What do you prefer as a non-carried vehicle weapon?

.308 Norma said:

Some of the folks that respond to these types of threads saying they never leave their EDCs in their vehicles either don't carry all of the time when they're not at home, or they lead completely different lives than my wife and I do. We live 25 miles from town, and whenever we need to go there, we try to get as many things done as possible. A trip to town often involves a stop at the supermarket, the bank, a sporting goods or gun store, the insurance office, a restaurant, and/or a hardware store. However, a trip to town for us sometimes includes a stop at the courthouse, the post office, the doctor's office, or lately the Social Security office - none of which we can carry in. So as much as we don't like doing it, we sometimes have to lock our EDCs in our vehicles.
I don't worry about it all that much though. As I said in my earlier post in this thread, the last time my vehicle was broken into was when I was living in San Diego, and the wanna-be thief was after my 8-track. If you're old enough to remember 8-tracks, you know that was a while ago.

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I think there's a significant portion of the gun carrying population, especially in places like rural/semi rural Idaho (where I live), who don't know that those places are legally off limits to carry. I think there's also a smaller but still fairly significant number of folks, in places like this, who do know but don't care.

Like some of the others here. If I carry its on me. Not in the truck or car.
Just a couple years ago a 5 year old boy near me Shot his self in the face with a gun that was left in the car.
Not a very smart idea.

The OP didn't ask about what gun is the best to leave in your truck. When to take it and making sure you don't leave it is your responsibility.

The truck gun can make sense for some people depending on their situation and lifestyle. I am in a lifestyle where I might decide at any time to zip out to the west desert to look for coyotes. If I have the choice, I would always prefer a long gun. So, if I am separated from my home for an extended period, I would prefer to have the option of grabbing a long gun from my truck. If I am spending a week in some kind of wilderness, I am going to take a long gun. If I am doing a road trip between states with a few stopovers in motels, I won't.

As for which one, these days it is likely to be my SKS or my AR-10 in .243. It makes the most sense to keep a gun I could use on black bears or cougars if necessary.

bearcreek said:

I think there's a significant portion of the gun carrying population, especially in places like rural/semi rural Idaho (where I live), who don't know that those places are legally off limits to carry. I think there's also a smaller but still fairly significant number of folks, in places like this, who do know but don't care.

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Well I'll tell you what, bearcreek - if those "rural/semi rural" Idahoans would try just once to carry a gun into a courthouse, or possibly even a Social Security office, they would quickly find out just how "legally off limits" that is, and I guarantee you they would care after the dust settled.

.308 Norma said:

Well I'll tell you what, bearcreek - if those "rural/semi rural" Idahoans would try just once to carry a gun into a courthouse, or possibly even a Social Security office, they would quickly find out just how "legally off limits" that is, and I guarantee you they would care after the dust settled.

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Could be. That would require a metal detector in those places. Don't know about the Social Security office, but the courthouse here doesn't have one. Mostly though I was talking about places like the Post Office or DMV.

A non-carried vehicle weapon? One of my favorites...


Wait, are you talking about INCONUS? (2004, btw) Never mind.

The question seems to presume that one would have to leave the firearm inside the vehicle after going EVA for whatever business one was conducting. Anyone who'd leave a firearm in one's vehicle just about anywhere these days ... is... well, let's just leave it as being a sub-optimal scenario.

bearcreek said:

That would require a metal detector in those places. Don't know about the Social Security office, but the courthouse here doesn't have one.

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The county courthouse here has a metal detector at the door, as well as an armed guard behind a 2-way mirror that tells you to place all of the metal objects you're carrying "in the tray" so they can examine them. Nevertheless, let me tell you how my wife (who worked in the county courthouse for almost 25 years) accidentally got a large hunting knife past the metal detector and armed guard.
My wife was Administrative Assistant to the County Clerk for a while, and one day she decided to order a few magazines for the visitors to the Clerk's office to read while they were waiting to conduct whatever business they had there. Unfortunately, what my wife failed to notice was that one of the magazines she ordered a subscription to was offering a hunting knife as a bonus for a 2 or 3-year subscription.
Yep, sure enough. A couple of weeks later, a new magazine and a large knife in a box appeared on my wife's desk one morning - right after she herself had had to pass through the metal detector and get past the armed guard at the door just to get into the courthouse so she could go to work.
My wife said she just kind of chuckled about the situation, and she laid the knife on the corner of her desk figuring she'd give it to the head of security (Herman) when he came through on his morning rounds.
After a while Herman came in, and my wife said he didn't even notice the knife on the corner of her desk until she pointed it out to him. Once he saw it though, my wife said his eyes got big around, and he asked, "How in the ^%$^& did you get THAT in here?!?"
So my wife told him, "Easy, I just ordered it through the mail." Then she explained about the magazine subscription.
She said Herman grabbed the knife up, turned, and marched out of her office - probably headed for the mail room.
My wife said she never saw the knife again. But she never did quit teasing Herman about knowing how to smuggle a weapon into the courthouse.

.308 Norma said:

"…She said Herman grabbed the knife up, turned, and marched out of her office - probably headed for the mail room. My wife said she never saw the knife again. But she never did quit teasing Herman about knowing how to smuggle a weapon into the courthouse…"

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Herman should not have stolen the knife from your wife. He should have helped her to get it home.

I used to irritate the bejeebus out of the scanner guys at the county courthouse back in the day, and any cops coming in to testify, as I would walk through with my holstered firearm plainly visible and the machine going BEEP...but I was the armored trucking guy, and as long as I went straight to the office for the deposit and back out, there wasn't anything they could do but scowl.
Today? When I or my wife have to go, one stays outside to babysit any hardware needing to be left in the car, no unattended firearms to steal. Interestingly enough, she forgot the spare mag for her P-10M was in her purse the last time and the scanner guy thought it went off for the phone. She didn't even realize she had gone in and out with it until much later.
I do carry wherever I go except work, and we have a very secure firearms storage for staff at the entrance, remotely operated cage with locked boxes and armed security staff a few feet away.
I don't have to go to the SSI office just yet, so that's not a concern I have to deal with yet...yet.
A firearm in the car that I am not carrying? Well, when we went to the range Saturday, my wife held my Thomson Center Renegade 54 caliber muzzle loading rifle between her knees, and the kid and his guns were in the back seat, and I didn't want to lay the bare rifle, (gave the kid my spare rifle case), on the floor in the trunk. I am certain any police officer stopping us would have had a good chuckle out of that - this IS Arizona, after all.

ClicheBro said:

What do you prefer to have your car for a weapon?

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I will actually answer your question. I keep a Mossberg Shockwave in my trunk at all times.

Robert said:

I live in the city. I don't leave anything in my truck. I carry on my person everywhere I go.

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I live rural and subcribe to the same.

Well my truck is a $500 rust bucket with doors that don't lock. Only a desperate lunatic would break into that apparent hunk o junk but even still I don't leave any of my guns in there. I used to keep a golf club behind the seat, a putter with a lead head.

I am too chicken to leave my favorite general purpose rifle in my pickup. I'm afraid it would get robbed since I never lock it up. I do, however have a cased GSG 1911 22lr in the lower console. I USUALLY have my ccw on me, but not always.

I'm another that doesn't leave a gun in my truck.

I don't leave firearms in my vehicles. I do like a 4 D cell Maglight for expediencies.

12ga pump I bought at a flea market.

Remember when we all had gun racks in the back window? Even in the school parking lot? I miss those days!

As a non carry weapon in my car, truck or motorcycle, I sometimes take one of my larger framed Glocks and an extra mag or two. This is in addition to my carry gun unless I am going somewhere that I shouldn’t have a carry gun.
The “vehicle gun” does not stay in the vehicle overnight when I get home.

Years ago I carried a pistol gripped, loaded Mossberg 500 with a 25 round bandoleer of shells. It was locked up in a securely attached steel box and hidden and it stayed in the vehicle. Then I moved to North Carolina and one of my coworkers had an AR stolen that was similarly stowed. These guys showed up with Sawz-Alls and tools. They got everyone along his rural road and they hit his AR. I stopped leaving a gun locked on my vehicle at that point.

A Lewis Gun on a Scarff ring around the sun roof.
Otherwise, a holster or pocket gun, no gun or other valuable left parked.

I drive a convertible and leave the top down everywhere unless its raining; a "non-carried vehicle weapon" is a nope for me.

e rex said:

Remember when we all had gun racks in the back window? Even in the school parking lot? I miss those days!

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I very well remember. And, you never had to worry about it getting stolen. It just wasn't done. I remember the first time a fellow hunter told me his gun got stolen when he went into the store to get a cup of coffee.
Have we come a long ways or what.

i only need a car-trunk firearm when traveling to some states where an ccw handgun is no-go. in these instances it is a marlin papoose 22lr semiauto rifle, unloaded, broken down and secured in a nondescript gym bag. seven round mags and being rimfire are keys to its acceptability. it isn’t left in the car overnight.

otherwise tools for dealing with an emergency, i.e. a small crow-bar next to my car seat, and a camping knife, entrenching tool and hatchet in the trunk, are always present.

be careful of dangerous weapons laws that make a concealed knife of certain types or lengths unlawful, and game laws that prohibit loaded long guns in motor vehicles. i regularly check: https://www.handgunlaw.us/documents/USRVCarCarry-1.pdf

ccw permits, even in constitutional carry states, are highly useful.

I appreciate being reminded that burglary of one's vehicles is far more likely than a car-jacking. So, I'll say that depending on circumstance and if I felt the need to have a SD weapon other than my carry pistol, I would opt for something like a CMMG Banshee or a SBR (short-barreled rifle) with some extra mags. God help us if that need ever arises, but it can happen....just watch the news.

ClicheBro said:

Thank you.

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You have to be very specific in your OP with questions like these by politely suggesting that those who don't believe "truck guns" not participate, else you will primarily get post from people who the question wasn't directed towards or applied to.