I've had a "truck gun" either in my glovebox or center console for quite some time. It's always held in a holster and loaded. Most of the time I have a gun IWB while I'm driving too.

I've had to rethink the whole "gun truck" carry and decided to remove it from my car. My son just turned 3 and that's 100% the reason it's been removed. I've thought about carrying a gun unloaded with a magazine inserted, but still a little uneasy about that. Realistically a kid shouldn't be able to wrack the slide, but those little rascals seem to do an awful lot you wouldn't expect.

Just wondered what the rest of you fine folks would do, or did.

Well I have said this before here on the Forum and some disagree with me but I feel there is no good reason to have a gun in a vehicle unattended. IMO it is just an accident or theft waiting to happen. If you are armed personally it doesn't really make sense why you would need a "truck gun" also.

After a while a gun in a vehicle is not thought about anymore and when you least expect it, it could possibly fall into unauthorized hands. Do you want that on your conscience?? I certainly would not! YMMV and that's just my opinion of course.

I don't simply because I don't want to take the chance of having it stolen. I also live on the border with another state that's anti gun and I'd always have to remember I have a firearm in the car and would need to find a place to leave it when to go to that State

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I'm always glad to hear someone has decided not stop leaving an unsecured firearm unattended in their vehicle.

I know that in most communities in the 1950's and 60's you could safely leave a gun anywhere in your vehicle. But things have changed.

Personally the only way I will leave a gun in my vehicle is in a locking pistol safe cabled to the seat, and only for short times when in a very public place, and never overnight.

Even the best of neighborhoods have too many thieves and other ne'r-do-wells these days. I don't want to risk one of my guns ending up in the hands of some criminal who might use them to victimize some other honest person.

.....In the days of yore.....My Dad's "truck gun" was a decrepit single shot 12 ga......At the time maybe worth $20.......It always rode in the back wind ow rack or behind the seat.....Truck never locked...Never got stolen.....I still have it......

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S&W Accumulator

I did consider it being stolen and used in the wrong hands, that did bother me a little. I've seen car safes to store firearms, but that would be no quicker than reaching in to your wasteband.

For now I no longer keep a truck gun, the thought of a child getting there hands on it terrifies the life out me.

I am not a LEO but would likely think that there are more car break-ins in better neighborhoods than in bad ones simply because thieves know they are more likely to find something of value in a higher end area.

Over the years, Have done it a bunch of ways.
I will say the only gun I ever had stolen, so far, was from my suv.
Lately, I don’t usually leave a gun in my vehicle.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I used to keep a handgun in the car, sometimes a rifle too, all the time. Most folks in Wyoming do. Then I got involved in a case where a 78 year old man was murdered in his bed one night by a 15 year old with two of his buddies and a Browning Hi Power while his wife looked on. There was no reason for the killing. The kid just shot the old man to see what would happen. Turned out the gun had been stolen out of a car a few blocks away a couple of nights earlier. I didn't leave unattended guns in the car after that.

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Everybody could shoot

That's quite a scary thought when you actually break it down and think of it. If your gun is stolen and some poor innocent person is murdered, it must affect you. That's someone father, mother, child, grandparent. When you see those grieving faces that must hit hard.

I used to work in our city shop. I knew lots of LEOs who came in for work on their patrol cars. Every now and then the subject of "truck/car guns" would come up. Everyone of them agreed that its a bad idea because the vast majority of stolen gun reports they do, the weapon was stolen out of a vehicle.

Have carried a handgun in my glove box & rifle behind the seat of my trucks for probably around 40 years. Never had a problem. Probably IMO the same chance of them being stolen as that of actually needing to be used for defensive/other purposes but like a fire extinguisher nice to have if needed.

I see aLOT of guns in my customers cars,not sure how many are left unattended. One of the problems of carrying is securing my gun when I can't take it with me at my destination. Something to keep in mind for sure.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

Yea keep em locked down except for theone you are actually carrying on your person .94 Winchester 30/30 behind seat around the farm nothing in tne chamber 6 in magazine ,steel cabled in place attatched to truck body locked down if I leave my property ,generaly either a 32/20 in leather holster or a 357 mag oth DA revolvers around property or in town always on my person all other firearms are unloaded and locked down always and checked and rechecked as I am paranoid about having a firearm accident .I just don't think I could mentally make it through a kid getting killed due to my either negligence or carelessness or laziness and I have been accused of all 3 but never with a firearm. Plus lawenforcement has enough problems to deal with without me being any of the above .Plus dang it I love my firearms I don't care about my automobile it's just a form of transportation but my firearms they are apart of who I am and who my people are as many belonged to grandad and dad ,they aren't for sale and darn sure aren't for stole .So I keep em locked up.

Removing a truck gun because of children is pretty common I think.

Glop 19 has resided in my truck 24/7 since the day I purchased it over 17 years ago. I keep it in my truck because a truck gun is useless in the safe at home while I'm out and about.

This same basic discipline is applied to carrying on person. I keep an LCP in my pocket from the time I get dressed till bedtime. I keep it in my pocket because it's useless in the safe.

Vehicles don't need guns, people do. Never underestimate the trouble kids can get into, nor think anyplace is free from thieves. A truck gun is pretty useless if you are elsewhere. Wherever YOU ARE is where the gun should be, IMO.

I feel that so-called truck guns are a disaster in the making. The practice seems to promote neglect and theft. As a police officer I cringed every time I had to go out and take a vehicle burglary report where the complainant was also reporting a gun theft.

I would suggest, as others have, that your gun be with you and under your control at all times. If for some reason the gun has to be left behind in the vehicle for a short period of time I would separate the gun and ammo to the best of my ability and put the gun in a lock box that's secured to the vehicle. This won't prevent theft in all cases but will maybe deter the least ambitious theives.

This is just the opinion of an old retired cop who's known a few cops who never got the chance to grow old or retire...

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Join the NRA today

I can't stress how important it is to have extreme caution around small children and guns. Every gun but one needs to be unloaded and in a safe with all ammo stored in a separate locked container. I carry a LCP II with loaded mag and empty chamber because where I live and go needing a gun is far less likely to happen then a child somehow getting a hold of it. When I was a young father my wife and 3 year old daughter left for a day of shopping and right after they left I got out a Browning .22 pistol and I set it down and then I looked over and my 3 year old was standing there holding it and pulling the trigger! It turns out my wife had forgot something and they came back to the house and I didn't even know it. Thank God the gun was unloaded.

Reading this thread last night made me rethink my "truck gun" situation. In over 30 yrs. at this location we have had something turn up missing exactly once...a GPS laying on the seat of my wifes unlocked vehicle. So...I walk out to the driveway to check on the truck. Sure enough, unlocked with three loaded handguns inside. Not any more.

I am in the country in a safe area but...not that safe.

3 guns that are much more likely NOT to end up in the hands of thieves.

The good ole' days are gone for good! Leaving cars unlocked, homes unlocked, valuables in cars, guns in wall racks in the Den, are all things of the past now. Nothing seems to be sacred anymore and thieves and criminals know no bounds anymore. Actually very sad but WE NEED to deal with the reality of the "new America".

When will everyone get it through their heads that those days are gone, finito, kaput. Cheap cars, cheap gas and no fear of LE have seen to that.

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Release the Kraken

I have never liked the "truck gun" concept, in any way, from day one. Just far too many "con" and not many "pro" to the argument.

I carry, IWB, every where that I go. Thus, I always HAVE a gun, so the "truck gun" is little gain & redundant. Rundancy (back up!) is a good idea UNLESS there are risks associated with it, and those are many:

--leaves a gun in the car CONSTANTLY, to be stolen

--limits who may be in your car when you are not also present, and this issue varies from state to state. Where I live, if I leave the car and there is a passenger in it AND that loaded handgun is in there, I may have put them in position for a felony.

--same as above in some not-typical scenario where I may need friend/family to get my car or use my car without me

--I don't have toddlers but I do have children that are leaning to drive. One bout of forgetfulness and maybe I have a 16yr old with a loaded handgun in the car. Father of the year award, gone.

--130 degrees hot, 0 degrees cold and all the humidity associated with that range? If you think this is overblown/nonsense, consider how hot or cold the car is on any given day and the fact that you will use AC/heat basically every time to make it "around 75" degrees. And on top of that, the gun gets left for days/weeks/months. Guns are tough but that is harsh treatment.

Carrying on-person simply trumps the entire concept of a "truck gun" for me.

Another point is if the worst case scenario happens like an accident, a serious health issue where you pass out, etc. and you are in your vehicle and incapacitated - who guards your gun when people might go through your glove box or console to retrieve papers and find a loaded weapon??

I recall that when I went to college in Texas in the late 1970s it was common to see pick ups on campus with rifles or shotguns on racks in the back window. No one bothered them. And many co-eds carried a revolver in their purse that Daddy had given them as a going to college present. No one bothered them either.

Now I live in a state where concealed carry is prohibited in many public places and where a private business owner can post a sign on their door alerting that concealed carry is not permitted on the premises. In that case the law requires a CC holder to leave their CC firearm in their locked vehicle. It seems like the current law creates problems.

I just have My Smith and Wesson 40cal.Shield in My waste band Holster and if I cant take it in someplace I have a lock box attached to the base of the drivers seat where I lock it up until I return.