Back to Basics with Jeff Gonzales Episode 7: Firearms in Vehicles

VIDEO – Back to Basics with Jeff Gonzales Episode 7: Firearms in Vehicles

CCW Safe is proud to present the Back to Basics video series with Jeff Gonzales of Trident Concepts. This series focuses on the fundamentals and basics of concealed carry.

In Episode Seven Jeff talks about things to think about if you have to store a firearm in a vehicle.

Transcript:

Jeff Gonzalez: Hi, I’m Jeff Gonzalez, president of Trident Concepts. I’m here for Back to Basics with CCW Safe. Today we’re going to talk about firearms in vehicles and how to properly secure a firearm in the vehicle. Why might you need to do that?

Well, if you work in a location that prohibits you from carrying a firearm inside of the premise, that’s one reason. If you’re going to maybe go to your kid’s school to do parent-teacher conference date, that’s another reason. If you’re going to go into any federal building, you may find yourself having to do this more than you actually think. We want to talk about what are some of the precautions and the steps that we want to take to make sure that we do this correctly.

The first one is know the law. Know if it is legal for you to secure your firearm in your vehicle on property that you’re going to. Know whether or not the extension of the premise goes into the parking lot and the law following with it. That’s first. The second one is what’s the frequency of this? How often are you going to do this? If it’s a 9:00 to 5:00 type setting, where Monday through Friday you’re having to do this every single time, it’s going to become very, very challenging. One of the reasons why it’s going to become challenging is because with that level of frequency, the potential for safety to rear its ugly head as well as criminal activity, it just gets higher the more frequent it is.

The other thing we talk about is the firearm type. Now, this comes into the equation of, I’m not actually going to be concealing the firearm outside of my vehicle. Maybe the idea behind which type of firearm I’m carrying can also be addressed since I’m going to be leaving that thing in the vehicle. If it’s a 9:00 to 5:00 type setting and the frequency is super high, I might want to think about what type of firearm I’m going to be using there.If this may be is just a one-off, I’m going to the school for my parent-teacher conference, or maybe I have to go to jury duty and I have to go into the courthouse, those are one-offs. Maybe I don’t have to be as worried about my fireman.

Why might I choose different types of firearms? You may choose different types of firearms for the frequency simply because you are actually concealing more frequently and you just so happen to be required to disarm before you can move into the premise. Here’s the thing that we talk about though. Once you take that firearm off and you’re going to store it inside of your vehicle, we need to make sure that we understand the difference between securing it in the vehicle and hiding it in the vehicle. Hiding it in the vehicle is a very poor tactic to take.

We need to make sure that we do the best job that we can to deny unauthorized access. A smash and grab is not that hard. Just because your windows are up and your doors are locked, doesn’t mean that that’s going to prevent somebody from stealing that firearm. We go back to frequency. If people start to figure out that you are disarming before you go into the building, and they start to pay more attention to this, and they start to realize this, you start to realize less and less the importance behind secure, safe storage. Then one day it’s just hidden, it becomes very easy for it to become the subject of theft.

Now, when we talk about secure storage, what does that mean? That can mean anything from a lockbox that you secure to some hard point inside of your vehicle. It could be inside of your center console, you secure it in there. Even out in the trunk or your cargo space. These are areas where you can take these lockboxes that have a cable attachment that allows you to secure the box to some hard point on the vehicle which is advisable. Because even if you secure your firearm in a lockbox, that lockbox is not somehow tethered to the vehicle. They’re just going to take it and they’ll eventually pry it open at some point at a later date and time.

Now, once you’ve made the decision to disarm yourself off your firearm and secure it in your vehicle, let’s talk about the procedures that we need to follow. This is really important. First, do not be in a hurry to do this. Don’t rush. This is where accidents can happen. Second, look around you. Is anybody walking by the vehicle? Is anybody paying attention to you as you do this? Look around you see what’s happening. If there is a passerbyer, wait for them to move before you actually start to work at disarming yourself.

Then this is probably the most important thing you can do, which is to remove at the same time the holster and the firearm. That means that the firearm is going to be secured in the holster where the trigger is protected from unauthorized access. As you go in tight space, tight quarters to remove the combination, you have the highest security mode set because the firearm is in the holster protected from accidentally going off. After you’ve done that, you’re going to want to stow it and secure it. If you’re going to stow it in a lockbox, that’s fine, that’s great but make sure that you secure the lockbox.

Then once you leave the vehicle, make sure that you secure the vehicle. The doors are locked, the windows are up. When you come back to your vehicle, you’re virtually going to do this in reverse, but the one thing we want to do is once we unlock the vehicle, step into the vehicle, we want to look around first. That’s the first thing. Again, don’t be in a hurry here, but look around then unlock the lockbox, remove the combination, and then secure the combination, gun and holster, on your body at one time.

These steps, procedures, if you will, will help to mitigate the risk. Risk is still there because you’re handling a firearm, but by following these procedures, you greatly reduce the risk of a negligent discharge. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them down below. I’m Jeff Gonzalez. Until then, take care and stay safe.