HOWEVER, according to a cop I talked to at a gun show, as soon as you get into your car with that weapon (unless you're heading to the range or a gun shop), it is now concealed once you close your car door, even if it is on the seat next to you exposed.
I'd suggest that a cop at a gun show is NOT qualified legal advice. No cop anywhere is, and there's nothing penalizing them if they give you completely inaccurate information. Look at the laws, yourself, or get a lawyer to do it and give you a qualified professional legal opinion (and for a fee) but don't take a cop's advice as fact just because they are a cop. Trust, but VERIFY!
Lots of people have been busted for a crime that existed only in the cop's interpretation of the law, and we seldom hear of it, simply because the DA tossing the charges out isn't newsworthy.
It would seem to me that a gun in plain sight inside a vehicle isn't concealed, but I don't know the exact law in your state, all I'm saying is not to take the cop's word alone.
There is a situation where a gun can legally be "loaded" without any ammunition physically in the gun. Sounds stupid, but its true, in some places because of the way the laws are worded. Some places, a gun isn't loaded unless there is ammunition inside it. Other places, if the gun, ammo, and you are all in the same compartment of the vehicle, the gun is legally loaded, even though it may not be physically loaded.
Cop A may tell you something, and Cop B bust you for doing exactly what Cop A said. Get independent advice from other sources, and you are better informed.
one thing about military grade, it is often not what most people think it is. I have no idea what it is today, but I do remember the "military grade", overseas shipment acceptance standard for accuracy of the M16A1 rifle in the 70s. 8 MOA. EIGHT MINUTE OF ANGLE was acceptable accuracy for the rifle to be shipped overseas for combat use. Rifles that shot worse than that were retained in the states, for training use.
And, interestingly enough, no unit I was ever involved with ever tested their rifles to see if they met that standard. including units overseas.
There is a "military grade" standard for everything the military uses and does. Whether or not items meet that standard, or are even tested against it, is another matter.