Shooting in a vehicle

Status
Not open for further replies.
So, i am a long armed fellow and i don't think i would have any chance of engaging an attacker in my passenger seat with my right hand without taking a contact shot, which places the gun in an easily reached position for the target.

Fortunately, i don't picture i will ever have someone in my passenger seat needing to be shot.
 
Well, i can count on two hands the people who have ridden in the passenger seat of my car in the last year. Doesn't happen often, always someone I know well, and all my friends are smaller than me. :)
 
Here's a real life incident to ponder that made all my bells go off... As a young cop on patrol back in the stone age (long before computers in patrol cars) I always rode the street with my driver's window down and never had any other radio on other than my work radio (amazing the things you can hear late at night -if you listen....). I was approached by a really rough looking guy on my passenger side while stopped and motioned him around to the driver's side as I un-clipped my seat belt and got ready to exit the vehicle... Imagine how startled I was when he opened my passenger door and got into the patrol car with me... I had left that door un-locked and hadn't noticed it....

Things worked out okay but the car smelled bad for a few hours. Once he exited the car and I finally calmed down (riding late at night in bad places will keep all your senses sharp as a razor...) I made a vow never to allow myself to be that vulnerable ever again (and mostly kept it -but we all make mistakes every day....).

Just because you never intend to have someone in your car that might be a serious problem doesn't mean that it can't happen. That's why it's probably a good idea to consider in advance just how you'll deal with it if necessary some day... Like I said in my first post -any possible confrontation inside a car is to be avoided if at all possible. You might want to think about just how you'd get the problem outside of the car before the party starts whether you have a sidearm with you or not...
 
Slamming on the brakes as hard as I could is the way that I would have gone. He would have had a hard time doing anything once he hit the windshield.

You also need to think about your carry position. I am a cross draw person and I am right handed but I double or triple carry. I have a custom pocket sewed into my coats on the left side. One gun resides in this custom pocket...the other IWB. Either is accessable to my weaker left hand draw.
 
lemaymiami said:
H... Imagine how startled I was when he opened my passenger door and got into the patrol car with me... I had left that door un-locked and hadn't noticed it....
Click to expand...

That sounds like a more likely scenario for my life. Very different option at that point (stationary vehicle) than the OP. Escape is easier, non gun option (speed/control of car) not an option.
 
When you start an altercation sitting down with no room to move in a vehicle against someone with a blade, it won't end well for you.

Which brings me to my next question... Why aren't you carrying a knife?

There are better instruments to fight with than guns, in the confines of an automobile.
 
Which brings me to my next question... Why aren't you carrying a knife?
Click to expand...

Actually, I was carrying two of them, a 5" hunting knife in a belt sheath and a 3.5" folder in a pocket. The way the situation unfolded, I wasn't actually thinking at the time that I needed to use or brandish a weapon, but rather it occurred to me afterwards that I could not have accessed my pistol had I wanted to.

Whether I had needed to use a knife, a pistol, or fists, the fact that I was doing 65 mph in hilly terrain would have made it difficult to impossible. I agree with many here that stopping would have been my best course of action. It did occur to me at the time, but ended up being not necessary.

In this case, I diffused the situation by asking him if he was really threatening to kill me in a manner that indicated I wasn't going to take that kind of talk lying down. I think a combination of that and the fact that I probably weigh roughly 100 lbs more than the guy worked in my favor. I'm not at all saying that bigger guys will win in a fight. I used to wrestle in high school and routinely lost in practice to people much smaller than me, but I feel like I would have won against this guy (sans weapons).
 
Last edited:
If the car is moving, you have limited options. One of them is slowing to a (more or less) survivable speed (35mph or so) and ramming a tree or building. Even with a seatbelt a much faster impact than that can risk an aortic separation and sudden death. (Heart and aorta stop at different speeds due to mass, one rips off the other... it's more or less instantly fatal).

If you can unclick their seatbelt on the way to the sudden stop, even better. :)
 
he was under indictment for felony aggravated assault and 3 associated misdemeanors at the time
Click to expand...

Was this fact and the alcoholism known to your employer previous to this event ?

It is hard to imagine a good way to come out ahead in a situation like this. Glad it did for you.
 
almostfree said:
I have countered this by now always carrying a Glock 26 in a pocket holster on the weak side.
Click to expand...
:confused: If you're sitting, getting anything out of your pockets is difficult. Drawing a gun in a hurry, with your window already busted out and a hand reaching inside? I don't see it.

Here, if you're thin and limber enough, might be a good use for an ankle holster? The gun would be down near floor level, impossible for the BG to reach through the window. If on the inside of the weak side leg, you can draw it with either hand. A G26 strikes me as being a little large and heavy for this, but do-able if that is what you already have. I don't really like snubnose revolvers, but these should make a good anti-carjacking gun as, when fired inside a vehicle, they don't eject empty cases. You could also put your gun elsewhere in the vehicle, for example, in the center console, holster between the seats, you get the idea.

rcmodel said:
A strong side holster under a seat belt is almost useless with either hand while seated in a vechicle.

This is one of the few instances where a cross-draw holster on the left appendex makes a lot of sense. It is within reach of either hand.
Click to expand...
I too have noticed this, both with behind the hip at ~4:00 or, as I've adopted lately, appendix at 2:00 - the gun butt is entangled in the seat belt.

Don't forget, if there are no obstacles (cars in traffic, dead-end street with no room to turn around, etc.) in front of you, you can punch the go pedal and get the heck out of there. A 3000-lb. car has far more "muzzle smash" than any bullet. If the BG happens to be standing in front of you, that is his problem. The only reservation I have about this is if you drive a low pointy-nosed car, as most of them are these days. He might get thrown up on your hood or windshield instead of getting pushed out of the way or run over and still be able to hang on.
 
Happened to a LE friend of mine years ago....he was going home off shift at night and stopped for a light. The next thing he knew some big guy opened his passenger side door and got in....started barking orders tellin' him where to drive him...my friend drove until the next stop light....then he reached inside his coat with his right hand and grabbed his Zapper.....a lead, leather covered hand billy.....cracked this guy with a back hand right over the bridge of the nose.....turned the car around, drove back to the Princinct and locked him up......True.
 
One of the things Gavin DeBecker talks about in his book The Gift Of Fear is how often people hear that little warning bell in their mind and ignore it because they don’t wish to appear rude or they don’t think it’s real.

15 or so years ago some homeless guy showed up at a church I used to attend looking for money, they asked me to drive him to the local shelter and I was dumb enough to agree.

We hadn’t left the parking lot when he started in about how I was scamming him and I was driving slow to make sure that we got to the shelter too late for him to get a bed and what a dirt bag I was how he wanted me to just drive him to the edge of town.

Luckily, a couple from the church was following us and he knew it. I got about a mile up the road and he really started going off. I didn’t know what else to do so I pulled into a Burger King and told him that BK hired off duty cops for security (as far as I know a complete lie) and that if he didn’t get out of my car I was going to go in the store and get the cop to arrest him. God was watching over me and it worked. I don’t let people I don’t know in my car anymore.

In the OP's case the guy was drunk and hostile, that makes him unpredictable. There’s no telling where a drunk’s mind is going to go next. Long story short I would have got him out of that car and he would have stayed out of that car. If I had a cell phone I would have called the cops and told them where to pick him up if not I would have drove to the next town and used a pay phone but he wouldn’t have gone one more mile with me.
 
I frequently carry off-body in the car. In fact, I recently started keeping a more or less dedicated car gun in my center console. It is much quicker to get to if I need it than one on my waist. I also really like the idea of a car knife -- I will have to start carrying one of those as well. If you have to draw your IWB gun in the car, I have found it is faster to undo the seat belt (if you're using it) before drawing. It helps to twist your hips sideways too. But shooting from inside a car is really a bad position to be in... I agree with looking for opportunities to drive away or get out as an item of primary importance.
 
As long as you seatbelt is not hampering draw, you can slam on the brakes, he will lung forward, you twist to the right and put your left arm behind him, forcing him to stay against the dash, while you are clear to draw with right hand and hold weapon level with his torso under your left arm. Even if he has a knife all this will happen so fast you will have upperhand. Good chance he will loose it when lunging forward as well.
 
Inside a vehicle, an assisted open knife kept easily accessible might serve you better than a gun. Firing a gun in a space as confined as a vehicle cab is likely to have lasting if not permanent effects on your hearing (if you're a Walking Dead fan, I'm sure you remember the scene with Sheriff Grimes inside the tank.) Do you really need a ranged weapon for an opponent that's arm's distance away? Just a thought.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

O
  • Locked
Lyft driver shoots two carjackers in Philadelphia
2 3 4 5
Replies
122
Views
4K
Kleanbore
K
S
  • Locked
Kidnapping and vehicles.
Replies
0
Views
794
sm
S
K
  • Locked
Defending (the Occupants of) your Vehicle
2 3 4
Replies
83
Views
5K
swagbrdr
swagbrdr
J
  • Locked
Why do people always think that a gun is the answer to every situation?As things stand he’s
2
Replies
29
Views
3K
Good Ol' Boy
Good Ol' Boy
P
  • Locked
Do You Ever Comply?
2 3
Replies
54
Views
2K
strambo
S
Back
Top