Car Safes And Trunk Guns
A few weeks ago, we discussed why you really don’t want to carry a pistol in a so-called “car holster.” I still stand by everything I said in that post, but I must admit, for years, I kept at least one pistol inside my car. Sometimes, I kept another, larger, gun in the trunk for those times when a pistol might not be enough.
Let me explain why.
There is no real reason to use a car holster if you rely on a larger-sized pistol carried on your waist or in a holster. You can access your pistol on your waist just as quickly as you can in a car holster. Plus, you get the added advantage of having your gun on you when you leave your car. However, not everyone has the luxury of being able to carry a large defensive pistol on their waist all the time.
I used to work in a white-collar office environment. I was fortunate to work in offices where I was allowed to carry a pistol on me so long as it was concealed. I figured out that carrying a small .380 ACP in my front pocket was the best way for me to be armed while not upsetting my coworkers or company policy. But I also had to drive to and from work each day. That meant a long commute where I sat buckled in to my car with my gun in my pocket. I quickly realized two things:
(1) it would be very difficult (if not impossible) for me to draw a gun from my pocket holster while strapped in to my car; and
(2) while a pocket .380 might be great for cubicle-to-cubicle combat, it is a poor choice for the longer distances likely found on the open road.
Security Vs. Stealth: Is It Too Much To Ask For Both?
“Hold gun owners accountable.” Think about that phrase for a second and what it might mean to you.
Trying to balance the need to stay safe on the road with the need to keep my firearm secured proved to be a bit of a challenge. The most common solution to this problem is a trunk gun. However, that wouldn’t really work because if I needed a gun to defend myself I would need it in a fraction of a second. I needed a solution that would
(1) keep a defensive pistol near me,
(2) keep the pistol safe when I was not in the car, and
(3) still be quickly accessible for those times when having a gun was literally a matter of life and death.
This is where a dedicated quick access vehicle safe (like the Hornady Rapid Vehicle Safe) comes in handy. The safe is secured to the frame of my car with a steel cable and is opened with either a key lock, touchpad combination, or RFID chip. It’s that last feature — the RFID chip — that makes this safe most useful for my purposes.
My smartphone is almost always near me. On the back of my phone is a small disc that contains the RFID chip for my vehicle safe. To open the safe and access my gun, I merely wave the back of my phone over the top of the safe and, presto, the safe pops open and my gun is right there. If for some reason my phone isn’t handy, the Rapid Vehicle Safe can be opened with a RFID bracelet, combination keypad, or mechanical key.
It’s simple, fast, and easy. Better still, my gun is securely locked away out of sight and away from the hands of any crooks out there.
But What About A Trunk Gun?
Right now, some of you may be saying, “Why go to all that bother when you can just stash a rifle or a shotgun in the trunk?”
Valid question.
Let’s consider for a moment what the trunk gun is, what it’s supposed to do, and what role it has in the life of an armed citizen.
The idea of a trunk gun springs from two different sources. The first is the range gun: a rifle that’s used outdoors to do the work that a pistol can’t do, such as chasing predators away from crops and livestock or protecting yourself at distances beyond pistol range. Classic examples of this kind of trunk gun are found hanging in rifle racks in the cabs of pickup trucks all across America.
Cops Have Trunk Guns, I Should Have One Too, Right?
The second kind of trunk gun is the patrol rifle commonly found in the back of police cars (as an aside, isn’t it interesting how the same semi-automatic AR-15 is called a “patrol rifle” when the police have one but an “assault rifle” when you or I have one?). The rifle or shotgun that police rely on is meant to provide extra firepower in situations where their sidearms are insufficient to stop the threat.
Are there times when a trunk gun makes sense? Yes, there are. When I used to travel around rural Arizona it was my habit to toss some water, a small “bug out” bag full of essential gear, and a lightweight rifle in the trunk of my car. My trunk gun of choice was a Kel-Tec SU16C. Lightweight and tiny, this rifle has a lot of nice features that make it an attractive last-ditch rifle.
I also take a pistol and rifle with me when my family goes camping. Do I foresee having to fend off the zombie apocalypse from the alpine forests of Greer, Arizona? No. But can I relax a little bit more around the campfire knowing I have something with me that reaches out to 100+ yards? You bet I can.
When A Trunk Gun Doesn’t Make Sense.
Keeping a rifle in the trunk of my car doesn’t make a lot of sense for me most of the time. I don’t live on a farm or a ranch. I live in a small suburban town, and I don’t do much driving in rural areas anymore. I’m also not a cop, so it’s not my job to take bad guys into custody or defend the community at large. My job is to keep my loved ones and myself safe. If I show enough force that a bad guy (or gal) breaks contact and goes off in search of easier prey, that’s a win for me and my family.
Two is one, one is none, right?
How would a trunk gun help in that situation? I don’t think it does. If a deadly threat appears when I’m in my car, it’s either going to appear so quickly that I will not have time to stop, park my car, pop open the trunk, and get my rifle, or appear at such a distance that I can simply drive off and avoid it all together.
Active Threats
But what about active shooters? Don’t you want to keep a rifle in your trunk in case you’re involved in an active shooter event? Not really.
Let’s look at an active shooter event in terms of your mission as an armed citizen. My mission, first and foremost, is to keep my loved ones and myself safe. Any benefit I may provide to the community as a whole is of secondary importance to me.
If I’m Christmas shopping in the mall and the Leprechaun Liberation Army decides to attack, my mission is to get my family to a position of safety. Getting there will not happen instantaneously, and the time it takes me to get everyone to safety is time that the police will be using get on site and deal with the threat from this gang of diminutive, heavily armed Celtic fairy tale creatures. Problem solved.
We also now know that most active shooters quit when confronted by another force. Is my concealed carry pistol the best means to end an active shooter’s rampage? Probably not. Can I protect my loved ones and myself in an active shooter situation with just my concealed carry pistol? Probably so, though I hope I never have to find out.
Just In Case Your Pistol Isn’t Enough
Security is key in keeping a firearm in your car. Despite all the effort that’s been put into strengthening your vehicle to survive a collision on the road, it is still not a gun safe. As such, if you choose to keep a gun in your car, you should lock it up in some way that will frustrate all but the most determined of crooks. The last thing you want is to find out that your legally purchased firearm has been stolen and is being used to commit crimes. Keeping your guns safe and locked up when not in use helps not only you and your loved ones, but also everyone else in your community.
As a police officer, I used to pack an HK-91 on the back seat of my Honda Accord. Toss it on the back seat. Fold the seat down over it. No one saw it. No one was upset but it was still available if I needed it.
As an (alleged) police officer, you should know better. NEVER, EVER, leave a firearm in your unattended vehicle, PERIOD. As a retired street cop with 33+ years of service (most of those with a major pacific northwest PD) I took dozens and dozens of car prowl reports in which a firearm was taken. Those ‘theft proof’ boxes are a JOKE and are EASILY defeated with common hand tools. Your ‘hidden’ firearm underneath a SEAT? Another (sad) joke. Be a RESPONSIBLE firearm owner, no excuses!
Hi Clark,
I grew up in the country where you often see various guns left in the gun racks of pickup trucks; often as not with the windows open. This was a different time but I always thought this an open invitation to thieves.
I’ve always been a bug about leaving a gun unattended. At home, my guns went inside with me. On duty, it was my duty gun. At the time, I was working for a defense contractor and security would store my rifle and duty bag if I had to bring it with me during the day.
I agree that the inexpensive lock boxes are pretty flimsy. Where I have to leave a gun locked in my car, I like to remove the slide or bolt from the gun. You might not be able to carry a gun somewhere but the gun free zone laws say nothing about carrying gun parts. Thieves want to steal a gun. Half a gun is useless to them.
Ditto what Clark said. I’m also a retired pacific northwest police detective, with similar experiences. A car or truck is a very poor place to leave a firearm unattended. Even with the best safe, or steel plates welded to the frame, just take the whole car and defeat the security in the privacy of a closed garage, shop, etc. Or…..
Ignore “gun free zones.” Bad guys do. Clark and I can as retired cops carry most places due to our career choice, and with the LEOSA law, nation-wide. BUT, be prepared to deal with the consequences if your employer catches you. Termination? You need to be alive to be fired.
I think it was in late summer 1966 when the UT Tower sniper killed a bunch of people until a few guys on campus with rifles in their trunks or on their gun racks, and started to return fire, and suddenly the shooter had to hide and could not fire at will. A trunk gun could come in handy when chaotic times are at hand, if they ever are.
Lots of people can’t carry at work but want to be armed otherwise. The flimsy little cabled safes are easily compromised and would advise on having something stronger if you have to do this regularly for extended periods in an unsecured area. I know a guy that bolted a FAS1 Safe (7 gauge steel with Simplex lock) in the trunk of his Mustang for when at work. Much more secure since he was using it 8+ hours daily.
Yes and no. Yes, they are some that can be quickly bypassed, but look at this from the crook’s perspective: He/She is looking for the easy score. If it takes them more than a minute or two to get what they want, they’re exposing themselves to unwanted attention and possible arrest.
One of my neighbors has surveillance video of a gang of smash-and-grab artists that hit our locale a few weeks ago. Their M.O. was simple: Walk down the sidewalk, pause to look around, walk up the car, try the handle, move on. If they found an unlocked car, they’d go thru the console and glove compartment, and move on, and if they found a car with the key fob in it (Which, sadly, they did. More than once.), they drove off in their new car.
Just by locking your car doors, you are opting out of most car break ins.
On the one hand, I had the swaged fitting come off from one of these cables nearly new in my hand. Had I been the bad guy, going home to work on the box would have been gift wrapped.
On the other hand, I have failed to locate a spot in either family vehicle where a lock box could be bolted both accessible and out of sight. I prefer a box under the seat because with a bit of care I can fiddle with it unobserved, in any weather, and behind a locked door — a box in the trunk offers none of that. The box is for when I must be unarmed to enter a GFZ. Once I’m clear, the gun belongs back on my person. I need to be in and out, inconspicuously, in public, coming and going.
The box is simply to discourage innocents from harm and keep the gun clean. If a criminal breaks a locked car and discovers a bonus under the seat, I put that on society for creating the GFZ. Life is complex.
While I understand the reasons justifying a lockbox under the seat secured with a cable, the truth of the matter is that any but the largest/burliest braided cables is easy to defeat. Very low level of security, especially if you are using your lockbox 8+ hours daily. Most criminals carry wire cutters in their pocket as part of their EDC, there are many obstacles that they encounter on a daily basis as part of their “job” to not be equipped. The author’s lockbox on a cable is only barely better than a loose gun under his seat.
Sure. However, keep in that crooks are looking for an easy score. They, like us, prep for what’s likely, not possible, and the odds of encountering a lockbox are quite low.
We had a rash of car break-ins in my neighborhood earlier this year, and their M.O. was all the same.
1. Look for unlocked cars.
2. Rummage around in the glove box and console.
3. Key fob = stolen car = win
4. Take anything that looked valuable and was easy to grab
5. Move on to the next car.
ANY lock can be broken. The only question is, at what cost?