Triangle Tactical Podcast and Blog on Guns, Gear, and Competition Shooting
With North Carolina House Bill 937 becoming law in 2 months, there will be a lot more people leaving firearms locked in their vehicles where they previously could not have them.
Criminals are pretty good at looking at a vehicle and determining whether or not it’s a good target for a smash and grab, and they aren’t stupid, even though many of us would like to think that they are. Take an objective look at your vehicle and determine whether or not you are advertising that you may have guns or other high dollar, easily sold or pawned items in it.
Pro 2A stickers? Random rounds of ammo in the cup holders? Visible holsters, magazine pouches, or other accessories?
All of these things are a dead giveaway that there may be guns in your car. You might be saying “But Luke, I don’t keep guns in my car!”. That’s fine, but it would still suck to have your window smashed out and your vehicle ransacked by some thug who doesn’t know that.
It’s not just guns either. Hide your GPS unit and the mount. If you use your iPod, don’t throw it in the glove box with the cable still attached to it. Everybody and their brother knows there’s an iPod attached to the end of the cable hidden in the glove box.
If you are a student, get your college books out of sight. This is something that is often overlooked, but if you think about it books are quick cash for a criminal, especially here in the Triangle with all of the universities nearby. When I was in college, I couldn’t wait to sell my books at the end of the semester, because those suckers are expensive!
I’m guilty of some of these things myself. I’m currently rocking a Modern Musket sticker on the back window of my “tactical compact sedan” and I’ve been telling myself that it’s obscure enough that nobody will notice what it is, but that may not be the case.
I’m not telling you that you need to go remove all of the stickers off of your vehicle (although that would probably be a good idea), but I want you to take an objective look at it, and decide for yourself if you are setting yourself up for a break-in. It wasn’t too long ago that a Raleigh Police Officer informed me that vehicle break-in’s are the #1 crime in the city. Don’t be a victim.
Could be broken into? Yeah. But that isn’t going to keep me from keeping my truck gun in there. Nor will it keep me from having NRA stickers on the back. At some point, we have to live our lives in spite of what “might” happen.
I totally agree, but with some of the stickers I see going down the road, it really makes me think that some of us are unnecessarily setting ourselves up for a break-in.