it. Back then, you could have a rifle in a rear window gun rack and not have to worry that it would disappear the moment you turned your back. Sigh, times long past...
 
Homemade using ATV mounts, bar stock and 1 inch box tubing.

E52BD6DE-D19A-40E9-BBED-35EF5EC56D09.jpeg 8092235B-E281-4CCD-9F00-637E4E9BF1C1.jpeg

Had an officer that didn’t notice it until he asked if I had any firearms in the vehicle, I pointed up, with my hands still at 10&2, he bent down and said “Oh!”, as he took a step away from the muzzle.
 
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Some of the widely varied “gun surprises” that I had as a young, then not so young, cop did keep me up for a few nights over the years...

These moments happened in vehicles, on the street, in dwellings, and at times up close and personal. The places that folks stash guns are just about infinitely variable... and can turn a routine day more interesting than I ever wanted. Long retired from that world and want to stay that way...
 
The FBI bought a bunch of Buick Grand Nationals and had them fitted with gun racks. They were basically a stud and plunger setup mounted over the doors, holding a shotgun overhead against the headliner.
 
If things were getting so bad I felt I needed a long gun rack for my car I’d spend the time and effort it took doing the research and installation and put the energy into moving.
 
My pump and an ammo belt ride behind the seat of my regular cab truck along with a S&W SD40VE with extra mags. My wifes Ford Explorer has room under the rear seat for an AR hard case and another SD40VE.
 
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