Common Sense Question ?

Status
Not open for further replies.
@RPZ - I’d be happy to learn a truthfully logical situation which is MORE LIKELY than having your “truck gun” stolen from your vehicle in which the long gun can legally and responsibly be employed. We did this in a thread a couple months ago, and I have been taking part in this type of discussion for over 20yrs, I have yet to hear any truthful evidence there is a present, realistic need for a vehicle stored long gun as supplement to a carry weapon.

That said, being a person who has had a vehicle stored defensive weapon for over 25yrs in some of my vehicles, as my personal paradigm HAS involved opportunities to fend off predators on a regular basis... but I would LOVE to hear new light on a REAL application for two legged predator prevention with a vehicle stored long gun.
 
Varminterror said:
@RPZ - I’d be happy to learn a truthfully logical situation which is MORE LIKELY than having your “truck gun” stolen from your vehicle in which the long gun can legally and responsibly be employed. We did this in a thread a couple months ago, and I have been taking part in this type of discussion for over 20yrs, I have yet to hear any truthful evidence there is a present, realistic need for a vehicle stored long gun as supplement to a carry weapon.

That said, being a person who has had a vehicle stored defensive weapon for over 25yrs in some of my vehicles, as my personal paradigm HAS involved opportunities to fend off predators on a regular basis... but I would LOVE to hear new light on a REAL application for two legged predator prevention with a vehicle stored long gun.
Click to expand...
Needs are subjective. I know of two people who do. They don't store their guns in their car/truck, they place them in there going out, and throw them back in the house when they get home. Neither carry a handgun. One lives in a very rural area, one right here in the big city. One a shotgun whose experience I described in a previous post. The other an AR propped up in the passenger footwell (covered up elsewhere when not in the vehicle).

The whole world is not you, and what you think, or think you know.
 
Last edited:
Yup... still looking for anything more than “what if a dragon came flying out of the sky while I was driving in a hurricane...”
 
I'm still trying to figure out the point of this thread. It's a generic "What's your EDC ?" thread with the rifle quote thrown in.

I carry a Glock19 and I never even considered keeping a rifle in my car because the odds are far greater that it would get stolen than that I would ever have cause to use it.
 
Tommygunn said:
I alway thought the line about fighting the way to a rifle was "tongue-in-cheek" anyway ....really to emphasize that rifles are usually more powerful and more accurate.
Click to expand...

Yeah, me too. And I personally don't carry a rifle in my truck anyway unless I'm going hunting or target shooting. I know a few people around here that do carry rifles in their trucks. But those folks are farmers/ranchers, and the rifles they carry in their trucks are mostly there in case they spot a coyote looking for an easy meal of young angus.

However, I do carry a little 32 H&R Magnum revolver when I’m working outside around the place. We’re not that far off a major north/south interstate highway, and I’m always mindful of the fact that there’s a lot of riff-raff traveling up and down that highway, day and night. However, I never did figure how anyone could seriously believe I should go back outside, armed with a rifle, after “fighting my way” back to the house if I ever did have to defend myself with a handgun from some riff-raff that hopped the highway fence and came onto our property looking for trouble.

No, if I ever have to “fight my way” back to the house, I’m going to lock the door behind me and yell at my wife to call 911 as I’m grabbing the 12 gauge from the hall closet. But I’m sure as heck not going back outside. I’ll wait until things to settle down after the cops arrive, and hopefully arrest or shoot the bad guy. That’s their job. Besides, if I went back outside to shoot the bad guy once I was better armed, wouldn’t that make me the bad guy?

BTW, my little Taurus 32 H&R is not my “go to town” carry gun. Both my wife and I have better (and bigger) guns for that. But the little 32 H&R revolver that I wear tucked behind my hip when I’m working outside doesn’t get in my way, it’s dependable even when it gets dirty (within reason), it was relatively inexpensive, and it’s stainless so it doesn’t require quite as much care.
 
I would like to live somewhere where keeping a long gun in the car made sense. To me, that place would be rural, and the long gun would be there primarily for opportunity shots on varmints rather than self-defense.
 
Didn’t read all the replies yet, but I carry a Glock 17 or 17L daily, IWB year round and have every confidence in either, and also with my abilities with them. I don’t envision “fighting my way to a rifle” so the Glock will have to do everything that I may encounter.

“Given that a pistol is not a primary weapon, how much pistol is enough?”

Well, given that all I carry is a pistol that I have the utmost faith in, and it’s ability to deliver rounds of sufficient power and quantity where I want them, as well as the odds that I will never need to use it in that capacity, I’m happy with what I carry.
 
My OCD doesn't let me leave a gun in a vehicle all night and my evaluation of risk vs pain in the rear precludes dragging on in/out every day (this is subject to change if necessary) so my primary defensive weapon is always the duty sized pistol I carry daily (Glock 17, 19X, 1911, 229 depending on what I'm training with primarily).

My primary HD gun is also a pistol because in the event that someone enters my home my #1 priority is getting the kids to safety and I'll need a free arm for that. I'm a far better one handed shot with a pistol over a carbine (or AR pistol) and shotgun

I do keep a .300 BLK carbine ready with loaded mags near in the safe for the zombie apocalypse or whatever.
 
I have lived in life circumstances that justified a regular truck gun. But I don't right now. A couple of months ago, my Tundra got broken into in my driveway. They took a Camelbak and an ancient iPod. All I thought was; "It's a good thing I didn't leave a gun in there." I live on the edge of the desert, but most of my commuting is into a city and onto military posts. Maybe when I retire.

A rifle is superior. There is no fight for which I would choose a pistol over a rifle. Pistols are inferior for stopping a fight. If I ever have a chance to CHOOSE which one I am going to grab, it will always be a rifle. But the likelihood of having one close when something bad happens is pretty small. If I have to fight my way back to the rifle, I will be glad to have it. But the odds the fight will last that long are also pretty small.

This isn't to say there is no point to training to fight with a long gun. If we worked based on the odds, we wouldn't carry at all. Remote does not equal impossible. And if it is inside my house, there is a much higher likelihood that my rifle is close enough to grab.
 
Varminterror said:
Yup... still looking for anything more than “what if a dragon came flying out of the sky while I was driving in a hurricane...”
Click to expand...

We completed our active shooter training at work a while back. I'm pretty sure, in talking with other people that there are a few managers, that out of a sense of duty or responsibility to their teams would run out into the parking lot and grab a rifle. Assuming they even have a rifle in their vehicle. I have no idea about that. I'm not saying it.s a good idea or that I agree, but their are some people.
 
My EDC is a LW Commander sized 1911 in .45 ACP. I load with 230 gr lead hollow points. I just received a Lyman Devastator mould for the .45 ACP. That's a 185 gr hollow point. I look forward to working with that bullet.
 
I have to agree with the folks that say as a civilian there is very few situations that would require you to fight your way to your rifle. I myself take it more as a tongue in cheek like others have said. One would thing you probably more likely to have a long gun stolen from your vehicle than the chance of you using it.

I think one would be much more likely to get themselves in trouble with a gun stashed in the vehicle than they would just carrying a handgun. It takes ONE bad decision to go from the victim to an aggressor, and as far as most situations go (of course it's not ALWAYS the case) if you had the opportunity to get to your car to retrieve that long gun, you probably should have just got in the driver's seat and taken off. Yes RPZ's friends situation with the shotgun is an example supporting the contrary, but if the same situation occurred and the fella drew a handgun he probably would have achieved the same results.

This is one reason I'm comfortable carrying a 5 shot sp101 with +p 38's and a reload. I feel like it's enough gun for any bad situation I may face. I don't plan on being a hero,that's what what law enforcement is for. My goal is to get loved ones and myself out of the bad situation and leave it to the professionals. And if I find myself in a situation in which my carry gun isn't enough, (I'm not getting into mass shootings here that always spirals out of control) than I probably did something really stupid and I'm probably going to prove darwin right.
 
BigDog1955 said:
There is an old story about a Texas Ranger. He was attending a social event with his family, wearing his issue sidearm. A woman approached the Ranger and said “I see you are wearing a pistol, are you expecting trouble?” The Ranger replied politely, “Why no ma’am, if I was expecting trouble, I would have brought a rifle.”
Pistols aren’t what you bring to a fight, they are what you have when you don’t expect a fight. They are designed to keep you alive long enough to get to a rifle. They make it easier to “have a gun.”
Given that the pistol is not a primary weapon, how much pistol is enough?
The S&W M&P Shield 9mm is my life saver what is yours? ;)
Click to expand...

Texas Rangers have normally carried personally-owned weapons, so I tend to doubt the word-for-word accuracy of the story. Being a retired Texas peace officer, however, I see the story as an accurate-enough parable. If I detect actual or potential trouble, I would prefer to have a long gun, or, if practicable. move toward a long gun. At the moment, that would be my Benelli M2.

How much pistol is enough? Well, any pistol is enough, until it is not.

What is my “life saver” pistol? Well, I have several, mostly .38 Special S&W snub-guns, and .357 Rugers. Revolving pistols are not obsolete; I “saved” myself and others from harm with a GP100; the one Federal 125-grain .357 bullet was quite decisive, so it was devastatingly “enough.” That is my old story, if June 1993 is old enough.
 
I scanned through the thread here, and have yet to find anyone stating they'd grab a rifle out of the vehicle and reengage. Now if the fight was following you, and you had time to grab the rifle...that's another subject.

Clint Smith coined the phrase about using the pistol to fight to your rifle. I too was a bit confused with his statement, being that firearm confrontations are mostly unexpected, very short....which means you fight with what you brung...that being a pistol for easy portable carry. Having a rifle slung in public brings up many other problems...again, for a different time.

When Clint came to our LE conference some years ago, I had a chance to rib him about it. Since introducing his Urban Rifle idea, that being using a rifle at pistol distances, and a rifle being much more effective...if the chance presents itself, grab the rifle and finish the fight. If the threat is still present...I don't think anyone will argue with that.

Could there ever be a time when that could happen? The odds are, most likely no...active shooter? Possibly. A fight starts outside of your home and you get inside and the perps are trying to break in to get at you...or follow you home. Possibly. But to dig a deep line in the sand and state absolutely no...there's that box rearing its ugly head again.

Yes, probably have a greater chance of green gorillas parachuting onto your front yard...but I still believe dragging that small box into the woods, setting it on fire, collecting the insurance money and using it for ammo and training is a better idea.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RPZ
Wichaka said:
A fight starts outside of your home and you get inside and the perps are trying to break in to get at you...or follow you home. Possibly. But to dig a deep line in the sand and state absolutely no...there's that box rearing its ugly head again.
Click to expand...
No "deep line in the sand" from me Wichaka.
The following is what I said in my first post in this thread:
.308 Norma said:
No, if I ever have to “fight my way” back to the house, I’m going to lock the door behind me and yell at my wife to call 911 as I’m grabbing the 12 gauge from the hall closet.
Click to expand...
The only line I drew in the sand was I said I sure as heck wasn't going back outside until the cops arrived and things settled down.
Of course if the "perps" were trying to "break in to get at" me, I'd bring the 12 gauge into play. Anything else would be irresponsible.

Edited to spell Wichaka's user name correctly.
 
Last edited:
The line in the sand wasn't directed at anyone specific...just pointing out the lack of possibilities that some think will never occur.

We have to fight that which is dealt us, not what we trained for.

If went with the law of averages, we wouldn't pack a spare tire either. There was a saying about averages I ran across years ago...take a bucket of ice water, and a bucket of boiling water, put a foot in each. You're feeling miserable, BUT on the average, you're comfortable.

wichaka...pronounced wee-chalk-uh. Shoshone / Sioux word meaning trusted loyal friend.
 
ATLDave said:
From the OP: "They are designed to keep you alive long enough to get to a rifle. "

And then my reply: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/common-sense-question.838058/reply&quote=10859044 Which was where the difference between the validity of the notion that a handgun is "for" fighting your way back to the rifle between soldiers, cops, and civilians came in.



OK, now we're on the same page.
Click to expand...

Actually, you're on page 2 and he was on page 1 of this thread ...


Sorry


Couldn't resist :)


Anyways I agree, it's highly unlikely you will be 'fighting your way back' to your rifle stored in your vehicle. And "yes, your honor, as to WHY I had a rifle stored in my vehicle well, no, it was not premeditated" ... and then they locked me up :(
 
SharpDog said:
Anyways I agree, it's highly unlikely you will be 'fighting your way back' to your rifle stored in your vehicle. And "yes, your honor, as to WHY I had a rifle stored in my vehicle well, no, it was not premeditated" ... and then they locked me up :(
Click to expand...

Your honor, it was in my car since the last time I went to the range etc...
 
General Life Rule Number 47:
Carry the largest handgun you can conceal in the largest caliber you can comfortably shoot.
Period. Full stop.
Those two factors (comfort and concealment) will vary with the individual. But follow the principle.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

B
  • Locked
Worth Reading
Replies
4
Views
516
HadEmAll
H
S
  • Locked
Gun Humor
2
Replies
36
Views
3K
scbair
S
R
  • Locked
Something to share!
Replies
4
Views
668
Dksimon
D
Milkmaster
  • Locked
Gun Wisdom (oldies but goodies)
Replies
12
Views
1K
mojohand
M
T
  • Locked
John Steinbeck once said:
Replies
12
Views
7K
Justin
Justin
Back
Top