Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

From my web site:

My wife and I are enthusiastic campers. When the enjoyable Southern Californian weather permits we would drive 100 miles east of San Diego and camp along a small spring fed stream. The location is about 14 miles from the nearest small town of Pine Valley and located about 5 miles off the highway and very close to the Mexican-American national line. After the paved road ends and near the end of a semi-improved dirt road there is a small jeep trail that leads up to a nice camping area with a beautiful shade tree.

We would go camping at least twice a month until the summer temperatures became too much. A small spring provided just enough water to provide a nice place to cool off from the heat. The jeep trail is pretty rough and requires a full size four-wheel drive with large tires to pass. My little compact car could only make it about 100 yards up the trail to where there was a small turn off to park the car off the trail. I often used a car cover to keep the car cooler. My car was nothing special, a two-door compact hatchback, but I did have a rather nice CD player, equalizer and stereo amplifier installed. The walk up to the campsite was about a quarter mile up the hill from the car.

One day after lunch my wife, dog and I went for a walk down the trail and found that the car cover had been removed from my car. Looking at the sand around the car there were a large number of footprints around it that didn’t match my wife’s prints or mine. There were handprints in the dust on the windows where someone had been looking inside. I put the cover back on, set the alarm, and we continued our afternoon hike down the mountain. After our hike we returned to the camp site.

Concerned about the tampering with my car I returned every half hour or so to check on it. On my final visit as I came up one of the hills running down the trail I heard a number of people talking. There are a series of five or more ten-foot tall hills that cover the last two hundred feet before my car. As I walked up and down them coming closer to my car I could see that there were now four people standing around my car. There was a young man and woman on the far side and two young men on the near side. They had not seen me approaching so I paused at the bottom of the hill three before where the car was parked to think.

If they broke into my car the alarm would sound and I hoped that they would leave. If they were trying to steal my car it would be a five-mile walk to the highway and a 100-mile trip back to my home. I wanted to stop them before anything got started. I unsnapped the hold down to my holster that carried my Smith and Wesson 5904 semiautomatic pistol. I started back up the hill to get closer to the group. A couple of the guys had their hands and faces pressed up against my windows and they were looking around inside the car.

As I started to crest the top of the second to last hill the female saw me and said something to the three guys. The two guys closest to me stopped looking at the car and turned toward me and started walking at me. I continued up the hill, meeting eyes I said “howdy” to the two approaching. They said nothing. When the two rough looking young men saw that I was wearing a pistol they both stopped and without saying a word to me turned around and started back toward the car and the other two. The guys said something and the four left quickly in a group. I heard their VW Beatle roar off down to the paved road.

This is was very unusual behavior. In the 15 years I’ve worn a pistol camping I’ve had over a hundred people stop and chat with me. Campers are good people and until this day no one ever “ran away” from a “howdy”. I’ve talked with Boy Scout troops, dozens of families with children, couples on horseback and several forest rangers and nobody has given me even the smallest feeling that they were uncomfortable with me wearing a pistol.

I don’t know what the fellows had in mind when they were looking in my car nor do I know why they suddenly decided not to continue to approach me. I can only think the worse that they were going to confront me and possibly steal the car or worse still, to harm me and my wife. In California it is still legal to wear a pistol when camping and until I left there I was never without one. Samuel Colt said that the pistol was the equalizer of men. That afternoon I was glad to have Smith and Wesson on my side.

Blue Komodo

I find this a little scary.

Donny_b

iTrader: (1)

I certainly carry in my car, and everywhere else I go. I place it under my thigh when I drive. I refuse to be a victim. If you want my Z or anything of mine that I've worked so hard for you are going to have to earn it the hard way. If been carrying for years and I consider myself very responsible when I comes to weapons, but i have no tolerance for dumb s**ts out there who will threatening me, my family, or anyone else out there......db

The Mike

If you didn't carry "all the time" you wouldn't be able to defend yourself against an armed crazy when it unexpectedly happened. Times are getting more dangerous every day and your house isn't moving to meet them but your car definately is. Isn't it only logical that you would be able to have the means to defend yourself when that happens?

DZ2005

I live in Texas, here you can get a concealed permit pretty easily if you are 21 and mostly have your **** together. I just have my gun in my car all the time. Mostly I foget about it but you never know when someone might try something stupid. Anyway you just have to be responsible with it and know that it WILL cost you a TON of cash if you decide you use it, whether you prove you are in the right or not in court.

egsmachine

+1

Diesel350

iTrader: (6)

How the hell is carrying a gun in my car stupid? What should I do next time some crazy lunatic is banging on my car door or worse yet pulls me out and beats me with a bat? If I had a gun in my car my intention would be never to shoot someone to kill but more of a scare tactic. When someone is looking down the barrell of a gun their attitude changes real quick. I'd point the gun at him and nicely say backoff and walk away.

Speedracer

This is more a cultural/social thing than anything else. There is definitely the "gun culture" in which it is the norm to carry. Others have never even held a firearm. Guns are a very foreign thing to me. They were never part of my upbringing, and I don't feel comfortable with them myself. I do see, however, in this day and age of ridiculous random violence, how it could make someone feel more secure.

JCat

iTrader: (4)

In Georgia you can get up to 20 years in jail just for firing a warning shot.

Brandishing is a misdemeanor offense.

YOU MUST REALLY STUDY AND LEARN THE RULES.

Hraesvelg

iTrader: (1)

Only in CA.

I hope the new FL law makes it's way into GA and SC.

Hraesvelg

iTrader: (1)

Someone post that link of the guy bashing that PT cruiser with a crowbar for RatBoy.

JCat

iTrader: (4)

Makes sense !!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...042501553.html
.

Monsta

iTrader: (10)

I thought about carrying a gun myself because it can get hectic on I-95 in rush hour traffic. People on that road are evil. But like said earlier, your best weapon is your brain.

And don't turn this one into another color thread. I think we have enough of those goin around since the hurricane.

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

Not really. California and Texas have "home is your castle laws", Florida has just added themselves to that short list earlier this year. The California law has been around at least ten years that I know of - basically it states that if a resident shoots an invader they are to be considered criminally innocent. You can't kill guests at your party or your drunken uncle Tim but others are fair game.

In any American state infested with lawyers you're likely to face a civil suit. The Texas Ranch Rescue group made news recently as two illegal aliens had lawyers sue the land owner upon who's land they were caught trespassing on. The illegal aliens won a huge lottery award from the jury and the land owner lost his ranch to the illegals. The Ranch Rescue people detained the illegals crossing the ranch before letting them go after giving them food and water.

If you think you can up and shoot someone for any reason and not have to face a thousand lawyers looking over the case for a weakness to expose before a civil jury you're wrong. The military is now facing shooting reviews as the police have.

There is a whole class of people who haven't seen violence and see no possible need to employ force under any circumstances - including on the battlefield.

danvain

So I'm confused. Can you get a permit in CA or no? I'm in the Marine Corps and can handle a weapon, I've just been lucky and never REALLY needed one yet. It's probably only a matter of time though.

ZlleH

iTrader: (7)

Up here in Canada, it's a totally different culture. It's just so weird to hear about and see on american tv the "gun culture".

I work for a government agency that puts me around swat teams, detective, cops, etc. basically law enforcement. I go on ride-alongs with cops once in a while to update them and get updates from them on what they need. One ride along, a citizen reported that he saw a wooden handle looking like a back of a rifle in a van when the guy opened his van door to go out and gas it at a gas station. They sent 8 police cruisers and they stopped the van at an intersection. every street was blocked off by the cop cruisers. Police officers were knelt down and aiming their gun at the van and was giving the two guys in the vans specific instructions on how to get out of the van and lay down on the ground. Turns out that they did have a permit for a gun, it was a hunting rifle. But they did not have the right equipment for transporting the gun. I think you need a trigger lock and have it in a locked gun case.

Anyhoo, that's how the cops deal with people who have guns in the car up here. Just a different culture. I've never seen anyone with a gun outside of work.

Barzten1

iTrader: (18)

Been carring a gun in my vehicles since I was 18 and I'm not going to stop at the age 31. Never had to or wanted to pull it out but I know where it is if my life or my families is in danger. (God forbid)

jpm_fan

If you are of sound mind and a law abiding citizen, I encourage you to exercise your Second Amendment rights. I have been carrying for about 10 years and got my CCW about 4 years ago. In KY, it is perfectly legal to carry a gun in your car in the glove box without a CCW permit. I have my gun with me at all times. Do I normally fear for my life? No. I live in a very nice part of town. The only time I've ever pulled it while in the car was when I had to stop for gas in East St Louis. I didn't point it or start anything, but I had it on the seat, just in case.

In your case, you may want to think about whether or not you can handle the responsibility. If you are that quick to flip someone off, you may not be ready for the responsbility of owning and carrying a deadly weapon. I think you may be better off with the pepper spray. The likelyhood of someone getting close enough to you to kill them with pepper spray is very low (they would have to have some type of respiratory problem).

MRballer350z

What are the CA laws in carrying a weapon in your car? Permit required? Legal Age? Anyone know where I can find a link to view the rules and regulations?

Hraesvelg

iTrader: (1)

"Her opponents counter that Florida's drop is not tied to the gun law and note that national violent-crime rates have been trending down. More important, Gelber and others say, is that Florida still ranked second in the nation,behind only South Carolina, in violent crime in 2003, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics."


AWSOME!!

*lives in Columbia, S.C.*