How do you carry a loaded shotgun as a car carry weapon?

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Doug.38PR

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As many people carry shotguns in their cars, I was wondering how to go about doing it. You see police cars carry them up front sticking up in front of the dash board on the passenger side or under the front seat. The former doesn't seem like a great idea for a civilian as it would be clearly visible and accessible to thieves when parked. The latter isn't possible for my Ford Explorer with a center console in the middle of the front seat to the dash board.

Also, is there any kind of device that can hold the gun, and lock it, securely in place so as to not have it sliding around :eek:
Any ideas, any thoughts?
 
I carry mine (870) with mag tube downloaded by one round, chamber empty on pulled trigger and out of sight in the back seat or all the way to rear in suv. For longer trips, it would be cased.

If for some reason I wanted to have it as ready as possible, in a special situation, should I need to exit the car for some reason, the butt would be on the back floor and the barrel between the console and passenger seat so I could grab and go--or use it from the car, for that matter. In my state, it isn't considered loaded without a chambered round.

Some states may consider loaded as rounds in mag. only, or even attached to the gun-- like California.
 
Doug,

Around my parts, you don't see many people who aren't police carrying shotguns in their cars. They ones who keep a quail gun in back window rack aren't keeping them loaded. You have a carry permit. Don't you think a shotgun in addition to your handgun is overkill? If you are in your car, and you have time to dismount a shotgun from its rack and rack a round into it (while I don't recommend carrying a shotgun in your vehicle, I recommend against carrying it with a round in the chamber) can't you also drive away? Cops are driving to trouble, so their needs are different. No offense, but the guys who need to worry about ambushes and roadblocks in the US either high visibility public officials, a very few witnesses in mob or terror cases, criminals worried about rival criminals, and Batman. In Mexico City rich people are sometimes the targets of organized kidnappings for ransom, same a dozen other parts of the world, but not here.

Additionally, some police departments lock weapons in their vehicle racks to reduce the danger of theft. Some don't. A police car probably isn't left unattended as often as your personal vehicle. Now, I don't know about your community, but if someone around my part of Upstate New York had a loaded shotgun stolen out of their car, and used in a crime, lawyers (criminal and civil) would probably say he was reckless for having a loaded shotgun unsecured in his car. (Technically, it is a violation of the NYS Environmental Conservation Law to have a loaded rifle of shotgun in a motor vehicle, but that's a different matter.) Anyway, a cop has a shotgun stolen out of their car and used in a crime, people can say, "well, it shouldn't have happened, but of course he needed the shotgun accessible". Around here, you don't get the benefit of that doubt.
 
WWW.galls.com

Sells police gear and will have pics of the various vehicle lock racks used for shotguns and or patrol carbines. These of course could well be mounted many places in a vehicle to provide secure storage. They even have some chest style lockers for long arms in SUV type vehicles. Of course they are not cheap but quality never is.

Police shotguns are almost always carried with an empty chamber... hence the term "cruiser ready" i.e. hammer down on an empty chamber, safety off.

Of course why one would find the need for this unless you are a rancher is a whole diffirent matter
 
Oh ++++++++++++++1 on the NOT carrying one in the chamber! :eek:

Around Houston it is perfectly legal for a NON CHLer to carry a loaded shotgun in their car.

I have heard of several people who carry a shotgun in their car, nothing particularly unusual in the South I guess.

I've heard of a good number of TFL members who carry shotguns in their vehicles.

It makes for a more intimidating AND effective weapon if needed.

Could you drive away? Maybe. But then not if your car is disabled in some way.
 
+1 on carrying it cased or in a lockable hard case. If you do it frequently, it's probably a good idea to create a way to secure the locked case to the vehicle as an anti-theft measure.

Unless your local laws -- AND your local LEOs -- consider it legal, your options may vary as to the location of the firearm while driving. But I would opt for one of the mounts RsqVet referred to to keep it safe from theft.

When travelling with a long gun, it typically resides in the trunk or out of sight. I figure if anything starts up that my 1911 won't handle, my best option is to put the gear selector into "Retreat" and press hard on the throttle.
 
Of course why one would find the need for this unless you are a rancher is a whole diffirent matter
Click to expand...

Well, I am not a rancher, but I do work in rural areas and travel around the countryside often taking me to ranches and farms.

ALSO, I can see some potential need for a shotgun even in the city (or especially in the city). Say you are driving home one night and have a flat or a breakdown in or near the ghetto. You are going to want to have a little intimidation factor to make trouble think twice before it even gets to you while waiting 3 hours for AAA to show up.

Then there is of course the classic Trash Hits the Fan scenario (riot)
 
Minnesota came out with a directive to ticket anyone with a uncased-and or loaded long gun. When the carry law was new they stayed neutral on it, but now they say the carry law relates to hadguns only. The transportation of firearms in MN is a DNR-public Safety Law.
 
I love to tell this story....

Speaking from experience, albeit nearly 30 years ago when I was attending college at Marquette, I can tell you what will happen if you are walking down the sidewalk in the middle of the day with a pair of cased, unloaded .22 rifles, and are spotted by an LEO in downtown Milwaukee, WI....you get a free ride in the squad car to the Greyhound Bus station.

Today, with the hindsight and wisdom that comes with 50 years, I can't recommend carrying a long gun in public. At the time, my chief concern was only about whether or not it was legal...which apparently it was....although I have to admit that, when I left my apartment, I only assumed I was in compliance because I was going hunting and was transporting my firearm like I'd always done before....except this time I wasn't driving.

It all started when a buddy who had graduated a year before invited me to come up to his place for a couple days to go squirrel hunting. He lived about 100 miles north of Milwaukee. As I mentioned earlier, I was going to college at the time and, like most college kids (at least in those days), didn't have a car...didn't need one.

I called Greyhound, bought a ticket, took the bolt out of the old Remington..which I still have and the clip out of the even older Remington Nylon 66...which I think I also still have. As a hedge against a possible misinterpretation of the law by myself, I didn't carry any ammo.

I lived on 21st Street and the Bus Station was down on 6th street so the walk was a few blocks more than a mile. At the time, 21st Street was outside the campus in a part of town that people who didn't live there would call a ghetto.

I made a grand total of two blocks before my walk was interupted. I was walking on the north side of the street and passed a cop who had someone pulled over on the opposite side of the street. I noticed that he noticed me but continued my leisurely stoll to the bus station. Within a few seconds of seeing me, he pulled his car at an angle up on the curb in front of me. Apparently he was just finishing up when he first noticed me or he dropped what he was doing.

He stepped out of his car and said, "I supposed you're going to try to tell me you don't have a gun in that case?". I told him he was right, I have two guns in this case. This made him pause so I continued by telling him that I thought I was following all the rules for transporting firearms and that the gun's clip and bolt were not in the case with the guns; they were in my backpack...plus I didn't have any ammo on me at all.

He confirmed that I was not doing anything illegal but said that it was not the kind of thing a guy wanted to do "in this part of town" and asked me what I was doing walking down Wells Street with a couple rifles. I said, I was going hunting. He asked where. I said, "up around Neenah/Menasha." He asked me how I was going to get there. I told him I had a ticket on Greyhound. He asked me how I expected to be allowed to carry the guns on the bus. I told him I wasn't going to carry them on the bus, I was going to put them in the baggage compartment.

He asked me for my driver's license and went back to his car to check me out. Finding I had a spotless record, he returned.

He asked me why I hadn't gotten a ride to the bus station. I told him I was a student at Marquette and didn't know anyone with a car...and I wasn't making that up at all. I suppose I could have asked my boss at the tow truck company - Road Patrol - to give me a lift but was afraid he'd try to talk me into working.

I told him that, if he wanted, I would be happy to get a ride to the bus station in his car. He told me that was against the rules and went back to his car again. When he returned, all he said was, "my boss says I should give you a ride to the bus station."

We had a nice talk after that on the way to the bus station. He even walked in with me and helped me get up to the front of the line.

On the bus it looked like nobody wanted to sit by me until one fairly greasy looking guy took the window seat. All the way to Neenah, he pointed his finger out the window and pretended to shoot people. He gave me the creeps and made me glad I hadn't packed my knife in the luggage compartment with my guns.

I got off the bus in Neenah at about 10:00 at night and walked five miles to my friend's house...this was also before cell phones..in fact I don't think my friend even had a regular phone. But the point is, I walked five miles in a relatively large town but definitely not a city. I walked in the dark, I was passed by multiple LEO's and none of them stopped to find out what I was doing, much less give me a ride to my friend's house.

I returned to Milwaukee the same way and walked all the way home at midnight without any more encounters with LEO's.

I think the moral of this story is that just because something is not against the law does not mean it is necessarily a good idea to do it. It is also not against the law to carry a Ruger three screw with six rounds loaded, but the long odds always seem to come through when you don't want them to so I carry mine with the hammer on an empty chamber.

I hope this helps.
 
"ALSO, I can see some potential need for a shotgun even in the city (or especially in the city). Say you are driving home one night and have a flat or a breakdown in or near the ghetto. You are going to want to have a little intimidation factor to make trouble think twice before it even gets to you while waiting 3 hours for AAA to show up."

WOW I guess the saying common sense is uncommon has never rung more true.

I don't know what or where you have been but as someone who has lived, waked the streets of and worked in what is arguably a "ghetto" you are not even on the same page or chapter with reality here. You are going to be holed up in your car with your loaded shotgun??? Or sitting on the roof for a better vantage point.

Give me a dang brake, get some common sense and stop setting a bad example for the rest of the gun owning and self defense minded public.

For one thing if you have a flat somewhere where you need a shotgun drive on your dang rim, better yet if you really have to go to these places buy a hummer with kevlar and run flats.

For another thing you could hardly manuver a shotgun in a vehicle. Try it in your garage and see for yourself. Second what are you going to do roll down your windows and hang the thing out?? Not to mention your hearing or having to work the slide.

Would common sense not dictate to keep your windows up??

Lastly, and I say this having spent 10 years as a fire/medic volunteer and paid, and being a strong proponent of one's right to defend oneself... .. if we rolled up on a disabled motorist and found the occupant hold up inside with a shotgun that would be an automatic trip for a psych eval unless there were extream extenuating circumstances, i.e. they were fleeing a violent spouse... simply because this is not what normal, prudent people do.
 
RsqVet, couldn't have said it better myself. At least you beat me to it. And I think a lot of states are adopting the "unloaded long arms in cars" laws, at least that is how it is in the Old Dominion.
 
RsqVet,
you're generalizing. You are adding absurd elements to my scenario and claiming this is what I am saying.

Manuvering a shotgun in a vehicle? I wouldn't even want to shoot my pistol in my vehicle (I like being able to hear) much less a shotgun loaded with 12 gauge Magnum Buckshot.

Rolling up the windows? Those windows aren't going to stop a determined nut or a gang. I was thinking more about having the gun inside the vehicle within reaching distance, maybe walking to the trunk with it (so as some pondering bangers might have the benefit of seeing briefly that this white mutha...ahem...is armed) as I get a spare (in case I get too old waiting for AAA) and still keeping it out of sight so as not to alarm passing cars or police patrol or the tow truck. I was not advocating standing around or on top of the truck with SG in hand as though on guard duty calling for the tow truck to "HALT!, Friend or foe!" :rolleyes: It's having tools available for a dangerous moment while still exersicing the common sense that you mentioned. If I am approached while changing or waiting by some gang bangers looking for spare change or just plain trouble, I can have the shotgun ready to produce and serve as an intimidation factor (yes one of them might decide to call the police if it came to that...but I not before I did and what jury is going to believe some thug over a guy with a flat tire. But the same thing would happen if it was just my handgun)
 
On the few times I carry one, I put the shotgun on the floor in the back seat, and cover it with a towel or blanket. It's loaded fully, and there is one in the chamber. I carry an AR or SKS the same way.

I know that I am no where near as good as others at creating scenarios, but I can't see where a shotgun is really the best thing to carry in real life.
 
I have an older friend who keeps a 20 gauge in his car for defense. He has it positioned in an odd way in between the driver and passenger seat that it's clearly visable from up close, but can't be seen from far away looking into the windows.
 
Curious about Florida laws...

Florida law alllows a firearm to be carried (loaded) in the glove compartment
or center console of your car, even without a concealed carry license!

Now, I do, in fact, have a concealed firearms license.

I am wondering what my rights are regarding transporting a
shotgun in a vehicle?

All the more confusing since I have been told that the concealed carried license only applies to weapons carried concealed "on your person".

I don't plan on making a shotgun my car's "carry gun", but I wonder
what the implications are as far as far as transporting your shotgun to the range are?

Any ideas?
 
Florida Carry Laws

Mokumbear, I also have a Florida carry permit.. When I go hunting, I just put the shotgun in the trunk of my car.. If I'm in the truck, I put it in a hard shell case and lay it in the bed of the truck.. In Florida, under these scenarios, the long gun can be either loaded or unloaded and is being carried leagally.. Personally, I wouldn't put a loaded Shotgun in the bed of my truck or in the trunk of my car, but, that's quite up to you....
 
ive always been told that in flordia, gun is to be unloaded with firearm and ammunition seperate(trunk from cab), and at least three moves away.

i know from experieince if your helping your brother jump his car on a cirt road near railroad tracks near pensacola, and you have a 22 revolver in the glove compartment and rounds locked in a tool box, the cop will hold your gun for you while you sit with your hands in plain view as he checks for warrents/record. its a big pain.



oh and doug, also from experience, as someone with friends from the ghetto, to walk to your trunk with a shotgun to change a flat, youll look silly and probably have someone call the cops on you. best bet is ge a Concealed Carry Permit, and keep it on your hip.
 
simplekindaman; lets just put this baby to bed

Florida Sttute 790.25 Lawful ownership, possession, and use of firearms and other weapons.--

Section (5) located at http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0790/SEC25.HTM&Title=->2006->Ch0790->Section%2025#0790.25
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States The Following; POSSESSION IN PRIVATE CONVEYANCE.--Notwithstanding subsection (2), it is lawful and is not a violation of s. 790.01 for a person 18 years of age or older to possess a concealed firearm or other weapon for self-defense or other lawful purpose within the interior of a private conveyance, without a license, if the firearm or other weapon is securely encased or is otherwise not readily accessible for immediate use. Nothing herein contained prohibits the carrying of a legal firearm other than a handgun anywhere in a private conveyance when such firearm is being carried for a lawful use. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to authorize the carrying of a concealed firearm or other weapon on the person. This subsection shall be liberally construed in favor of the lawful use, ownership, and possession of firearms and other weapons, including lawful self-defense as provided in s. 776.012.
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subsection (2) USES NOT AUTHORIZED.--

(a) This section does not authorize carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, as prohibited by ss. 790.01 and 790.02.

(b) The protections of this section do not apply to the following:

1. A person who has been adjudged mentally incompetent, who is addicted to the use of narcotics or any similar drug, or who is a habitual or chronic alcoholic, or a person using weapons or firearms in violation of ss. 790.07-790.115, 790.145-790.19, 790.22-790.24;

2. Vagrants and other undesirable persons as defined in 1s. 856.02;

3. A person in or about a place of nuisance as defined in s. 823.05, unless such person is there for law enforcement or some other lawful purpose.

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790.01 Carrying concealed weapons.--

(1) Except as provided in subsection (4), a person who carries a concealed weapon or electric weapon or device on or about his or her person commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

(2) A person who carries a concealed firearm on or about his or her person commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

(3) This section does not apply to a person licensed to carry a concealed weapon or a concealed firearm pursuant to the provisions of s. 790.06.

(4) It is not a violation of this section for a person to carry for purposes of lawful self-defense, in a concealed manner:

(a) A self-defense chemical spray.

(b) A nonlethal stun gun or dart-firing stun gun or other nonlethal electric weapon or device that is designed solely for defensive purposes.

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subsection (5) This section does not preclude any prosecution for the use of an electric weapon or device, a dart-firing stun gun, or a self-defense chemical spray during the commission of any criminal offense under s. 790.07, s. 790.10, s. 790.23, or s. 790.235, or for any other criminal offense.

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Statute 776.012 Use of force in defense of person.--A person is justified in using force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against the other's imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if:

(1) He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony..

Subsection (3): LAWFUL USES.--The provisions of ss. 790.053 and 790.06 do not apply in the following instances, and, despite such sections, it is lawful for the following persons to own, possess, and lawfully use firearms and other weapons, ammunition, and supplies for lawful purposes
Section (h) of subsection (3): A person engaged in fishing, camping, or lawful hunting or going to or returning from a fishing, camping, or lawful hunting expedition

:)
 
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