First off, check all laws in your state and ordinance in your town. For example, in Las Vegas (green street signs), you can put your gun anywhere in the car you want. But in North Las Vegas (blue street signs), a high crime area, the gun must be attached to your person via holster! Nowhere else! Or you’re in big trouble with the police!. So there are little differences and discrepancies here and there you’re going to have to check out where you live. That’s your responsibility.
All that being said…
I prefer to carry on my person always.
Easier to get to; always concealed; if I get out of the car – I won’t forget my revolver; if I have to get out of my car and run – the gun is attached to me already; if the car gets stolen – gun is with me.
A gun laying around in my car won’t do much good. Best to have it with me and ready at all times.
My fav is hog leg carry open. While I like carrying it on my thigh best, I don’t like carrying open. Even though it is legal, there are too many rubberneckers and scared folk around. And too many places of business around here will raise a stink if I walk in carrying open.
Best to conceal it in today’s pusillanimous society.
This time of year, small game is open, so I’m driving the roads on my bike or in my car hunting rabbits, birds, varmints and such. So, it’s the SR22 on my hip and my Ruger Super Wrangler in 22WMR in the shoulder holster.
Texas Penal Code Sec. 46.02. UNLAWFUL CARRYING WEAPONS is a mess to muddle through. It states if you carry a weapon, you are in violation of the law UNLESS…then it outlines exceptions to the violation. It’s kinda backwards. A short excerpt is pasted below.
(a-1) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries on or about his or her person a handgun in a motor vehicle or watercraft that is owned by the person or under the person’s control at any time in which:
(1) the handgun is in plain view, unless the person is 21 years of age or older or is licensed to carry a handgun under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, and the handgun is carried in a holster; or
(2) the person is:
(A) engaged in criminal activity, other than a Class C misdemeanor that is a violation of a law or ordinance regulating traffic or boating; or
(B) prohibited by law from possessing a firearm.
On the subject of storing a weapon in a vehicle, Texas does not make much issue of it. Changes made to the law in 2021 allow people to carry a handgun in “plain view” within the vehicle. The law does require the handgun to be in a holster when it is in “plain view.” Texas law does not say what type of holster is required. The weapon could be sitting on the seat next to you as you drive, covered up with a Whataburger napkin, and still be legal.
Also, before the law changed in 2021, people in Texas were required to carry their handgun in a “shoulder or belt holster.” Now, Section 46.02 (a-5) of the Texas Penal Code only uses the term “holster,” rather than “shoulder or belt holster.” The law does not define the word “holster.”
Common sense says to lock it up if it is stored in the vehicle. Mine is only locked up when I have to physically go into a place or business I am prohibited from carrying. My weapon does not stay in the vehicle overnight.
