North Little Rock Police is seeing a large number of guns stolen from cars this year,” arkansasmatters.com reports (subject – verb agreement, not so much). “In 2016 alone, 70 guns were stolen from cars, most of those coming from unlocked vehicles. Police say there’s not really a way to get those guns back from criminals.” Wow. How defeatist is that? And this in the state with a city named Hope.

Anyway, “gun-free” zones bear some measure of responsibility for this vehicular firearm theft; if you’re about to enter a GFZ, you stash your gat in your whip.

I keep a brace of ballistic backups in my Merc, as well as the one on my hip. And my everyday carry gun when I must. I don’t park in bad neighborhoods and I garage my crossover at night, in an alarmed garage, with savage Schnauzers patrolling the perimeter. JK. They’d sleep through a SWAT team raid.

How about you? I don’t mean sleeping through a SWAT raid. I mean store a gun or two or five (as JWT does) in your vehicle?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

113 COMMENTS

  1. Store? No.

    I leave my carry in the glove box when I head into the office and retrieve it when I get back to the car at the end of the day. I never leave them in my car overnight. Even if I get back late at night from a range day, getting them back into the house and secured is priority 1. It would be bad enough if someone stole my car, no reason to throw in a bonus.

  2. I live in Florida where the relative humidity is around 86 to 98% year round. So there’s no way in hell I leave a firearm in a vehicle and we have a bunch of break-ins all over the place in Florida in the vehicles and guns are stolen all the time. Yeah if you’re in anything above 80% humidity you leave a gun in a car and you’re just asking for it to rust completely out.

    • Yeah it’s been nuts here in Fort Myers and Cape Coral. Every other day a gun or several are stolen out of an unlocked vehicle at night. I have a tough time understanding why anyone would leave a gun in an unlocked vehicle outside at night! Idiots that give responsible gun owners a bad name. If you park your vehicle outside at night bring your gun inside. What’s the big deal with that?

      • How about you mind your own business? I have kept a loaded Kimber Ultra in my car since I bought it in 2010. No one would ever steal it except a criminal, and I am not responsible for someone else’s criminal actions. If I see someone breaking into my car, I will give him a very short opportunity to surrender, before I shoot him a few times and then call 911. But in 7 years the subject has not come up, and I do not expect it to in the future. Getting your panties in a twist over an overactive imagination about operational operators operating operationally is just stupid. We need to demand protection from thieves, not admit that someone stealing from us is somehow OUR fault.

        • I can check box both those things. I live in Florida, and my wife’s SUV was stolen 2 months ago. As a mechanic i have the bad habit of accidentally leaving the keys in my truck (which we do with EVERY vehicle at work, everyday. talk about muscle memory much?), truck unlocked, and nothing bad has happened in 10 years doing that. My wifes truck thou, she always locks it, and just forgot that day. its too much of a risk to store a firearm in a vehicle. Our truck was recovered a few days later, but there wasn’t one storage spot in that thing they didnt rummage thru.

        • Rusty, that’s why god invented insurance! Otherwise, risking my life because I won’t risk a $1000 gun makes no sense. If I need that gun it will be there, and if it’s stolen I will replace it within a week.

    • “Yeah if you’re in anything above 80% humidity you leave a gun in a car and you’re just asking for it to rust completely out.”

      Tampa area guy, checking in.

      I bought a Glock primarily because I carry outdoors, and sweat and 80 pct plus humidity is a thing here.

      In all the years I’ve owned it, rust – corrosion has never been an issue.

      If you choose to store a Glock in your car here, don’t worry about it, it will be fine…

    • I’m in Miami and in 40+ years living never had an issue with a firearm rusting.
      1. Oil them
      2. Don’t like to maintain guns then get stainless steel
      3. I have left my SS Sig Sauer in the glove box of my last 4 cars for a total of about 16 years and not a spot of rust.

      Stop spreading FUD.

  4. stainless revolvers deal with the rust issus.

    And of course there’s a gun in the car! There is always a pistol/shtgun/carbine/katana within reach. ALWAYS. Not just in the car, hidden all over the place. Hell, for all you know I have a gat stashed somewhere at your place.

  5. A shotgun in the tool box, an AR under my favorite pew at church. A revolver in a hole in a particular tree at the park. Hell, I even keep a snubby taped to the back of the toilet tank at my favorite italian joint.

    • I hope your using the special tape that doesn’t pick up prints otherwise you’re not going to be able to come back from the old country ever.

    • A man gets stopped for speeding. The LEO notices he has a CCW. He asks the man if he has a gun in the truck now.
      A. “Yes, I have my S&W on my hip.”
      Q. “Anything else?”
      A. “Yes, I have a .45 in the glove box, and an AR15 under the seat.”
      Q. Is that all?”
      A. “No, I also have a 12 gauge pumpgun behind the seat.”
      Q. “That’s quite a lot of firepower. Is there anything you’re afraid of?”
      A. “Not a damn thing…”

  6. I do not presently store a firearm in my vehicle. I have given it serious thought lately. My hangup: I don’t want to lose a firearm to theft.

    I am thinking of splitting the difference. Keep a youth-sized Pardner Pump 20 gauge shotgun in my trunk. If someone steels it, I am only out $200. And, a youth-sized pump-action shotgun with a 21 inch barrel is of limited utility to a criminal.

    • Nothing a few minutes with a hacksaw can’t fix…
      And would you really feel all that great giving even a cheap gun to a criminal?

      • Who mentioned “giving”? We should demand the ability to assume that our property will not be *STOLEN*! The victim of a crime is not the bad guy. If the windows are down, the doors are unlocked, and the $2500 .357 Magnum is in plain sight, that is not permission for someone to take it.

    • I keep my mav 88 security in my truck. Primarily because it was $170 after taxes, but also because it’s so damn versitle.

      I have about $3,000 worth of tools in my truck most of the time, so even if someone did break in, they will likely never find the shotgun in its hiding place. They will be grabbing the more expensive and easier to access stuff. :/

  7. “Hell, I even keep a snubby taped to the back of the toilet tank at my favorite italian joint.”

    Umm, not anymore. 😉

  8. No. No gun, no knife, anywhere in the car. There’s a multitool in the toolbox w/ a slipjoint blade. There’s a pistol mounted below the steering wheel for seated access, which will be removed if I’m entering a region where my EDC is disallowed.

    Not because of some safe storage bullshit. It’s for when some govt goons in restricted regions manage to bitch slap me and search my car, they have one less reason to flush my life down the toilet.

  9. I used too, but the moisture in Mississippi started giving me rust problems.

    And while I do recognize the potential of having your guns stolen like that. I solved that problem for having a car that no one wanted to get into. Well that and NOT storing them into the easy to access trunk too. |3

    Guns are going to get stolen, just like any valuable item. But you can make harder to get to easily.

  10. When I’m at work or school it’s u-locked through the magazine well to the seat frame. I park in well lit public areas to discourage anyone who might be inclined to try dismantling my car or cutting the lock. I consider not arming the local crackheads to be a priority.

      • 1/2″ Kryptonite cable around seat frame and thru stainless trigger guard when at the hospital for Docs. appointment. He’s seen my OWB holster and never said a word. Otherwise I always have my edc on my person, even at home.

      • I use the Master Lock 527D. It has a six inch hasp so I can use it with my CZ P01. Securing the gun to the seat frame seems a lot more secure than most of those stamped metal car “safes”.

  11. Yes and no, it depends.

    I have a safe under the passenger’s seat of my car which sometimes, but not always, houses a Glock 30 and a spare mag. Sometimes it’s there overnight since theft of the gun from my driveway would be all but impossible without power tools and removing the seat from the car. That’s after you set off my car alarm and you’d have to find the safe first.

    As a general rule however, no. I don’t leave it there. I will place it there when I know I’m going somewhere I can’t take a gun, such as a courthouse. Now I can’t carry into the court house but the gun is with me and accessible fairly rapidly while I’m in/near the vehicle which is better than nothing I suppose. It doesn’t make me real happy but the law is the law and at a place like a courthouse around here they will catch you carrying so it’s really not an option.

  12. ” (subject – verb agreement not so much)”
    You’re ridiculing someone’s grammar?

    Matthew 7:4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? 5You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

    • No one has perfect grammar but this whole “OMG someone’s a grammar Nazi” is a symptom of the problem that has led to the current generation of high school students graduating with a knowledge base of exactly fuck all.

      • TTAG’s problem isn’t really grammar. It’s haste, sloppiness and a general philosophy of quantity over quality. The grammatical errors we see are not induced by illiteracy, they are the inevitable result of not giving a shit.

        • My point is that regardless of the reason for the problems, when they’re truly egregious I don’t mind them being pointed out even if I’m the one that made the error(s).

          The reason for this is simple: I’ve observed that the people who complain about “Grammar Nazis” generally exhibit a an atrocious knowledge of written English but are also generally the same people complaining that kids these days don’t know anything.

          To me the reason for that is simple. People didn’t care about commas or apostrophes and so your their didn’t either. Over time this slipping of standards has expanded to other areas and the levels of mistakes that are deemed acceptable have gotten higher. That is, the pool of acceptable mistakes has gotten larger and the bar has been lowered at the same time.

          This is especially true in math and science.

          As a someone remarked to me a while back “Grammar Nazi? Didn’t we used to call them “teachers”?”.

  13. A parkarized 870 with a bandolier of ammo behind the back seat.
    Very rural here with almost non existent crime. I wouldn’t if I lived in Portland.

    • Very close to Austin, but still in the boonies, haven’t locked the doors in 20 years, but I’m ready to fight, kill, and die if someone wishes to take what is mine. We need to take responsibility for our *own* safety.

  14. I used to leave my truck unlocked, keys in the ignition, pretty much everywhere I went, unless I traveled to one of our crime-infested cities.

    Illinois’ Concealed Carry Law allows for vehicle storage, even in gun-free zones (federal installations excepted). Since I work in a gun-free government building, the truck is where the Glock resides most of the time.

    And yes, I now lock the truck when I’m not in it. Every. Time.

  16. Gen 2 Sub2k in a backpack with two stick mags a G20 mag for my G29 edc and a first aid/survival kit and lifestraw get in the truck every time I do…but it comes inside when I do as well. However, it lives in the truck (locked) when I exit the vehicle, extreme cold (frost) can be as bad as high humidity. There is a .410 single shot Derringer in the door that hasn’t left in years, just gets a new shell every 6 months or so. Now if we can only get the GOP to pass the hearing protection act…..

    • Very similar.

      I have a Gen 1 S2K .40 with several 22 round mags, a couple silica gel dessicant packs and an OTIS .40 cleaning kit in a locked pelican storm case that stays in my small SUV. Besides privacy glass there is a plastic, upholstered deck that covers the cargo area. The case is hidden from any scrutiny except when I open the hatch, and even then it’s a black case in shadow.

  18. Rarely do I ever leave my weapon in the car and most certainly never over night. On the extremely rare occasions I go into a GFZ that has force of law, because I ignore GFZs that don’t have force of law, the weapon goes under the seat, NEVER in the glove box, which is the FIRST place dirt-bags look. Of course, generally on those rare occasions, the weapon is only unattended for a matter of minutes, not hours. I believe it is a great responsibility to insure firearms aren’t easily stolen like spare change by dirt-bag pukes. Anyone who leaves a weapon in their glove compartment needs to have their head examined. I feel the same way about people who leave weapons in their carry on luggage getting on an airliner. You should know where your damn gun is.

  19. No, NEVER! And… If I did I wouldn’t have just remembered that I forgot to clean it after shooting some delicious, yet corrosive 7N6 through it. 5.45×39 on tap for fun or not so fun times.

  20. Wat is dat pistol?! Pic says BT care of but I don’t think that’s a B&T. [?]

    The question is: Do you store firearms in your car, and where are you parked at the moment . . .?

  21. As I can’t carry on-post and go there nearly every day, there’s no point in carrying or storing a weapon in my POV.

    • You could carry on-post if you were a muslim terrorist, or, maybe you still “couldn’t carry”, ya know wink-wink, don’t profile, try not to judge. . .

  22. I would if I could figure out a way to wedge a decent safe in a Camaro. And then it’d be a matter of situating it for rapid retrieval. And, given my proclivity toward metal-framed firearms, leaving a firearm in the car given the summers here in the Land Mass might cause burns.

    • On a 4th gen F body, both rear quarter panels are rather easy to remove and have some space. In my street/track car I had a dry cell 12v battery mounted where the spare tire went, I could mount a security container there if I drove it everyday. 5th and 6th gen, I’m not sure about, but maybe a false partition between the trunk and backseat. Checkout some custom stereo installs, some plywood, auto carpet, maybe a hinge, velcro and/or strong magnets, you could make an out of sight hiding spot. Most are smash and grabs so they won’t have time or knowledge that the trunk or rear floorboard is smaller/higher than normal.

  23. If I know that I am going to have to visit a legally posted no gun zone I put the gun in my glove box or car safe when I leave home. That way no one will see me put it there. If someone breaks into my car it won’t be with foreknowledge.

  24. I used to keep a full size Glock with a few spare mags in the truck. Since my truck is almost as old as I am, not too many people see it as something worth breaking into. And I leave a hefty amount of empty cans and some other trash on the floor board. It’s a nice deterrent.

    Now, I learned to carry everywhere I go, so there’s never a need to keep a gun in the vehicle.

    • Hah! I knew a guy, long time ago, claimed to all us car freaks that he never filled his truck’s tank more than half full, to minimize his losses if something went wrong with it and he walked away. I love my cars, never really understood that.

  26. Nope. My car’s only worth $3K, so adding a gun would massively increase the amount of hassle is it got ganked.

  28. I store nothing in my Honda Accord overnight but I do travel with a small case of Mk3a2 offensive hand grenades for when the street beggars get too close to my car. They really hate it.

  30. I live in a small town in a very very rural area with nil crime. A deputy sheriff would typically take 20-30min to arrivel

    I lock the doors of my residence when home. Usually lock car when it is parked in my drive/parking lot. I don’t leave any valuable in a vehicle anywhere anytime.

    Are you hive dwellers sane? Leave a car unlocked in a city? You would abandon your wallet/purse in an unoccupied vehicle? A firearm??? Are you sane?

    • Where I come from, people were known to roll up their car windows and lock them in late June, lest someone put a bag of zucchini in your car. Otherwise it was better to leave the windows down so the car didn’t get so blame hot.

      On the farm, there were all manner of vehicles, tractors and sundry equipment around, and no one ever took a key out of an ignition switch. It would be a pain in the ass to go find the key when you needed it.

      • My first car was a ’62 Chevy Impala, a wedding present. For those who may never know how life was lived at that time, the ignition allowed the key to be removed in the off position, after which you could throw the key in the river, it would never be needed again. How times have changed, since we began ignoring criminals.

  31. Yes.

    I live in FL. Keep a pistol in the console during the day and in a lockbox for prolonged periods away or overnight.

    Rifle behind the back seat.

    Never had a rusting problem even when I used to carry model 10 Smith.

  32. I don’t keep a gun in the car, but I do tend to have one when I am in my car and I do keep some 9mm ammo and a cheaper fix blade knife in a tool bag in my trunk.

  33. Learned not to store guns in a car while a magistrate in law school. A cop friend had his Beretta 92 stolen from the glove compartment while his car was parked in front of his house. He replaced it with his .38 snubbie-stolen 2 weeks later. Then, a month later his .25 auto swiped from the glove box.
    Slow learner, but not me.

  34. Not unless I go into a hospital or gov’t building where I am prohibited from carrying. My EDC gun is always on me and my vehicle does not contain any other firearms. My wife on the other hand usually leaves her Ruger LCP in her vehicle.

  35. I keep a snubby in my console. It makes for a quick draw if I should get in an attempted car-jacking or become the attempted victim of a road rage incident. Yes, it could get stolen. So could my guns at home, or even my EDC if someone gets the drop on me. The point of having guns for SD is to have them available when you need them. I figure my car is a big locked box with an alarm system. I try to always park in areas that are widely visible and well lit.

    BTW, I did have my car broken into once. The thief took my GPS from the dash and a pair of binoculars from my glove box. He never opened the center console. What I’m thinking of is finding a place to store the gun where it’s accessible, but not in a place that someone would look if they are in a hurry. I think people who break into cars don’t take a lot of time. They want to gen in and out fast, especially if the alarm is going off.

    But I don’t have kids that could get a hold of my guns and I am not going to lock all my guns up so that I can’t get to them when I need them.

    • Sounds like you’re doing it right. Don’t try to think of a dumb place to store stuff; the criminals will always be WAY ahead of you in that kind of thinking. They might have ignored your console because people try to be clever.

  36. I’ll leave my primary and backup guns in the car, but only at the airport and only at the private parking lot where you have to pass through the gate and booth to get in, then take a shuttle to the terminal. Those lots are manned 24/7 and are surrounded by barbed wire high fences. I’m not saying it’s Fort Knox, but it’s not the side of the street, either.

    Beyond that, I place them in the back, under the cargo area covering, in the spare tire wheel well. Again, no guarantees they couldn’t still be found there, but it’s much farther down on a common thief’s search list.

  38. Yep. Pistol stays in the console while at work since I don’t particularly care for losing my job.

    Trunk houses an emergency bag. Said bag may or may not also house a small chest rig complete with 32 round 9mm flock mags for a gen2 sub2k…

    Not particularly worried about theft. The benefits, should the thing be needed, greatly out weigh the consequences.

  39. My locked car was broken into back around 1999 while was sitting in a transit parking lot in Toronto. They got my beat-up spare pair of eyeglasses and my new briefcase with my old calculator, which I still miss terribly. I do not leave my good camera or any other valuables in the car.

    There is no way would I leave a gun in the car. Whatever its virtues, a Casio Fx4000p is not a threat in the hands of a criminal.

  40. “Police say there’s not really a way to get those guns back from criminals.”

    I don’t read this as defeatist, but realistic. Even if they recovered the weapon they could never re-issue it because they’d never be 100% sure that it wasn’t used to murder somebody or for some other crime.

    • Chief of Police in PA had his duty weapon stolen from his PV by his drug dealing son. Police loose immense amounts of weapons each year.

  42. Store a gun in car? Oh, hell no…… Theft is not even the major problem. Border crossing into gun grabbing places like Ny, De or Nj are to easy living in SE PA. The last thing I need is a gun charge for crossing the river to buy some gas or a bottle of wine. Hell, who leaves a car unlocked anymore?

  44. In the 1980’s in downtown Providence RI, people would post a sign, “NO RADIO IN CAR” inside their car window. Piles of auto glass would litter the streets like sparkling diamonds. Me, I post “NO GUN IN CAR”. Just kidding.

  47. Yep, we keep a gun in each car 24/7. They are newer cars (better locks, alarms, less desirable targets, etc). They are primarily there for GHB purposes. In one car it’s in a lock box under the seat, in the other it’s in a holster, wrapped in a towel, and tucked away in one of the removable side panels in the trunk area. Living in, and travelling all over the NW year round, there are lots of opportunities to potentially need a GHB, and a sidearm is an important component of that gear.

  48. Not sure on other states but here in Colorado if you have kids in the car and gun is not on you and is considered “accessible” by said kids you will be arrested. Accessible being up to whatever cop pulls you over. From what I can tell a locked glove box or other locked compartment is not considered accessible but center console unlocked is open for interpretation.

    So I never leave any firearms in the car. But I wouldn’t even if I didn’t have kids. To easy to forgot about it when entering someplace like a military base/Federal property where any firearms are prohibited.

    • “Not sure on other states but here in Colorado if you have kids in the car and gun is not on you and is considered “accessible” by said kids you will be arrested”

      OK, seems fair. So I will not Fing TELL them there is a gun in the car! Do you have an Fing WARRANT? We have to stop just surrendering to these assholes, that law is unenforceable unless you SURRENDER! If they discover you have a gun because you defended the lives of your children with it, they can just try, in front of a jury, to explain why you should not have had it.

  49. I have a Lock’er Down safe in my truck which I temporarily store my firearm in any time I have to enter a GFZ (workplace rules), but I do not “store” it there longer than I have to – i.e comes into the house with me every night.

  50. I carry and shoot pistol and long guns often. I carry all the time where legal and sometimes that is overlooked. My work doesn’t allow carry within their fenced perimeter and buildings but they offer us a guarded fenced in parking lot with a lot of lights open only to pass-card holders.
    I don’t understand why ANYONE purposely leaves a pistol in their car that is parked outside the home and NOT in a locked garage. Take them inside your home!
    A car theft occurs and your gun is gone in 40 seconds or less! You can say the police should stop the rash of car break-ins but honestly, you WILL have a gun stolen eventually from your vehicle. PERIOD! And then YOU will be part of the problem and I only hope your gun isn’t used in a murder and or a policeman’s murder while he is trying to stop the very things you knew can happen but ignored. Idiots!

    • If you are going to hide away like a little girl with wet panties, you go ahead. But there are also such things as burglaries and home invasions, maybe it would be best if you just had no gun at all, otherwise it might be stolen! Assuming that criminals will simply always win, there is nothing we can do, is unforgivably defeatist. If someone is stealing your gun, SHOOT him.

  51. No, I don’t store a gun in my vehicle and I don’t advocate doing it, although my son does as his apartment mates object to him carrying a pistol in the apartment.

    I would just feel terrible if a gun I left in a vehicle was stolen and then used in a crime.

    But then, I’ve certainly sometimes felt that a pistol might not be enough firepower to stop all assaults, whereas, an AR-15 might.

    LF

  52. I leave a Glock 26 in a hidden spot in my SUV and I lock the doors ALWAYS. My Normal carries are Ruger LCP or a Kahr PM9 because those are the only guns I can back pocket Carry. I wanted a larger gun if needed or if I forgot my normal gun. My car has a storage area under the center console that opens to the back seat that no one ever knows is there.. It is perfect to reach back from driver seat and open it to grab the gun. And to make double sure no thief will steal it, even if they do see the compartment, I have the gun velcroed to the top of the compartment. When the door is open, you can only see the gun if your head is on the back floorboard and you have a flashlight. I have put off buying a new SUV because the newer models dont have this feature. I also have a small square gun safe that fits under the seat and is cabled to the steel seat frame. I put the gun in there if I will be away from my car for more than a day or two.

  54. Have a TSA approved steel cable tethered lock box in each vehicle for guns, cash, etc. However, I carry everywhere, sign be damned, unless I have to pass thru security, which is almost never. In the extremely rare incidence where a firearm is in my vehicle unattended, that is where it is. I do not want to contribute to any criminals well being & if a firearm was stolen from a secure container, I would check on seeing if the venue could be sued for forcing me to leave a weapon in the vehicle. My county is beyond gun friendly though, with ‘No Weapons’ signs actually being almost totally banned; the problem is going some other places.

  55. I don’t understand this obsession with “not arming criminals.” They are criminals. They steal stuff. Including guns. I reject limiting myself as to what I can have and where I can have it, based on the fear of the guy who steals it being a bad person.

    If my $600 AK in the car gets stolen, I will just get another one, and not give it another thought.

    • Ya but, firearms are the ONE thing that we all need to make sure that we do not add to the criminals arsenal. Every crime committed with a firearm is another squawking point for the talking heads.

        • A thing called a gun safe. If it’s not being carried, it is secured. And it’s not one of those flimsy metal cabinets & they are bolted to the floor. Nothing is foolproof, but this is a large deterrent.

  56. No, and there is something intellectually deficient about people who DO store one or more firearms in their vehicle.

  57. I don’t store my weapon in my vehicle unless I have to be forced into a no carry situation and then it is locked in a gun safe secured to the floor out of sight. Back to the real question is that why I carry in the first place. Because I can’t count on Law Enforcement to be at my side 24/7. Unfortunately we have to deal with no carry zones for now. Hopefully our new President will help us out with that problem.

Comments are closed.