Comment from local law enforcement re: thieves, cars, and guns

[Spats McGee]

And in the "for whatever it's worth" category . . . . we've had a rash of break-ins around here in which the thieves broke into state and local police cruisers and stole their ARs.

 

[old lady new shooter]

I don't carry because of the odds. I carry because of the stakes.

+1000

 

[old lady new shooter]

When I was working in the Bronx, many times car windows were broken, to the tune of hundreds of dollars of damage, to steal less than a dollar of visible change. Everything is valuable to a thief, and why would they care about the damage?

While there I personally had prescription sunglasses, change, a radio, and turn signal housings stolen from my car, all on different occasions.

Leave a gun or anything else valuable in a car? Never. Anywhere. If I had a gun stolen from a car it would have been minimum two weeks loss of pay and possible dismissal. Don't feed the anti gun people by adding another stolen gun statistic.

After the third time the front corner lights on my second-to-last car were stolen while the car was in my driveway, I stopped replacing them.

 

[Double_J]

I read an article last month about people stealing rim's and tires from police cruisers parked at the police station. That is why I keep almost nothing of any value in my vehicles anymore, especially not a firearm.

 

[AlexanderA]

The living fearfully and you are more likely to get it stolen than use it are both anti arguments, but maybe AA isn't anti, maybe he just doesn't believe in self defense. Some gun owners are that way, the guns are merely toys to be enjoyed at the range, or maybe hunt with, but never to shoot someone, even in defense of life.

I am neither antigun nor anti self defense. I'm on the "pro" side in both categories.

Routinely carrying a gun is another issue. To the extent it makes you less vigilant (because of overconfidence), it's a detriment. I worked for 30 years at the IRS headquarters in downtown DC. Carrying a gun was out of the question, both because of DC law, and workplace rules. You learn to substitute situational awareness for being armed. (The same applies when overseas.) I find much of this idea of "carrying everywhere" to be unrealistic.

I live in Virginia, but in the border area that abuts DC and Maryland. A carry permit is easy to get in Virginia, but does no good in DC or Maryland. Since my daily routine often takes me to both of those places, it just isn't practical to carry a gun around.

 

[Waveski]

Routinely carrying a gun is another issue. To the extent it makes you less vigilant (because of overconfidence), it's a detriment.

Once again you are being presumptuous. I do not feel overconfident when carrying. I feel do feel the responsibility that comes with that firearm.

You learn to substitute situational awareness for being armed.

No No NO. Maybe that's how your brain works - but not mine. The sense of responsibility heightens my situational awareness , not the opposite as you describe.

Sir , you have every right to leave your firearm at home. Please stop applying your self analysis to the rest of us in an effort to convince us to disarm ourselves in public.

And BTW , I am always uncomfortable on the rare occasion of leaving a gun in my truck. I only do so for very brief periods and in specific situations (ex. : a brief stop at the US Post Office). I never leave a gun locked in the truck for long periods of time , and never overnight. I guess I do not have a truck gun.

 

[Walkalong]

I am neither antigun nor anti self defense. I'm on the "pro" side in both categories.

Routinely carrying a gun is another issue. To the extent it makes you less vigilant (because of overconfidence), it's a detriment. I worked for 30 years at the IRS headquarters in downtown DC. Carrying a gun was out of the question, both because of DC law, and workplace rules. You learn to substitute situational awareness for being armed. (The same applies when overseas.) I find much of this idea of "carrying everywhere" to be unrealistic.

These don't match up at all.

 

[Jack Ryan]

They are trying to pass gun storage reqirements to close the Criminal Gets the Gun loophole. Sadly many gun owners do not exercise good judgement like leaving guns in vehicles for extended periods of time.

The saddest thing is society exercising poor judgement in not keeping criminals in jail doing hard time for extended periods of time and then brushing off their lack of responsible behavior on to the law abiding citizens. Blaming the victims is not the answer. More vigorous enforcement and harsher penalties for criminals is the answer.

 

[Jack Ryan]

For practical reasons they can't keep gun thieaves locked up very long. That is why in this case cooperation from car owners is needed.

Sure they CAN. They just don't want to. If all the criminals were locked up doing hard time, who would commit the crimes they want to blame on law abiding gun owners?

 

[Sypher....]

I understand the principle of leaving vehicles unlocked is cheaper than replacing windows, but with as rampant as id theft is...that's even worse (in my opinion) than having to replace a broken window. I'm more likely to notice a broken window, and take the appropriate action, then see if registration or anything else with identifying information is missing from an unlocked vehicle.

Even though we should be able to leave our vehicles unlocked with the keys in the ignition and not worry about it, unfortunately, it isn't the reality that we live in.

 

[Old Dog]

The saddest thing is society exercising poor judgement in not keeping criminals in jail doing hard time for extended periods of time and then brushing off their lack of responsible behavior on to the law abiding citizens. Blaming the victims is not the answer. More vigorous enforcement and harsher penalties for criminals is the answer.

This is just the thing. Our nanny state has found that it's much easier to hold victims responsible for crimes than the actual perpetrators. [with the exception of the "me-too" movement, which seems to have turned in to a war against men and rather a witch-hunt]

Given the political views of our nation's current leadership, this won't change anytime soon.

 

[BlueHeelerFl]

It does seem like in many criminal cases the gun charge is not pursued by the prosecutor for some reason.

 

[AlexanderA]

These don't match up at all.

Why does being "pro gun" necessarily equal being "pro carry"? The "pro carry" movement is a subset of the gun rights movement. It gets a lot of press these days because carrying -- either through relaxed licensing standards or permitless carry -- is probably the one area in which the gun rights movement has had notable legislative success recently. But the right to own guns is more important. You have to be able to own something before you can carry it. Possession is what is primarily being attacked by the antigunners. And that's what worries me most, considering that I'm mainly a collector.

Furthermore, being able to carry legally (which I'm all for) is an entirely separate issue from whether it's wise to do so. In this thread, we are discussing the wisdom of carrying (in a vehicle or on one's person), not whether it's legal to do so.

 

[Jack Ryan]

This is just the thing. Our nanny state has found that it's much easier to hold victims responsible for crimes than the actual perpetrators. [with the exception of the "me-too" movement, which seems to have turned in to a war against men and rather a witch-hunt]

Given the political views of our nation's current leadership, this won't change anytime soon.

The people of a country will get the government they are willing to accept.

 

[jmace57]

I'm with gunny - I never lock my car doors. I left my car at a auto repair place on a Sunday night (they had a key drop) and parked alongside 4 or 5 other cars. Monday morning and the other 5 had their windows smashed out. Mine had been tossed. I was surprised they didn't even take the 3 or 4 bucks in change and ones in the console. I do have a safe that is under the front passenger seat whose purpose is to hold my EDC when I am going into a no carry area. But the thing is impossible to even see if you don't lay your head down on the back floorboard.

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

Why does being "pro gun" necessarily equal being "pro carry"? The "pro carry" movement is a subset of the gun rights movement. It gets a lot of press these days because carrying -- either through relaxed licensing standards or permitless carry -- is probably the one area in which the gun rights movement has had notable legislative success recently. But the right to own guns is more important. You have to be able to own something before you can carry it. Possession is what is primarily being attacked by the antigunners. And that's what worries me most, considering that I'm mainly a collector.

Furthermore, being able to carry legally (which I'm all for) is an entirely separate issue from whether it's wise to do so. In this thread, we are discussing the wisdom of carrying (in a vehicle or on one's person), not whether it's legal to do so.

How does you liking to collect guns equate to you being pro gun? It doesnt.

Folks like you do nothing but hurt our cause.

 

[Walkalong]

Why does being "pro gun" necessarily equal being "pro carry"?

I did not say that at all, I said those two things don't jive. Don't keep changing the subject.

If you are against carry, you might as well be an anti.Divide and conquer, you'll gladly give up some of our rights because you don't care about them.

Folks like you do nothing but hurt our cause.

Gotta agree.

The question was about storing/not storing guns in cars when we are out and about, and AA turned it into a bash against carrying in general. Nothing new for him thought, always chipping away at it.

 

[herrwalther]

This video was posted by the local PD near me 4 months ago. Not sure if it will work since it is Facebook linked. But anyway, in 37 seconds there were 4 firearms stolen in this video. That should tighten the lower sphincter of any gun owner, whether you leave a firearm in the car or not.

 

[hps1]

Between 2016 and 2018 in San Antonio, there were 3,881 guns stolen from cars either by thieves breaking into them, or stealing the cars that had guns inside, McManus said.

The highest concentration of the gun thefts were at locations along the Interstate 10 corridor between Loop 410 and 1604 on the Northwest Side, he said.

And that's a fact. The Texas State Service Rifle matches were held annually @ Camp Bullis just northwest of Loop 1604 and a motel located on I 10 in that area was always filled with competitors; they welcomed competitors with marquee Welcome TSRA....(more effective than gun stickers on the vehicles).

In 1983 I had parked my wife's new Astro van (with less than 500 miles on it) directly under our room on the 2nd floor when the car alarm sounded @ 0200. The perp had inserted a tire iron between the door and window and pried to break the passenger window quietly.

As mentioned previously, " I never leave a firearm in a vehicle outside overnight" and that worked out very well, as my M1 and my son's M1A were safe in the room. The perp made good his escape and I spent the rest of the night trying to get back to sleep in the van.

The wife was not too happy about her new van, but $350 later to repair door and replace the glass, it was good as new.......almost.

Regards,
hps

 

[entropy]

You learn to substitute situational awareness for being armed.

They're not necessarily mutually exclusive, you do realize that, right?

Since my daily routine often takes me to both of those places, it just isn't practical to carry a gun around.

So because it's inconvenient for you, we all should quit carrying? That's thinking like a Democrat.

 

[Waveski]

Can I buy a couple more likes for the above comment , please?

 

[Riomouse911]

I don’t keep guns unsecured in my vehicles, here it is now a crime for ANYONE to do so if it’s stolen... law enforcement included. I prefer to avoid writing that memo to my Chief... and possibly losing my job and pissing away my 28-year career. If I have to leave a gun in a vehicle because I can’t carry there (a-bar/restaurant, post office, etc) I lock it in a Bulldog Vault.

I did have a “go-backpack” filled with several loaded mini 14 mags and Glock mags I paid for myself stolen out a locked plastic container of the work SUV in my driveway about three years ago. Those I never got back, and yes, writing that memo sucked.

As for the fantasy that one is immune from crime because they live in a well-off area... it’s totally false. I’ve had three cars in my driveway broken into in fifteen years; I live on an acre plus at the top of a hill, on a quiet, nine house cul de sac and the house next door (a bit larger than mine) sold for 980k last year. It’s hardly a crummy neighborhood, yet we still get mopes who traipse through the neighborhood every once in a while who check for cars to break into, try doors on houses, etc. And this location isn’t anywhere close to as glitzy-ritzy as where I used to work in the early 1990s and that city would get its fair share of burglaries as well. (The zip there was 91108, just check the for sale prices on those houses!!!) No one is immune... unless one lives their life inside the vault at Fort Knox.

Sadly, there is always a chance to be ripped off, so making your valuable gun easily stolen by leaving it unsecured overnight in a vehicle is never a good idea... even if it is in your own driveway, far away from the city.

Stay safe!

 

[hps1]

And that's what worries me most, considering that I'm mainly a collector.

And that is what is worrying the rest of us. It is a prime tactic of the anti-gun crowd to divide and conquer gun owners, one facet at a time.

Regards,
hps

 

[AlexanderA]

If you are against carry, you might as well be an anti. Divide and conquer, you'll gladly give up some of our rights because you don't care about them.

Well, there you have it. This means that everybody on the pro-gun side must march in lockstep, and subscribe 100% to the prevailing ideology. I've always liked this forum because (I thought) it tolerates diversity of opinion.

BTW, I'm not against the right to carry. I'm against the routine practice of carry. There are extreme circumstances in which the ability to carry would be useful.

I personally think that gun rights are best protected in the long run if we don't poke the bear too much. Keep a low profile, make sure that guns don't fall into the hands of irresponsible people, and you won't get the masses stirred up against guns. The way things are now, people in general hate arrogant gun owners (such as open carriers) more than they hate the guns themselves. At least that's what I'm seeing around the area where I live (northern Virginia). And yes, this area is going to vote Democrat by huge margins.

 

[entropy]

Well, there you have it. This means that everybody on the pro-gun side must march in lockstep, and subscribe 100% to the prevailing ideology.

Well, no, but Franklin's quote "We must all hang together, or we shall all certainly hang separately" is starting to apply to gun owners, so it would behoove all of us to at least not turn on one another ala Jim Zumbo.

There are extreme circumstances in which the ability to carry would be useful.

The thing is, unless you are omniscient, you don't know when or where those circumstances will arise. This is why most of us that do carry, do so whenever possible.

The way things are now, people in general hate arrogant gun owners (such as open carriers) more than they hate the guns themselves. At least that's what I'm seeing around the area where I live (northern Virginia).

Again, your personal experience/perception. And things are different for MT Militiaman out in MT, Walkalong in AL, Spats down in AR, and me in WI. That's what's great about THR, we can compare notes from around the US, and indeed the World; for things are different for Odd Job in the UK and Snejdarek in the Czech Republic, and other members in other parts of the world.