Handgun Storage

[Brdl04]

I am a student at a local college and I live in the dorm. I am interested in purchasing my first handgun but school regulations do not allow guns in the dorm room obviously nor on campus in general. What I was planning on doing is leaving it in my car. Would this be a bad thing to do for the finish of the gun? I live in Tampa FL

 

[Calhoun]

This would be a bad thing to do, period. It's WAY too easy to get into a car, and not much harder to steal one. Not to mention, if your car is on campus you are probably not allowed to have it their either.

 

[Firepower!]

I am not a student, not living on the campus, and yet I have not come to a cmprehensive plan on how I should store my handguns. Now that I will have kids, it's even more of a pressing question.

 

[loop]

Buy a gun you can carry in and out without arousing suspicion.
Keep it with you 24/7.
If its in your car when you need it, it is worthless. Its not even a good rock.
Think maybe a .32 or .22 acp. At least then you have a half-dozen good rocks to throw.

 

[ZombiesAhead]

First, move out of the dorms to somewhere where you are legally allowed to protect yourself.

When I went to college and lived in a dorm for a year the university security office let me keep my guns there and I could access them 24 hours a day.

 

[WVMountainBoy]

The colleges here in WV are all non-carry, I go with the get out of the dorms and get an apartment or such. As for storing a weapon in your car, not secure and if its on the campus parking lot, you're still in violation. If you HAVE to do this for whatever reason I recommend getting a stainless weapon and keeping it in the trunk, prefrably in a lock box that you can stash in the spare tire well. (most thugs are after the stereo, items easily accessable, or the airbags and won't look in the trunk much less in the tire well) Its not a great idea, but if you have to do it, might as well do as best as you can. Also, DON'T store it loaded as if you don't have a CCW getting caught with it could have some legal ramifications. WV states that the weapon is to be stored in a seperate compartment of the vehicle than the ammo. For example if you had the gun in the trunk, then the ammo would be in the cabin or vice versa....check your local laws. Also, no cop, none at all, is going to tell you its a good idea to store your weapon permenantly in the car, and plenty of them would get wierded out on a traffic stop finding the lock box stashed with a pistol in it. May not be right, but thats how it is.

 

[Conqueror]

Most universities have provisions for storage of your guns on campus, ie at the campus police station. Look through the handbook for your school's weapons policy.

 

[Steve C]

DITTO what Conqueror wrote.

When I was in college many years ago, they didn't allow firearms in the Dorms either but the campus police had a storage armory for students firearms at their station on campus. You'd check them in and get a claim tag. They where available 24/7 so even if you wanted to leave at 2:00am for a hunt or trip you could get them.

 

[sandwich]

I am a student at a local college and I live in the dorm. I am interested in purchasing my first handgun but school regulations do not allow guns in the dorm room obviously nor on campus in general. What I was planning on doing is leaving it in my car. Would this be a bad thing to do for the finish of the gun? I live in Tampa FL

You can leave it in the car, but that is not the best idea. It's also probably not even allowed, but as long as you don't advertise it, you won't get searched (they get to search your car at any time since it's on their property, how nice eh?). At least that's how I remember it going.

As for leaving it in your room, but that is probably even less secure than your car, and of course against school rules. Rooms get broken into all the time and stuff taken (again, that is my experience).

If it were me, if I felt I needed to, I would keep it on me 24 hours a day, and if I couldn't for whatever reason, I would stash it in the trunk of my car where the spare tire is. But then again, I am kind of the type that says "I pay $13,000 a year to go here, to hell with them" type. If you decide to carry anyway, you wouldn't be the first to do so.

As for the finish, it should be fine as long as it is in a good case. A brown paper bag won't do (and won't look good if you do get caught).

Part of your decision should be about how you feel about the security situation on campus. Can you walk around campus at night and feel totally safe without a gun? For me, the answer was yes. For you, the answer might be different (I had a friend who was threatened by one of the friends of his roommate with a gun for no reason. Luckily for him he was cool about it and just said "My dad is a cop, are you really threatening me?" and they backed off. He went to a different college than I did.)

Part of you decision should be based on "can I accept getting kicked out of school if I am caught" which is what might happen. Part of this of course will depend on how you feel about the safety of your campus, but most of it is about the amount of risk you are willing to take. If you feel threatened, is whatever you pay for in tuition worth more than your life?

I remember once I (as part of a group) was threatened with violence (implied shooting) and wishing I had CCW (I did have a shotgun in the trunk of my car (less than 10 feet away) at the time).

Still, for the vast majority of my time at my university, I never felt threatened in any way, so I never kept a weapon on me. I remember my roommate having a knife on him at all times, plus hating Jews and blacks, and also a part of some Aryan gang. But I oddly never felt threatened by him. I think he wanted me to join his group.

At any rate, the handgun storage issue should be up to you. Do what you think is best. Just remember that ever since that Virginia Tech nut went off, if you are caught with a gun, whether it is in your car or not, you might be in serious trouble.

Good luck and I hope everything works out for you.