You’d think this would be obvious, but apparently it needs to be repeated:
“Owning a firearm is a great responsibility and stolen firearms could be used to harm innocent people and children,” said the SAPD Facebook Page. “Please help us keep your firearms from circulating on the black market. Never leave your unsecured firearm in an unsecured vehicle. If you must leave them in your vehicle, please store them in a hidden/ secured locked box.”
– Matt Tramell for San Angelo Live, SAPD Urges Gun Owners to Keep Guns Out of Vehicles
Come on, people. Your car is not a gun safe.
That would greatly depend on the car and the safe.
Agreed.
I figure that if a safe’s combination/location is ever compromised, at least most vehicles these days have alarms and are fairly difficult to get into without the right tools & planning. eave a couple junk/bait guns in the safe & secure/hide the good ones in the wife’s car.
Just make sure she knows.
We can’t have headlines like, “Mom busted with arsenal at Murphy Elementary; husband’s story not believed. News at 11″”
Breaking into new cars requires a very complicated tool to accomplish the act. A ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with a few seconds time your car has been cleaned out. Leave it in SE Atlanta, W Memphis, or parts of any other large city you’ll find out.
Good luck with that… Replacing the safety glass in your car with something a bit more durable is one of the first vehicle upgrades that you need to install.
“Good luck with that… Replacing the safety glass in your car with something a bit more durable is one of the first vehicle upgrades that you need to install.”
Like what? Replacing the safety glass in your car with anything other than more safety glass is generally frowned upon in most states.
A spring loaded center punch does an excellent job. Once a tempered side or rear glass is damaged, it breaks into relatively smooth gravel-sized particles instead of sharp shards. I was still finding pieces in my garage for years after replacing my gf’s rear vent window that someone broke in through. A rock will work, but it needs to be really big, or sharp and hard. That’s why you’ll find carbide glass breakers on knives and rescue tools.
2017 models introduced laminated glass (as previously windshields) all the way around. Your window punch, of whatever variety, is worthless. You need a starter hole and a saw just previously needed to remove a windshield.
Car alarms? Is this a joke? People completely stopped paying attention to car alarms somewhere around 2000. Unless it’s the alarm on their car and it’s in their driveway or something no one cares about car alarms other than wanting the owner to shut the damn noise off.
Are car alarms still even a thing? I don’t remember hearing one in years even when I lived in the city.
And yeah, nobody pays attention to those.
Uh, no. I can break into most car in a few minutes at most with no damage to the vehicle and that’s using one tool, although I have the master set of tools. Why you ask? Because I’m a professional mechanic (retired)
Also as someone said in another comment, “a rock” well that may work but many cars are coming with laminated glass for the side and back windows and they are most difficult to get through.
Still, cars are a piss poor gun safe. If you have to leave your gun in your car more than just once in a while when you had to leave it, then you need to figure out something else. Don’t leave your guns in your cars.
Here’s a video illustrating side windows with laminated glass. This was in Spokane a few years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaRZmm6GKtk
No problem. Just eliminate “gun free zones” so we don’t have to use our cars as a gun safe.
Yep!
That was my immediate reaction to the artical.
The abosolute safest place for my gun when I’m out and about is on me. Some gun hating socialists crap-hole states don’t seem to understand (or more likely done care about) that.
With exactly that thought in mind I eliminated every place that forces me to disarm and leave my gun behind. Fortunately here in Georgia, if a business objects to my carry their only recourse is to ask me to leave. Stickers and signs do not have the weight of law here.
Same in Pennsylvania.
Wish that were true in TX.
What is a safe if not a locked container? My car, my home, my locker, my safe. All locked containers all readily defeatable. Kinda why I have the gun in the first place.
The message is good but the title has nothing to do with what was said. Whoever titled the article needs to learn to read.
We had a couple more stolen from cars in my neighborhood again recently. One was locked, one wasn’t. Why they leave a pistol in their car overnight is bewildering to me. We have car break-ins constantly here so it is never a surprise.
I don’t leave a gun in my truck but when I have to go into the bank here in TX where there is the force of law to prevent you from going into a bank, school or medical or government building. There’s little choice unless I want to go about my normal business either unarmed or with the wife all the time so she can go in and I can keep her firearm in the truck with me.
What amazes me is that there aren’t more thugs hanging out in the parking lots of such “gun-free” zones watching when an armed driver or passenger disarms. The motions to disarm are obvious.
Funny…I’m remember a neighbor who was an up and coming special unit/city police officer. He used to have an expensive collectable 300zx sports car…Unfortunately, it was stolen from his home by car thieves…Along with one of his duty firearms…Oops…He was no longer employed as a police officer….So, that PD chief should hold his tongue lecturing citizens…No carve-outs for LEOs then…
Wish the edit button was here….(additional : The LEOs pistol was stored in his vehicle….)
Yep, why no editing allowed?
Kate Steinle was murdered by a criminal with a stolen LEO firearm.
A murderer who not only walked but now wants his sole conviction on gun possession retried.
He should be drowned instead.
Nope, fly him back to his home country and pitch him out of the airplane at 20 thousand feet. If he figures out how to fly, or God grants him a miracle, he lives. If not, he won’t be coming to America.
That’s the problem with America these days. There just ain’t no justice any more.
“He should be drowned instead.”
Ooooo… the poena cullei? Exotic.
Locally we have a lot of late model stolen cars, I thought it was strange with all the built in anti theft features. I asked a friend who is an insurance adjuster how it could happen. He said that morons leave the spare key in the glove compartment. I guess you can lock the doors but if someone touches the handle it will unlock, great job keyless entry system….. I saw on the news where a BMW was stolen, the keys were in the home, car in driveway, close enough to each other to start the car.
We have urban areas where cars are stolen, then driven out to more rural areas to go car treasure hunting in unlocked cars. If the police notice them they always run back to 2 of the local cities, human nature to flee to an area you are more comfortable with. More often than not it’s a group of teenagers under the age of 18.
I am sure the mother lode is finding a firearm in a car/truck. No clue why anyone would consider a car a safe place to leave a gun unless they have a console security container bolted in, I have one under the center armrest in my truck. Foolproof, no, smash and grab proof, yes, good for when you have to go in and not stay long, not overnight.
I wonder if cars are getting too high tech. One reason to drive older cars.
And this feature is probably buried on page 2389 of the 5000+ page instruction manual.
Well, my Toyota is 2011 and my BMW is 2012, and your statements are bullshit for either. If I use one key to lock the other in the car, then I have to use the metal key to open the door when I get back, and if I am standing beside the driver’s door with the key and you are trying to open the back door without another key, it will not open, because of the 2 FEET difference. You may be describing a prototype system in 1985 or something, but not an actual system anywhere close to today’s cars. Also, though I don’t think you addressed it, if I am in the driver’s seat, and I have the key in my hand and stick my hand out the window by 6 inches (so the key is not inside the car), the car will not start. These systems are the bomb, they WORK!
Like Larry said, that’s not how fobs work. I can’t speak for all cars, but the designers aren’t complete idiots. Mine specifically will ignore any fob locked inside the vehicle. It will only unlock if one is present nearby outside.
Your insurance friend probably told you that to keep you from worrying (or what they use to deny a valid claim), but the reality is worse. Thieves use a device to copy the signal from the fob inside your house, and use that to spoof your car into starting and unlocking. Then they drive away and part it out at the chop shop. If there is a fob inside, it just makes it easier to start the 2nd time.
You should worry more about the fob you keep by the front door than one left in the glove box.
It depends enormously on the vehicle.
There are certain cars without locking hoods which can have their security systems deactivated and the doors unlocked by touching a 9v battery in the right place.
No matter what car you’re talking about though the security is possible to defeat, and usually defeat shockingly rapidly, if you know what you’re doing.
Ok, I have a counter proposal.
Citizens urge SAPD to do their jobs by providing adequate crime prevention resources to support the community. Officers are paid generously to patrol neighborhoods, arrest criminals and assist in their prosecution, but a significant part of an officer’s job is crime prevention. After all, any officer will tell you that it is a lot less paperwork to deter crime than have to arrest for it! The community benefits greatly when you put SAPD resources toward mitigating crime and when we are unfortunate enough to be victimized by crime, do us the courtesy of not trying to discourage our pursuit of charges!
Sure, it might be “just a misdemeanor” to you, but to the victim, it’s hard earned income or property and to criminal, it’s easily gotten booty if you don’t pursue it.
So don’t chide us for doing what SAPD does routinely, that is, storing our property inside our property. Get off the soap box and into the squad car and do what we’re paying you to do.
This message brought to you by the community you serve.
It goes without saying “don’t leave yer gat in your ride”. Yet we’re saying it. You can’t fix stupid but you can steal his gun😄😊😏
Why yes it is. If my car is locked and someone breaks in to steal it or something else …. that’s on the thief … not me.
Stop blaming law abiding people for the actions of criminals.
You would that this was obvious.
yeah,..you would think these bad guys were a force of nature….or something…and not humans capable of conscious thought
Perhaps it’s time for TAG to establish some editorial standards which include a restriction on the use of clickbait articles. Just sayin’
They’d lose 40% of content. And 80% of Kat’s. LOL.
Let law abiding citizens keep firearms on their person.
Try prosecuting criminals for crimes and not admonishing victims of theft.
Do we have law enforcement wagging fingers at victims of carjacking, robbery, rape, etc?
I have heard some stories which say, actually, yes, we do.
my vehicles don’t have a trunk separate from the interior so they are poor choices for holding guns. I don’t leave my car anywhere with guns inside. I would have to get a small safe bolted to the floor to hold a handgun and long guns are out of the question.
My car is hard to steal without a tow truck so it’s probably not going to be stolen. Other cars are easy pickings.
My friends who are San Diego Sheriff’s have had Sheriff supplied/installed/paid safes/lockboxes put in their cars.
I actually agree with this IF I could have a carry anywhere CCW. Ok, I understand courthouses and police stations. But #1 place I should be able to carry is my kids school and where they play basketball, soccer, volleyball, and music lessons.
If you work in a gun free zone where you work don’t even bother bringing it with you because you’re not going to be able to reach it anyway if you needed it.
Oh so true, especially if you have NRA or Second amendment stickers on it. The same with your house. It may feel good to let people know where you stand but it tells the miscreants too. And if you carry don’t wear gun realm ads on your head. If you’re in the middle of a bank robbery you may be the first one shot before you know what’s going on.
Well,if you carry & have to go into a federal building or cop shop or anywhere else that has a sign that says… no guns allowed if not a policeman, you can (if caught) lose your carry permit, your gun, & spend a lot of time talking to cops, get barred from certain establishments, & so on, sometimes you have no choice but to hide your piece in your car.. I think they need to do something more drastic to the thieves when caught,,, like actually keep them in the hoosegow,,,
same deal with post offices…
Blaming a gun owner for keeping his or her gun concealed in a locked vehicle and having it stolen is akin to blaming a woman wearing sexy clothes for getting raped.
Let’s blame the offender, not the victim.
IF, as democrats say, “we don’t need firearms because the police will protect us”, then how come firearms aren’t safe in our cars? How come they aren’t safe in police vehicles?
From 1996- nearly 1000 police firearms “lost” or stolen in the Bay Area alone. http://extras.mercurynews.com/policeguns/.
The problem in California is that “outside” agencies are not allowed to bring a firearm into a government building, EVEN WHILE CONDUCTING OFFICIAL business. That is why cops have their guns stolen in California.
A real and properly installed gun safe will not be broken into by a thief. But he might destroy your car trying to get at your firearm. I don’t keep guns in my vehicles overnight.
I do, for the past 5-10 years, a Kimber 1911 with a spare mag, never had a problem. I do keep the doors locked, though. I appreciate the legislature recently legalizing car carry, though, my unlicensed son occasionally uses that car, and might have been arrested for it before that law change. I wouldn’t expect that to happen, though, even if a cop discovered it during a stop.
The Right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Why must I leave my firearm in a vehicle?
“Why must I leave my firearm in a vehicle?”
Sheesh, Possum.
You’re a (currently homeless) marsupial.
Stash you carry piece in your possum pouch…
*snicker* 😉
Are you kidding me? I love these comments. Never leave my gun in the car. I remove it every night. I call BS. If you carry a gun then there are times its left in the vehicle. It’s legal to conceal a gun in the vehicle here without a permit. I can’t carry at work so it’s left in the vehicle during the day. When I get home it’s left in the vehicle. I’m not constantly holstering and unholstering a gun. I carry a gun when I can and have a truck gun in the truck that lives there. It is hidden and you take a big chance breaking in as all the bells and whistles are going off. I’m sure I’m not the only one doing this.
Of course bloviating pubic officials decrying guns left in vehicles refuse to acknowledge the NUMBER ONE REASON someone might leave a gun in their vehicle. The fact that MANY PLACES will not allow a person to carry said gun. Be it work, a hospital, a school….LOTS OF PLACES. Thus people who would normally have said firearm on their person are FORCED by threat of legal action or loss of employment to either be UNARMED AND UNDEFENDED outside their home OR risk the theft of said firearm by leaving it in their vehicle. And this is NOT AN ACCIDENT. VAST numbers on the left WANT these honest citizens to be disarmed and they will do ANYTHING to insure that….including making gun possession ILLEGAL wherever and whenever possible.
Too many gun owners make it easy. It is not even a case of breaking into a car. Unsecured guns are left in unlocked guns. Through the first week of November 2018, 356 guns were stolen from unlocked guns in Jacksonville, FL where I live.
I know, right?
This is why hunters should bring their guns with them when grabbing their Starbucks on the way out in the morning.
They should add a provision to federal and state laws stating that all gun free zones shall provide secure storage for firearms within all entrances and failure to provide secure storage would legally negate gun bans within the posted establishment. Additionally employees that report illegal carrying but fail to provide the secure storage could potentially face false report charges due to reporting illegal carry when in fact it was legal due to no provided storage option as mandated. Any employer that instructs an employee to report an unenforceable gun ban as an enforceable gun ban could face charges as well. Protections from prosecution for not keeping a gun in your car may be the only way to stop gun theft car break ins in front of gun free zones. The gun locker area would need to have armed guards to prevent the lockers themselves from being targeted.
Cars are arguably safer than many of those small gun safes. That being said an uncased pistol hidden under a seat would be easier for a burglar to identify as a pistol than a cased pistol would be.
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