well im gonna keep a long gun in my truck no matter what anyone says.
Well, that's how most good decisions are made.
my cousin is in law enforcement. he told me about several times when a cop unloads a pistol mag at very close range and gets one hit. sometimes no hits. its stressful and not relaxing like at the shooting range. i admit i don't see how i could miss a man size target at 5 or 10 feet with a handgun.
Yes, it does happen. One of the reasons it happens is that violent encounters happen VERY FAST. Very unexpectedly (to the victim). A rifle or shotgun doesn't fit into that picture. Unless you're going to get a cruiser rack and carry that shotgun right up by the driver's seat...
"Excuse me, Mr. Bad Guy, but if you don't mind giving me a moment, I have an appropriate response in the trunk. Just let me step back for a moment and retrieve it. A thousand pardons...."
i never been in a gun fight and i want the tool that gives me the best chance to survive. thats a long gun if at all possible.
So, then you won't be carrying a handgun, you'll be carrying the rifle or shotgun instead? Do you have a good holster for it? Realistically you're only going to defend yourself with the gun you actually have with you. So you'd better plan to go about your day with a long-gun on your body.
Even if attacked in your car, you aren't going to bring a long-gun into play.
that youtube video of that drunk killing a cop with a m1 carbine also influenced me.
There are some really important lessons to be learned from that awful video. You may note that what gun the cop had wasn't one of them. Shooting at the appropriate moment was one of the more obvious lessons. In fact, "more firepower" is an odd choice of take-away messages from that video. The cop had perfectly adequate weapon(s) at his disposal, and in fact probably even had time to retrieve a long-gun if he had understood the situation fully, in time.
it stays on the passenger seat with a wool blanket over it. i can get it real quick.
You drive around with a loose shotgun under a blanket on your seat? Oh kay. (Not a good idea to have an unsecured several-pound chunk of metal in the car. You're much more likely to have a serious auto wreck than a car-jacking or other violent encounter and that thing very well could seriously injure you or your passengers flying around the cab.)
Have you ever tried to fire a shotgun from inside a vehicle? Have you ever tried to engage a car-jacker at your window with a pump-shotgun?
It's a scene worth watching over and over if you can get a video. This is one of the reasons we tell people repeatedly that they need realistic self-defense training. Some of the basic principles of fighting with a firearm, in daily life scenarios, appear to be very difficult for people to intuitively grasp.
I'm sure you'll keep on doing whatever you want to do because you're sure it is the choice you want to make. That's fine. My comments here are provided for the benefit of others reading who might be trying to consider realistic defense strategies in and around their vehicles.