Concealed Carry & Home Defense

Be Prepared: Car Carrying Tips For Your Firearms

Font Size:

By Stacy Bright, Women’s Outdoor News

Most states have some kind of law dealing with the Castle Doctrine, known in various areas as the “Castle Law” or “Make My Day Law.” Generally this means that citizens have the right to protect themselves inside their residence or private property. In some states, this extends to their vehicle. Since we spend quite a bit of time in our cars, we often take for granted how vulnerable we are in them. Taking precautionary measures ahead of time is important!

Car Carrying Tips

Car-Carry-Stacy-Bright-Car Carrying

Carjacking and Criminals

According to a survey conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, most Americans drive 29.2 miles per day, making two trips with an average total duration of 46 minutes. The time spent in a vehicle gives ample opportunity to criminals who seek to rob, kidnap or hurt the occupants. As cited in Paxton Quigley’s book Not an Easy Target: Self Protection for Women, recent studies show that women (in particular) who resist a carjacking do not substantially increase their likelihood of being seriously injured or murdered. Fighting back during a carjacking generally gives you a better chance to survive, according to most law enforcement officers.

If you’ve decided to carry a firearm in your vehicle, there are some things you’ll need to think about. First, will your car carrying be on your body, or in the glove box or middle console? Easy access is key. Practice drawing from the location you choose so that you can do so safely and quickly. Next, if you are carrying on your person, does the seatbelt get in the way of accessing and drawing your gun? If so, you might want to consider several products that make car carrying more effective, while still securing the gun.

Car Products

The first way you can secure your firearm in your vehicle is with the Sticky Travel Mount. It lets you mount your Sticky holster and gun to vehicle center consoles, motorcycle saddlebags, boat compartments and other locations. It can be purchased from The Well Armed Woman.

Sticky-Travel-Mount

The next option is the Gum Creek Car Steering Column Mount. This mounts directly into the gap below your steering column and secures at the bottom of the dash/kick panel. By keeping it on the steering column, your gun will always be within close reach. The mount and holster are sold separately. The Well Armed Woman also carries this product.

Car-Mount-Steering

 

The third option is Crossbreed Holster’s RAM Mount. This system will securely mount your firearm to almost any flat surface; it can be installed in your vehicle by drilling a couple of small holes, making your handgun readily accessible. This option is available on Crossbreed’s website.

Firearm mount car

Traveling Across the Country

Whether traveling for business or going on vacation, the last place you want to end up is in jail. If you’re planning to travel with a firearm from state to state, make sure you do your research and know what’s legal, as well as safe. The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action has great web resource to verify your state’s gun laws.

If you’re going to be carrying your firearm concealed, virtually all states require you to have a concealed-carry permit. In most places, having a concealed-carry permit makes transportation and possession easier to do legally. Map out your route ahead of time and check the laws in each state you’ll visit before traveling.

Traffic Stop While Carrying

If you’re driving carefully and following the rules of the road, hopefully you’ll avoid being stopped by a law enforcement officer. Should you find yourself seeing flashing lights in your rear view mirror, however, there are a few things you’ll want to remember.

  • The officer wants to see your hands to make sure you’re not a threat. Keep them on the steering wheel until he tells you to do otherwise.
  • Let the officer know that you have a concealed-carry permit (if you do) and that you have a firearm on your person, or in your vehicle. Use those words; don’t say, “I have a gun.”
  • Show your current driver’s license and concealed-carry permit.
  • Comply with whatever the officer asks you to do.
Traffic stop

Remember that the officer doesn’t know who you are, and wants to go home safely that night. Do everything possible to ease his or her mind by being polite and agreeable.

In Conclusion

We must prepare ahead of time for situations that might occur that would threaten our safety. Just as a seat belt is there to help protect us in the event of a crash, a firearm should be viewed the same way. Remember that each state’s laws are different, so it’s up to the citizen to understand their rights as they pertain to carrying a firearm inside the vehicle.

—–

Thanks to Stacy and the Women’s Outdoor News team for this post. Take a moment and Click here to visit WomensOutdoorNews.com. Stacy is sponsored by LaserMax – Click here to visit LaserMax.com.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel