Do you carry concealed and drive frequently? Here a few ways you can prepare with dry fire to help you understand what and how to use a vehicle to your advantage.
Legal Questions
The first question to ask yourself regarding concealed carry and your car is this: Is it legal to have access to your gun in your car where you live? Since the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen decision, concealed-carry licenses also generally enable the licensee to have a loaded and accessible handgun in a vehicle, subject (depending on the jurisdiction) to certain location restrictions. Depending on the state, though, the gun may have to remain out of sight from those outside the vehicle. Also, some states require drivers to affirmatively tell police officers they are carrying during traffic stops. So before you carry in your car or think you might use your concealed carry from your car, find out if there are laws prohibiting it in your state.
On vs. Off Body
The most important concealed carry skill to understand from inside your car is the draw. Whether you carry on your body or in a purse or bag will impact how you draw.
With an unloaded gun and an empty magazine, perform a draw from inside your car with your seatbelt on. Can you easily access your firearm? Do you have to reach for a bag to access your firearm? There are locking holster units you can place in your car (depending on your local laws), but this is an option for many.
Focus on drawing without flagging yourself, and without your seatbelt or clothing creating dangers or slowing you down too much. Testing this out with dry fire might give you a lot to think about in how you carry. You can even set up your phone to video it and understand where to improve or adjust things. This might help you determine if your favorite piece of clothing is a hindrance, or if your holster position needs to be adjusted.
It is common for someone who appendix carries to flag himself on the draw from sitting. It is a facet of this method and position for concealed carry that holds very real dangers. This is why understanding what a draw from your car actually looks like is valuable. While it might sound like an obvious caution, you should also consider where you test this with dry fire. This is not a skill to dry fire in a parking garage or public place, but something fitting to test out in a place with privacy; for example, your friend who lives in the country and won’t have neighbors in a panic if they saw you testing your draw inside a car.
Using the Car for Cover: Inside the Car
There are localities where you are permitted to shoot from inside your car, but legally, you cannot use your firearm from outside. It’s kind of like Castle Doctrine which allows you to protect yourself from inside your property. These are the states many gun owners avoid driving through on road trips.
If your only choice to use your firearm is from inside your vehicle, consider that your engine block is the best piece cover you can get behind. So if you have to position yourself to shoot, and you have the option, it is wise to keep the engine between you and your target. If you must draw a gun from inside your car, it would be because of a threat to your life, and the assumption is that it’s someone shooting at you, or they have another weapon. If the weapon is a gun, then use your engine block as cover if possible.
Use an unloaded firearm and test out how you would shoot from your car. What directions are most difficult? Are you prepared to shoot through the windshield if needed? Hint: It’s not going to shatter, but it will “spiderweb” and the visibility can be very poor after it’s sustained gunshot. It is a really interesting experience to do this with an old car. You might need multiple shots to hit your target, as the first rounds’ accuracy can be affected by passing through the windshield.
The idea of using your car as well as your firearm is something else to be mindful of. If someone is trying to kill you, would it be better to hit them with your car or use a firearm? Both canbe defensive weapons. It would come down to the situation and personal choice, but both could be options.
Using the Car for Cover: Outside the Car
If you must exit your vehicle, remember that you can still use the car for cover. The place you chose to use for cover matters. The engine block is the most solid and largest mass of metal, followed by the tires and wheel hub. The car doors and sides of your car are not cover! If you had to shoot around your car to the opposite side, using a front tire and engine block for cover is the best-case scenario. Shooting from underneath the car, using the tires for cover is another option, but the smaller window of space through which to shoot presents dangers of fragments from projectiles. If you impact the car, you can potentially send fragments of the bullet or bullet jacket back on yourself. If you are not confident in your accuracy, this would be your last choice in position.
And just like shooting from inside your car, shooting from outside your car should give you pause to consider how you would use the car itself to your benefit. Are you able to position the car before you get out so that you have the ability to shoot from behind the engine block and around the front end?
Or are you able to drive away without discharging your firearm? Each person must weigh his or her choices in light of what they know and the threat they experience, but making choices to protect yourself from prosecution is also a way you can be prepared to deal with threats.
No matter what state you live in, if you carry concealed in your car, aside from using dry fire to understand how you would access your firearm, learning the laws that apply to you is the next most crucial task for the gun owner who might have to use their firearm from their car. If you can find a class that offers insight into these skills and concepts, it will put you ahead in your preparation to be your own personal defense.
