The Aftermath: A Drive-Away Shooting

I can’t speak for every type of gun. I can only speak for my Glock 30. Keeping it in the magnetic holster, made it easier for me to access in a hurry. Reholstering after I made sure, in my ao, that it was clear of suspicious behaviour by others was trivial. I use mine whenever I am in my car. I bought a larger magnet for a Glock 41, since it’s dimensions and profile are similar to the Glock 30 (other than barrel length and magazine weight).

It works and is convenient for me.

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While putting a magnet on a steel barrel will transfer some of the magnetic effect to the barrel as long as the strong magnet is stuck on the barrel. The instant you pull the magnet off, the barrel is no longer magnetized. There is a method of weakly magnetizing a screw driver blade by stroking it with a magnet, but the magnetizing effect has always been weak in my attempts at the exercise. It makes a screw kinda stick to the screwdriver until gravity pulls it off. Considering the forces involved in the slide traveling to the rear and back, I would suspect that you would have to make the barrel an extremely strong magnet, utilizing equipment the ordinary home workshop doesn’t have. As for the ammunition, it’s lead, copper, brass, nitrated cellulose and a few other chemicals, all non-magnetic. I keep a carbon steel knife attached to the wall of my safe with a magnet and it has been that way for about ten years. If there were any transference of magnetism by mere contact, one would expect to see some minimal magnetism in the knife blade but it won’t even pick up a tiny steel screw. I don’t think you have to worry about the effect of magnetism on your firearm nor the ammunition. My comment about a cell phone and the new biometric vondergun has to do with chips and microcircuitry which is very sensitive to magnetic effect. That’s why computers are worked on when sitting on a grounding sheet. That’s why you are advised not to place chips or flash drives on a magnet. It scrambles the circuitry so that it is ineffective. I used to use tapes for dictation. When I wanted to clean up the tapes, I used a degausser to eliminate any stray info on the tapes. Mine Sweepers get degaussed regularly so that they don’t set off magnetic mines. I don’t fully understand the principle behind degaussing ships, I just know it is undertaken regularly for mine sweepers. Perhaps some member of this list who actually served on a minesweeper can explain it for us non-electrophysicists. Magnets will also degauss your credit cards. That’s a bigger problem than magnetizing your firearm.

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I do understand that magnets can cause havoc with electronics, iron filings tapes, hard drives etc, etc. However my knowledge of how metal is effected or if it would be permanent is a different story.

Thank you for the information.

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The only risk I could see, if there was a small steel part inside that could become misaligned somehow by the magnet pulling it to the side over a long period of time.
The magnet would be putting side pressure on the ferrous parts.
I would hope the parts inside the pistol would not be that sensitive but you never know.

Now I would not get any credit cards or anything with a magnetic strip near the magnet :wink:

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I saw a video about shooting through the glass from inside the car to stop an attack or threat. I feel this option should be addressed concerning the options as far as caliber, type of bullet (sorry NJ), and training. I talked to a police officer who said they were trained in that option and it is absolutely an option during an attack. I realize your post is discussing shooting while in a car but this needs to be a legal action to protect yourself and family.

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Welcome Gary477. We are glad you found us.

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The law agency I’m with has old patrol vehicles no longer street serviceable because they just mileaged out yet still operable. We use them for driver course training and PIT maneuvers.
One aspect of training is to present a threat to assess then draw and fire from inside the vehicle at a threat. The noise is deafening and disorienting. One doesn’t have time in real life to put on ear protection. Drill for the unexpected.

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I took a ‘guns and cars’ course several years back. We practiced shooting through every window from the driver’s seat, scrambling to get out of either front doors, and fighting from every area around the car. I got to be the test dummy on drawing and shooting out the virgin driver side glass from the driver’s seat while bailing out. Even with ear & eye pro, it was loud and I still got a couple of superficial cuts. I did hit the target though. :smiley:

We followed up with putting targets in the car and taking turns shooting at them through the car from the outside. As someone mentioned, car doors don’t do a very good job of stopping bullets unless they hit the metal arms or motors for raising the window. Passenger footwell is useful if someone can’t bail.

Key points learned:

  1. Drive out of the ambush. Do not stop until well away.
  2. Get out of the vehicle ASAP! It is a bullet magnet and will not protect you.
  3. If you can’t run away, fight from behind the engine block & wheels. Get low, change positions.
  4. If threat is on driver’s side & you’re fighting from inside at driver’s position, pop the belt and lean away from your drawing side (to clear the holster) while rotating in your seat to face the target. Shoot while kicking against the door to propel your body over the console and out the passenger door. Note: do NOT shoot your own legs or feet! Run or fight (using car for concealment/cover) as necessary. This all sounds complex, but you would be amazed at how fast you can get out of a car.
  5. Once the shooting stops, call 911! First person to call 911 is the victim.
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Hello and welcome to the community @ImaDot!
Glad to have you here!

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Welcome to the Community! We are glad to have you. Fantastic first post!

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Hello and welcome @ImaDot

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Welcome @ImaDot ! Glad to have you here, and thanks for the insight.

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Check your door lock programming!!!
Many door locks are set to unlock when the vehicle’s shifter is placed into Park, and will not re-lock until you reach a certain speed.

My truck did this to me while trying to escape an attack. After rapidly throwing the shifter from D to R caused the computer to kill the engine, I had to put the shifter into P to restart (in hindsight, N was possibly available). It unlocked all of my doors which allowed my attacker to open the door and grab my arm and try to pull me out before I was able to break free and access my firearm.

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Not only that many cars won’t restart if it, the car, thinks it’s been in an accident. If you hit curb too hard getting away your car will shut off and won’t restart stranding you there with the attackers.

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I definitely worry about things like this in our new family vehicle. Some of those safety features might be nice to have if you happen to be looking left when someone on the right does something stupid. But I wish there was a temporary off button to disable all the safety features in case you really do need to bash into the car in front or behind you.

Even my older mostly dumb work vehicle has one of those annoying “safety” features. It has break assist. If you press the break hard and fast but don’t push it all the way to the floor it assumes you are trying to panic stop but just didn’t push far enough so it locks the breaks for you.

On two separate occasions I’ve been cut off and had to hit the breaks fairly hard but didn’t want or need to stop. Almost got rear ended both times because the vehicle locked up the breaks on me. Once on the highway! It would have been a multi car pileup if I didn’t instantly realize what was going on and completely took my foot off the break so it would let me keep rolling.

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I think if I’m surrounded and the car won’t restart and I’m stranded with the thugs; I’m drawing and pointing at the nearest one. They can beat the sh1t out of the car, I don’t care. Start breaking windows and somebody IS getting shot. My 2 cents worth and your 2 cents can differ.

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90s vehicles for the win. Theres a reason i still drive a old ass jeep :joy:

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My understanding of our Ford vehicles is that large throttle input/flooring it officially overrides that

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I suppose, but, statistically, I’ll wager you are much more likely to die needlessly because those things are death traps in auto accidents (which kill tens of thousands a year)

Personally we won’t buy anything unless it’s top safety pick IIHS

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Eh, its a XJ, not a Wrangler, which still isnt the best but isnt as horrible as some and it doesnt have 20,000 extraneous sensors and computers to go bad. Parts are cheap and it doeant require $20,000 worth of electronics to diagnose or repair.

From my experience doing wreck recovery, when its your time, its your time, and all the fancy bells and whistles matter a lot less than youd think when you hit a tree head on at 75 mph. Even in the “safeist” insurance rated vehicles. Ive seen people walk away from horrendous crashes youd expect everyone to have died in, and ive seen people killed in lowspeed crashes. Is what it is

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