Goofy question: Leaving your firearm in the car

smitholdtimer said:
My recommendation is to never leave any firearm in your auto since there is no way to absolutely stop a thief who is after your stuff unless you catch them in the act.
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What if we take the word "auto" and change it to "home"? The logic and statement still remains true... there is no way to absolutely stop a thief.

My recommendation is to never leave any firearm in your home since there is no way to absolutely stop a thief who is after your stuff unless you catch them in the act.

Point being that in your home or your car, all you can do is take some steps to try to prevent theft, or at least make it more difficult. But if someone breaks into my home or my car and steals my firearm, I am still the victim of the crime and should not be punished for it.
 
federali said:
New York City, alone, averages 500 vehicle thefts daily. With those kinds of stats, you have to be insane to leave a gun in the car for any reason.

If you daily activities are such that you may not have a firearm at times such as visiting a post office, school, or your employer forbids them on his site, it's best to leave the gun at home. I know one high school teacher, who, along with a friend, left their handguns in a car in a restricted-access high school parking lot as they planned to go shooting after school. When they came out, they discovered that the car was gone along with its entire contents.

The only exception I would make is if you can keep the car within view.
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So you would recommend that you go unprotected to and from these places? There is a principal at a school in Mississippi who stopped a school shooting with a handgun he retrieved from his vehicle. I bet he would disagree with your opinion.
 
According to an attorney that teaches the CCW course here in AZ and also specializes in criminal defense, in Arizona you are obligated to take reasonable care if you leave a firearm in a vehicle. If you leave it in plain view, or unlocked in a door pocket, you may be held responsible for a number of charges, up to and including any crimes committed with the weapon.

If you secure the weapon in a safe or other locking device you have met the burden of reasonable care. If someone defeats your safe or locked box you're not responsible.

I personally have a portable safe similar to the one shown above, except it's a combo lock. The safe is cabled to the frame of the drivers seat and is hidden from view under the seat. I keep a spare 9mm in it just for added security. I have another safe under the passenger seat that's empty should I need to lock up my EDC.
 
cyphertext said:
So you would recommend that you go unprotected to and from these places? There is a principal at a school in Mississippi who stopped a school shooting with a handgun he retrieved from his vehicle. I bet he would disagree with your opinion.
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NYC is an anomaly and hardly a representative example in my opinion. For every New York there are thousands of cities and towns where the odds of your vehicle getting jacked are much lower.

The bottom line is that you have a right to protect yourself and your loved ones. As long as you take steps to secure your weapon in the vehicle, outside of gun hating states like NY, MA, CA, etc. you won't have a problem.
 
federali said:
New York City, alone, averages 500 vehicle thefts daily. With those kinds of stats, you have to be insane to leave a gun in the car for any reason.
Click to expand...
NYC auto theft statistics (or anything about NYC for that matter) do not matter unless one lives in.....wait for it.....New York City.

I live in a small, extra urban town surrounded by countryside. The nearest city is 15 miles away and its crime statistics (particularly auto theft) are nowhere near close to those you cite. What's even more important is that those 15 miles may as well be 1500 when it comes the way they isolate my home from the criminal impact from the nearest city.

I am not saying that there is no crime where I live and work. What I am saying is that its likelyhood of occurance is minimal. Moreover, the consequences of a stolen car with a gun here are basically a police report and an insurance claim.

I still leave my pistol hidden in a locked car whenever I cannot have it on me and lose not one second of sleep about it.
 
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I live in a safe suburb.My truck has been broken into twice over a 10 year period,my work trailer has been emptied once.They ripped the doors off of the trailer and shattered the windows in the truck.Its easy to do and at 3am nobody hears anything...
Ask your local pd what they think about leaving guns in cars.
 
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arjay said:
I live in a safe suburb.My truck has been broken into twice over a 10 year period,my work trailer has been emptied once.They ripped the doors off of the trailer and shattered the windows in the truck.Its easy to do and at 3am nobody hears anything....
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That's an odd definition of safe. Not to mention the fact that this thread is not about leaving firearms in cars parked outside overnight.......

arjay said:
Ask your local pd what they think about leaving guns in cars.
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I couldn't care less what my local police (or any police department) thinks about guns in cars or any place else. If it were up to most police chiefs/administrators, we would all be 100% unarmed.
 
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arjay said:
I live in a safe suburb.My truck has been broken into twice over a 10 year period,my work trailer has been emptied once.They ripped the doors off of the trailer and shattered the windows in the truck.Its easy to do and at 3am nobody hears anything...
Ask your local pd what they think about leaving guns in cars.
Click to expand...

I think you might want to rethink "safe" if this is what you are dealing with. Not sure anywhere is "safe" anymore because evil is everywhere, but like the analogy made earlier about your house, all you can do is take reasonable precautions.
 
arjay said:
I was making a point about how simple it is to break in to a car.Where do you think
these clowns get most of their guns?
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It is relatively simple to break into a house as well... Looking the statistics, , more firearms are stolen from homes than autos.

Bureau of Justice Statistics Firearms Stolen during Household Burglaries and Other Property Crimes, 2005-2010

"About 1.4 million firearms were stolen during household burglaries and other property crimes over the six-year period from 2005 through 2010, according to a report released today by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). This number represents an estimated average of 232,400 firearms stolen each year— about 172,000 stolen during burglaries and 60,300 stolen during other property crimes."
 
biglos:

No, you're not crazy for asking your question. These days, even some LEOs I know aren't supposed to carry their firearms even when in uniform - such as when dropping their kids off at school. (When I asked them about this, they told me that the school principal "asked" them not to carry their duty weapons onto the school grounds.)

I don't think much of the small, portable gun safes. I bought one and had no difficulty defeating the lock with a large screwdriver. Also, I'm not impressed with the thin, braided steel cable you're supposed to use to secure the safe to part of the car. The upside is that they're affordable and better than nothing, but that's about it.

I've made my own gun safe out of a 7.62 mm Army surplus ammo can, a high security (Master lock brand) hasp and high security Master lock, and some very heavy steel chain. I'd guess I have about $40.00 invested in this "safe". I'm waiting for a local welding shop to weld the hasp onto the ammo box, and as soon as they've done this, I'll post photos. My hope is that even the well equipped "smash and grab" thief will take one look at my creation and won't even be tempted to try to hack into it.

By the way, I'm a federal employee and management has made it very clear to all hands that anyone bringing any firearm(s) in the building will be fired. We can leave them in our cars in the parking lot, but that's it.

Good luck,

Dave
 
Years ago when I lived in california I seen a guy driving down the street with a revolver hanging over his antenna hooked through the trigger guard! He was in slow traffic so I got a good look and he looked terrorized! I could only imagine what that was about. I am guessing he had found the gun and was taking it to the sheriffs station or whatever and was terrorized of guns and what laws were applicable. Now a lot of similar discussions remind me of that incident. I am willing to bet far more static and trouble has been experienced by people so scared of laws when just using common sense and hiding the damn gun under the seat or glove box and getting with their day.
There were times on my job I had people ask me technical questions about company rules, what if`s etc and it was like, I really wish you hadnt asked me that! Now I had to give them the company line or rule that when made couldnt take into every lesser plausible scenario. I bet just about every leo could give a amen to that.
Okay, it could be pointed out that I should know better by the more cautious as I have been on every side of the question. First my job WAS searching cars entering our company etc. I also once had a revolver stolen out of my own truck. That was a long involved deal I wont explain here. Bottom line since I aint a lawyer, leo or guard anymore, just hide the gun and live life. Act hinckey and you will get bit. Ask a leo and he will lower is voice a octave, and very professionally have to tell you what you dont want to hear and he will be wishing you hadnt asked.
 
Brian41 said:
I don't like leaving my gun in a vehicle but have to when going into a post office or other Federal building on business. I do have one of the steel vaults with a cable in my truck and another my brother gave me last Christmas. I once had a cell phone stolen out of my Jeep I thought I had locked but possibly not. It does happen and even in the best of neighborhoods.
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I do not own a safe and never leave my vehicle with a gun
inside it, unless I am parked in a street parking place, while
I walk across and pick up mail at the post office. As for leaving it in your vehicle if you park inside a Post Office Designated parking spot, or if you park on federal property it is not legal
to have the gun in your vehicle at all. (except possibly law enforcement). As for it being stolen during that brief time
I walk across the street to the parking lot, that is what I have
car insurance for, which also covers a gun, and additional insurance that covers my guns if stolen. I do keep a list of
the serial numbers just in case one ever is stolen. If someone
wants a gun bad enough a safe won't stop them.
 
cyphertext said:
What if we take the word "auto" and change it to "home"? The logic and statement still remains true... there is no way to absolutely stop a thief.

My recommendation is to never leave any firearm in your home since there is no way to absolutely stop a thief who is after your stuff unless you catch them in the act.

Point being that in your home or your car, all you can do is take some steps to try to prevent theft, or at least make it more difficult. But if someone breaks into my home or my car and steals my firearm, I am still the victim of the crime and should not be punished for it.
Click to expand...

We are not liable for a criminal breaking in and stealing a firearm out of our home or our vehicle at lest not in my state.
I just would not even leave one in a vehicle unless I am compelled to do so resulting from the federal government
not permitting me to carry it with me inside a post office.
I am not responsible for the federal government's decision
on that issue, I just have to obey their law. The safest place
for the gun is to be on me, but someone at the federal level
thinks it is safer for the gun to be locked inside my vehicle
than on me when I walk into a post office.

I do keep the best alarm systems on my vehicles and I would
protect my firearms in them if I were armed. When the federal
government chooses to force me to not carry into a place like
the post office I am left with the choice of just taking reasonable precautions which is a good car alarm system and
keeping any loss I might incur insured.

I think if I were a car thief or a gun thief, that's where I would
go to look for a car to steal, since lots of folks leave their vehicles unlocked.

One day I had a young black man very angrily denounce me
for locking my car door with my remote at a post office.
I learned that day that all I could do was call the police about
it since the post office did not own the street parking.
Of course I was unarmed at that point, so I could have been
carjacked, robbed of my car remote, lost my vehicle and my
gun, but I have insurance. What he does with the gun
afterwards is a matter for the police and the justice department.
I could suggest to them they change that law but I am not
going to hold my breath, because its not going to happen.
 
TexasArmed said:
We are not liable for a criminal breaking in and stealing a firearm out of our home or our vehicle at lest not in my state.
I just would not even leave one in a vehicle unless I am compelled to do so resulting from the federal government
not permitting me to carry it with me inside a post office.
Click to expand...

We are in the same state... and there are other times that you may have to leave your firearm than just the post office...

I work from home most of the time, but the office I work out of is posted... I have to leave the firearm in the vehicle there.

Schools, post office... Not too long ago I dropped my wife off at Sprouts and I ran next door to Lowe's. After I was done looking at Lowe's, I went back over to Sprout's to meet up with my wife. Guess what, they were posted. Had to leave the gun in the car to go inside and tell my wife that we don't shop there anymore.

Point is that while our state doesn't punish us for theft, others do and that is just wrong.
 
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cyphertext said:
We are in the same state... and there are other times that you may have to leave your firearm than just the post office...

I work from home most of the time, but the office I work out of is posted... I have to leave the firearm in the vehicle there.

Schools, post office... Not too long ago I dropped my wife off at Sprouts and I ran next door to Lowe's. After I was done looking at Lowe's, I went back over to Sprout's to meet up with my wife. Guess what, they were posted. Had to leave the gun in the car to go inside and tell my wife that we don't shop there anymore.

Point is that while our state doesn't punish us for theft, others do and that is just wrong.
Click to expand...

Yes I can see where that is a problem for you if you work. I am retired so that is not a problem for me. It is not for me since I just do not go where something is posted. As for the post office the feds causes that problem, so they can deal with it.
I just wish I could force them to deliver mail at my apartment
but like many post offices in Texas mine will not. So for that
few minutes of time I have to lock it up, go inside and get my
mail. As for other states if I am going there, I am not heading for a post office.
 
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