Whatever happened to axe handles in rifle racks?

[lemaymiami]

One other minor point... like most improvised weapons, there's nothing illegal (in my state, Florida) about having one in your possession... It's what you might do with that instrument that you always need to be aware of - that's what can get you prosecuted (if you survive... a weapon in your hand is an invitation for the other side of the argument to have a weapon in their hands -and things might just go downhill from there...).

 

[pairof44sp]

I have a wooden bat in my truck.

Also have a couple softballs, fielding glove and cleats.
My lawyer will thank me

.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I keep a number of tools in my truck.
Many have more than one possible function.

 

[Armored farmer]

most of that kind of weaponry became obsolete when I got my ccp.
I still have a 16" length of ⅜" log chain in my door pocket just for fun.

 

[Armored farmer]

most of that kind of weaponry became obsolete when I got my ccp.
I still have a 16" length of ⅜" log chain in my door pocket just for fun.

 

[JohnKSa]

The laws have changed now, but for awhile, in TX, both clubs and pistols were illegal weapons. If you were willing to risk getting caught with one, you might as well carry a pistol--the legal penalty was the same. Pistols are easier to hide and more capable.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

The laws have changed now, but for awhile, in TX, both clubs and pistols were illegal weapons. If you were willing to risk getting caught with one, you might as well carry a pistol--the legal penalty was the same. Pistols are easier to hide and more capable.

When I lived in Texas (early 80s) I had two friends who were arrested by the Dallas PD. They had pulled to a convenience store in the middle of the night in a car that fit the description of a car that had robbed the place a few minutes earlier. Spent the night in jail. When they went before the judge with clean records the judge dropped the charges. They were both carrying 1911s with another gun between the seat. I learned not to worry about carrying concealed from that.

as to the original question. In the 70s Kansas passed a law against carrying long guns in a window rack. Many farmers had coyote guns in them. So the racks slowly disappeared. Since then the law was repealed. And there are few standard cab pickups, so most of the long guns needed are in the back seat. And less people carry axe handles or bats with our freedom to carry laws.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I think if some of our members that had gun racks in their back windows, back in the day, were to swing an axe handle in a fight today, they would most likely throw their back out. Getting old is not fun and it hurts when you forget that you’re old.

 

[JohnKSa]

When they went before the judge with clean records the judge dropped the charges. They were both carrying 1911s with another gun between the seat. I learned not to worry about carrying concealed from that.

By the '80s things were changing, but the dirty secret about gun control in the South was that although the laws were on the books, they were selectively enforced.

The dead giveaway as to the target demographic is when those laws were passed. Right after the civil war, when the state legislatures started reconvening, a lot of the Southern states immediately passed a spate of weapons laws. Odd how it wasn't a problem before that, but suddenly it was a priority. The key was that they weren't enforced against "decent white folks"--they were selectively enforced against the freed slaves. Couldn't have them carrying weapons around just because the law said they were free...

To underscore this, in TX, there used to be a traveling exception for carrying handguns. It wasn't actually written in the law, it was based on a court case where (you guessed it) a freedman was caught with a handgun. The judge, in that case, ruled that because he was traveling, he was entitled to carry a handgun. And that was how it was in TX for many years, until the CHL law was passed in 1995. At least that's how it was on the books.

In practice, unless you were obviously up to no good, (or non-white) nobody really cared if you carried a pistol even though it was against the law.

My great-grandfather carried his pistol with him (I have it now--a neat old Colt .38 autopistol) even though the sheriff knew about it. In fact, he even explicitly told the sheriff about it on one occasion. It just wasn't an issue because he wasn't the demographic that the law was enforced against.

This is why I am adamantly opposed to selective enforcement of laws. If a law is on the books, it needs to be enforced against everyone. If that's unacceptable then it needs to be taken off the books. Otherwise it becomes an opportunity to persecute targeted people under the color of law. Selective prosecution is selective persecution.

It's also ironic that in spite of the fact that gun control at the state level in the South had its roots in racism, demographics who should remember that fact and understand the ramifications of it, often don't seem to, and often even actively support the laws that were originally intended to keep them under subjection.

 

[Llew Taranau]

Selective prosecution is selective persecution.

Well put.

 

[CapnMac]

in TX, there used to be a traveling exception for carrying handguns.

It's still in the law, and remains unchanged as of 01SEP21, too.
There were a number of AG opinions issued to try and help define just what "traveling" was over the course of history.
And various interpretations were implemented attempting to sort out 19th century wagon & horse definitions with 20th century operating motor vehicles ones.

 

[JohnKSa]

You're right. At some point the traveling exception was finally put into written law and eventually clarification was added to define traveling. I wonder if it will be dropped eventually now that unlicensed carry has been legalized.

 

[Speedo66]

Forget rifles racks, nobody drove pickups in NYC. Axe handle? That would get you laughed out of any decent “bad” neighborhood.

Ever see the scene in “Marathon Man” where the guy pulls a gun to scare a group of locals and every one of them pulls a gun and points back? That’s more like it. Except for chopping up a body, what are you going to do with an axe in ‘da Bronx?

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

Never knew carrying an axehandle was some kind of thing. It just happened to be what I had at the time.

Same here... what's the big deal. I have one in the wife's car to knock off the salty road "cookies" in Winter before the car is parked in the garage.

Ever see the scene in “Marathon Man” where the guy pulls a gun to scare a group of locals and every one of them pulls a gun and points back?

Yeah, fiction...

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

Ya know what?
After reading this thread I am going to find and put rifle racks in my truck.
I put them in the MN DNR trucks to carry tools (4 foot levels, story poles or whatever).

Just as good as a bumper sticker...

 

[Jack Ryan]

You can't see my rifle rack any more.

When I was growing up, it seemed like everyone had a rifle rack in their pickup with an axe handle in it. Now I never ever see that.

What happened? I know crew cab put a damper on it, but I feel like my culture is disappearing

 

[.308 Norma]

Don't remember seeing axe handles, but I do remember seeing a lot of bubble levels hanging in the rear windows of pickups at construction sites during my working years - I was an electrician in another lifetime.
Edited to add: Not all jobs are in offices where employers can forbid the carrying of "weapons" by employees. As an electrician, on a daily basis I carried and used tools (knives, hammers, pipe wrenches and such) that can be used as "weapons." For that matter, a 3' stick of 3/4" or 1" schedule 40 electrical conduit (especially with a condulet on one end) would probably be every bit as effective as an axe handle in a fight.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Yeah, I think it was more of a "thang" than an effective weapon. Even an axe is a clumsy weapon, unless you train with it on a regular basis. A nice heavy walking stick/staff would be more effective, perhaps less "disturbing" or attention grabbing to the general public. Hey...I still hang a axe in the back window gun rack of my 1973 Power Wagon...although it's mostly my wood-truck. It's there right now. Just a chain from my saw hanging there in this pic. In the small town near where I live, no one, including the police would look twice no matter what I hung on the rack, axe handle, walking stick, axe or rifle, nor would I need to lock the doors.

 

[lemaymiami]

Lots to be said for living away from people, mostly... Although my house is in suburbia - I work in Everglades National Park when I'm guiding - it's roughly 90 miles by 90 miles of wilderness woods and waters... This is the small part I'm most likely to be found in...
https://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/11433.shtml

 

[AlexanderA]

Let's consider the utility of an axe handle as a weapon. It would seem that a baseball bat -- particularly a metal baseball bat -- would make a far better club. You want some weight on the business end. But with an axe handle, you would trade velocity for mass. Given that, it would take considerably more skill to use an axe handle in preference to a baseball bat.

The axe handle is an iconic redneck weapon. This in itself gives it an intimidation factor out of proportion to its actual effectiveness. In fact, in the social context, a group of men brandishing axe handles could be seen as more intimidating than a similar group of men brandishing guns.

 

[MacAR]

I keep an old broken ax handle in the toolbox, but as others have said it's more for whacking wounded possums or shutting really tight wire gates, or occasionally knocking the mud cake out from under the fender wells. Never knew it was a "thing", just something we always did. Always had some type of "club" in the back of the feed truck just in case the bulls got surly at suppertime. I also carry an Estwing Camp Ax back there in case I run up on something that needs cut up. As to carrying long guns, I drive an extended cab truck, so no rifle rack. I just took my old saddle scabbard (sold the horses) and put it on the back of the passenger seat. Keep a short carbine (usually 22lr) in it all the time and can draw it out pretty darn quick should the need arise. And it does occasionally; our groundhogs and raccoons have been know to go on the offensive! I kid, but it's a darn handy way to carry a carbine and have it quick to hand but out of the way.

Mac