Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Auto Protection...



No, I'm not talking about GEICO.



I was in the supermarket yesterday and perused a gun magazine. I think it was American Handgunner. Inside there was an article called "Rethinking the Car Gun". The gist of the piece was summed up by the phrase: "More Room, More Gun".

I agree that the constraints on a personal carry firearm (weight, concealability, corrosion resistance) largely don't apply to a handgun that's exclusively carried within a vehicle. Carrying a firearm in your vehicle opens up your options regarding caliber, barrel length, and magazine/cylinder capacity that simply wouldn't be practical in your Brooks Brothers (Hart Schaffner Marx?) suit. But the article's author(s) tried to advance the position of carrying short AR-15 variants or Mossberg 500/Remington 870 short-stocked shotguns.

It seems to me the idea of bringing an AR or shorty scattergun into play within the confines of your basic Honda Accord are pretty limited. As well, with barrels of 16" (for rifles) and 18" (shotguns), your shooting lanes outside of the vehicle are likely constrained by the windshield and B-pillars. Maybe the advice was for Excursion, or BinFORD 650 drivers.
Several years ago, I daydreamed about possibly getting a Carbon-15 pistol that I could stow under the rear seat of my SUV.





And, later, I thought maybe the Kel-Tec SU-16 might fill the bill.
But I never bought either the C-15 or SU-16.



The notion of a large form factor firearm wielded in a small space just doesn't make sense to me as a primary arm. To my thinking, a large frame .45 ACP (1911 or P-90) or wheelgun should serve well. And I'm considering the car itself to be part of my defense strategy, to get the heck away from the threat zone.

So, there's my take on long guns as defensive arms in cars - they're secondary.

But, if the economy continues to deteriorate, maybe I'll buy one with my stimulus money...

3 comments:

David H said...

If you're 007, it's actually a suit by Tom Ford. Anyway, I agree with something smaller in a car because you might have to whip it around a wide field of view depending on the emergency. I'd go with a Sig Sauer .40 or .45 with the largest capacity clip you can get...

an Donalbane said...

I would so like to have a .357 Sig, whether in that manufacturer's platform or another (Steyr, H&K).

LandShark 5150 said...

Buy the Sig 250 -- it is made to interchange different caliber barrels. Love mine. Got rid of the Sig 226 9m & 40. Now I can go from 9-45. in two minutes.