Specific reasons some people keep handguns in cars?

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I am fortunate that I do not have to worry about work rules and carrying a gun. The only time I leave a gun in my vehicle is when going into a government building and then it is locked in a gun safe. I teach my children and grandchildren to be responsible gun owners and if they have to leave a gun behind at least lock the gun and lock the vehicle.
 
Sometimes I'll have to stop for gas, and the stations near my route have issues with transients.
This is why my wife and I always fill up at home in the daylight and we don't allow our vehicles to get below a half tank. Planning ahead can risk levels down.
 
My brother-in-law was waiting at a stop light in Tulsa in his rag top jeep when a guy came up to his door and started trying to cut through the plastic window to get to him. He drove away and everything was fine, but it kind of made me leary to go anywhere without a gun, especially if I was going up to a bigger city.(I know that Tulsa isn't as big as a lot of other cities, but it's a lot bigger than what I'm used to)
 
I don't -keep- one in the car, but often when I travel in my car I put one in there because my normal "carry" is right front pocket, and that doesn't work real well when seated with a seat belt on. In my case, I have a holster rigged up on the lower front of the drivers seat so it ends up between my legs. Black towel om my seat draped over it makes it invisible ... but I -can- get to it if need be.
 
I have my doubts as to whether or not the OP was referring to storing a gun in a car, or merely possessing one while in the car himself.

I submitted a response early in the thread, but will offer another.

During my once-a-week pizza delivery gig, I do indeed have a gun in my truck that is not on my person (another one is on my person.) That is for "rush-up" approaches that may occur while I am within the truck. My truck cannot outrun any modern firearm bullet, and my pocket-carried gun cannot be easily drawn from a seated position.

When I get home, both guns come in with me.

Generally, though, I do not have any guns in my vehicle otherwise other than whatever is on my person.
 
This is why my wife and I always fill up at home in the daylight and we don't allow our vehicles to get below a half tank. Planning ahead can risk levels down.

I wish I could fill up at home, but it's not worth the expense or paperwork to install a pump.

It's often dark when I arrive at work, and dark again when I leave. I fill up at least twice a week, and don't feel the need to live in fear - I just walk softly, am aware of my environment, and carry the means to deal with those issues that may arise - so I plan ahead, too. I just plan differently than you.
 
I wish I could fill up at home, but it's not worth the expense or paperwork to install a pump.
Haha! Yeah that could be costly. I should have worded that better. My wife and I fill up our cars in our HOMETOWN not at our home... Sorry for the misinformation.
 
You did pick a couple of pretty far out possibilities. People have guns in cars for protection from thieves/muggers/etc, etc. To say they do it for the chance to kill for ISIS is a bit out there.

Whether they should leave a weapon in a car unattended at times is a healthy debate worth having, but to say they can only be doing it for those far out reasons is a bit much.
I dunno, I keep a pistol on my person, but when the scuttlebutt came around that ISIS was popping up in texas, I started leaving my vz58 with 150 rds in the truck :)... You know.. Just in case...

Anyhow, I know the OP originally said handguns. So i may be veering off path here. But I know a lot of country folks who keep a "truck gun", This is usually something like a .22 rifle, Lever gun, or shotgun.
 
Originally Posted by jmr40
the thief circled through the woods and surprised Jerry waiting in his truck and killed him with his own gun taken from the house.
Is anyone but me still trying to figure out how having a gun in his truck would have done Jerry any good at all?

Seems to me that being aware of his surroundings would have been MUCH more helpful.

Jerry is dead and only one person really knows what happened and he ain't talking per his lawyers advice. No one really knows if he was shot assassination style, or if the killer confronted him first.

Situational awareness certainly could have helped, but having a gun in the truck with him would have certainly given him a chance.
 
Well, so much stuff is kept in my Toyota Camry that it never has passengers.
I know nothing about what types of gun boxes are available, but will check Google. That will remain my car gun, and it barely fits into the center console. No more extra room in there.

In order to securely store my Sig 232 there, how quickly can it be grabbed from Inside a front seat's/front floor's secure container? That immediate need seems to create a contradiction with the word 'secure'.
 
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I have a flat lockbox under the seat where I can store a handgun if I ever need to leave it in the car. It has a cable that secures it to the seat frame.

It wouldn't stop a determined thief for long, but it will slow down the smash-and-grab guy -- plus it's out of sight, so the thief would have to be looking for it. My assumption is that they go for the glovebox and console and aren't going to be crawling around looking under the seats. I could be wrong.

If I'm in the car, the gun is either on me or in an easily accessible compartment in the dashboard.
 
i keep a gun in my truck. mostly to shoot grouse/squirrels/turkeys/coyotes/anything else i might see while coming up my 1+ mile long driveway. i carry an m&p40 but its not so great for getting game.
 
I think having the gun stolen out my car would be significantly more likely than ever using it for self defense. I've never had to use a gun while in my car. I have been the victim of a couple of car burglaries. I see way more car burglaries than self defense shootings in cars.

Lastly I carry a gun so no real need for a separate car gun.
 
I leave a handgun in my car or truck when I go into places that I cannot legally carry. I carry at ~4:00 IWB so drawing while seatbelted is not super easy and cannot be done discretely. For that reason I sometimes have a second handgun in the center console, typically on road trips, and anytime I'm meeting someone for a Craigslist deal. Any time I leave the vehicle while a handgun is inside it goes under the passenger's seat from behind. Both of my vehicles are two doors and have high end paging alarm systems. While I don't particularly want to lose a handgun (or two) to theft from my vehicle I'm not willing to put my carry gun in a lock box that will slow down my access if I need that gun as I return to the vehicle. The blinking blue light in the dash tells potential thieves to move on to another vehicle that's easier pickins. If I were ever to return to my vehicle when a gun was left inside and my alarm had been tripped I would call 911 and wait for a cop to arrive before approaching. State law here says a handgun left in a vehicle must be out of sight and the vehicle must be securely locked. I never walk away from one of my vehicles without setting the alarm, which also locks all the doors and rolls up the windows.
 
As I said I do not have gun specifically for the car or truck but I have talked to 2 friends working in ND and they both carry a Bond Arms in a driving holster + their regular EDC. From what I am told it gets rough out there some times.
 
I think having the gun stolen out my house would be significantly more likely than ever using it for self defense. I've never had to use a gun while in my house. I have been the victim of a couple of home burglaries. I see way more home burglaries than self defense shootings in homes.

Now who does that sound like?
 
mr.510:
If people sometimes keep a second handgun in a center console or under a seat (in a fixed holster?), do they condition themselves to react correctly if they noticed somebody sneaking up to their car in the dark etc?

Decades ago a former coworker was at a red light by a hospital a few miles from downtown Memphis, late at night.
A 'dude' walked near his car from about 10 o'clock asking him a question, but Danny (somehow) noticed-in the Rear view mirror!- that stranger's accomplice crouching low as he went behind his car to the Other side.

Danny held his revolver up so both guys could see it, and both guys decided to quickly leave the intersection.
 
My daily commute is 70 miles round trip through a variety of surroundings. I work in a non-permissive workplace. A pistol (brand/model/caliber not gratuitously mentioned here) stays in my console. I take it in the house when I get home.
 
I can't carry at work. (a hospital), so i leave it in the car. The parking area is on camera. I hope my car is never broken into. But I have 2 different low end carry work guns. Both work flawlessly, and are taken to range and used just to make sure no issues.
My higher end carry guns are worn when not going to work and never left in car.
I have been at same hospital for 4 years now and am surprised at how many do the same.
 
If people sometimes keep a second handgun in a center console or under a seat (in a fixed holster?), do they condition themselves to react correctly if they noticed somebody sneaking up to their car in the dark etc?
Last year I went through a force-on-force class using Airsoft pistols. One scenario involved us pulling up to a stop sign in our vehicles while a pedestrian crossed the road in front of us. When the pedestrian turned out to be a car jacker no one was able to get to their firearm and return fire before they were hit. It was an eye opening exercise. Only two of us "survived" or escaped taking hits. One simply hit the gas and sped around the corner. When it was my turn I pretended to comply and instead of putting my truck in park as instructed I stopped at "R" for reverse and punched the gas while simultaneously ducking. Truly showed how hard it is to defend yourself from inside a vehicle. Awareness wins every time.
 
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There are some places in Illinois that are restricted from carrying a loaded firearm but are not restricted from transporting an unloaded firearm in an enclosed case. So if a person wanted to keep a firearm with them and they only had a single firearm, they would have to unload and clear their firearm and put it in a pack or a case, and then re-load their firearm when they returned to their car or went to places where they are allowed to carry. An easier solution in my mind is just to keep the loaded gun in the vehicle and have a second unloaded firearm in a pack.

I have a Rohrbaugh R9 that stays in my pocket most of the time, except when I go to those places that prohibit carrying a loaded gun.

I wouldn't want to try to deploy that from my pocket while sitting belted into my car seat, I don't really want to be taking it out of my pocket and putting in in a mounted car holster and then re-pocketing it either. It is easier to have a second gun that just goes from the dash holster to the safe and back.
 
"One scenario involved us pulling up to a stop sign in our vehicles while a pedestrian crossed the road in front of us. When the pedestrian turned out to be a car jacker no one was able to get to their firearm and return fire before they were hit."


^^ Take this from someone who worked in Central America back in the early 80's and who had people who actively wanted to kill folks like me in areas where vehicular ambushes using cars or motorcycles was the preferred method.

In the above scenario, your vehicle is your defensive weapon and your accellerator is the trigger. Anyone putting a vehicle in "park" at a stoplight is dumb enough that they ought to lose the fight to start with, just to end their gene pool from being passed on to other unfortunates. Take a class in executive protection driving sometime if you can, and learn how to use one car to shove another out of the way, how to avoid being blocked in, and how to deal with these situations other ways and you'll very quickly learn that "leaving" is the key to success, not shooting. Drive a substantial vehicle, know when to keep the windows up and when to roll them down (hint: it's damned hard with any handgun or even with a 5.56 rifle to penetrate a car door and then the glass behind it, and then an interior panel and cause harm to someone hiding behind a door with the window rolled down, never mind your ability to return fire), and 100 other tips for not being the guy shot in the head at the redlight.


And yes, you need your defensive handgun someplace where you can access it quickly. Like tucked under your leg.....


Willie

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Wow, race riots and a ISIS attack? I don't see the point in storing a gun in the car other than when you have to temporarily go into a place where firearms are forbidden, e.g., schools, court, work, church, etc.

Otherwise, what's the point of keeping it in there when you are not there?
 
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