A friend just emailed me about the “holster” someone bought him as a gift for Christmas. It’s intended to be mounted to a car. It’s not the one pictured above but the concept is close to identical.
Exactly how bloody stupid do you have to be to think this is a good idea?
- Clearly you’ve never seen what happens in a real car crash. Not only will the gun almost certainly come out of the holster but there’s a great chance the holster will shear off the dashboard. But it’s not like there could be some other item or piece of debris that could get inside the trigger guard and add a gunshot wound to your accident worries, right? And having a loose gun amid the wreckage of your car couldn’t be bad or dangerous in any way, either.
- Question for the police officers reading this: You come upon this guy in his car late at night. His hands are on his steering wheel which is inches from this gun. Does this put you more at ease, or less?
- What are you supposed to do when you get in and out of the car? Are you administratively handling your gun multiple times per day with the muzzle pointed at (or at least very near) your legs each time?
- What do you do if you have a fender bender? Do you grab your gun and go out to meet the other driver visibly armed or do you fiddle around with your pistol in your hand first? What if he sees you with a gun in your hand?
- Aren’t you going to have to wear a holster anyway for whenever you reach your destination?
And as I was searching through the interweb I found an even dumber idea, using a magnet to mount your gun to your car:
Setting aside the obvious issues of (a) magnetizing small parts in your gun such as the firing pin and (b) relying on the magnet to keep the gun in place in an accident, you’ve also got a gun pointed at your feet with nothing covering the trigger guard. It’s just mind blowing. Well, metatarsal and phalanges blowing, at least.
Seriously, this is the very definition of a solution in search of a problem. Buy a holster that is comfortable while you drive. I can drive eight hours straight with a 5″ steel light-railed 1911 in an appendix holster like the JM Custom Kydex aiwb or the supremely comfortable 5Shot SME. Surely you can find some combination of gun & holster that works for you.
Off body carry should always be a last resort. And if you are going to carry off body it needs to be in the most secure and discreet manner possible.
Friends don’t let friends drive <something pithy that communicates “using a car-mounted holster”>.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
(dashboard holster photo from gearsector.com, magnet holster photo from TTAG)
I would love it for a farm truck.
I think some very good points have been brought up here. Various factors will dictate what holster is appropriate for perticular use.
Although I am not a fan of shoulder rigs, for spending long hours in a vehicle and having easy access to a BUG, they work very well.
On my previous job, where I spent very long hours conducting vehicle surveillance (8-16hrs/ day), I carried a Glock 23 as a primary IWB and a 27 in a very concealable horizontal shoulder holster for this very reason.
“I would love it for a farm truck.”
That’s what I use one for.
My P2000 stays concealed on my belt.
My Beretta Cheetah .22 goes on the steering column for rabbit shooting.
I wear a Glock 17 at 4 o’clock IWB. Never an issue with comfort or seat belt. I am a cop who is plain clothed, and working narcotics I have often sat in the car for 8 to 10 hours at a time. I never felt unsafe.
If anything I think it is more dangerous attaching the gun to the car. I have had to bail from the car in a rush MANY times. Seems like an easy way to forget a pistol in the heat of the moment. Even if I was “car jacked”, and they got the drop on me, I can raise my hands and exit the vehicle, and once I am out on foot, I still have access to my gun, unlike one attached to the car… For our officers, we always recommend on body carry.
My last vehicle collision was attempting to block in a suspect in a Ram 2500 truck, while I was in a Jeep Liberty. It did not end well for my little Jeep. I went up on two wheels but did not roll. When I was hit, EVERYTHING in the vehicle went flying. After the crash I could not find my radio hand set, GPS came off dash and smacked me, tons of loose cop gear (Pens, cell phone, clip boards, flash lights) strewn about… plus it knocked me silly. I can’t imagine having to fish around for a loose gun at that point. Fortunately my pistol was still on my body and we eventually caught the turd…
Irony = add to the right of the article being for a vehicle holster mount
Snippet taken from a LAPD OIS incident report:
• Subject 1 walked toward the detectives, who were still seated inside their vehicle.
• When he reached the sidewalk area, Subject 1 challenged the officers and drew a dark colored handgun.
• Subject 1 then pointed the handgun at Detective A and fired from a distance of approximately 15 feet.
• Detective A yelled “police” and “gun” and drew a pistol from a holster secured between the front passenger seat and the front center console. He fired 14 rounds from his seated position.
• Subject 1 went down to the sidewalk while continuing to fire at Detective A. After he hit the ground, he ceased firing. Detective A believed Subject 1 fired approximately five rounds.
• Detective A dropped his pistol to the vehicle floorboard and drew a second pistol from his belt holster.