Vehicle Window Stickers and Theft

On vacation recently, I saw a huge assortment of window stickers in car and truck rear windows. Some were entertaining and others promoted national companies and organizations, but they all had one thing in common - they gave some insight to the person who owned the car.

Glock, Sig, Berretta, or any other gun manufacturer’s sticker on your vehicle’s rear window hints that you have a firearm. Maybe not in your vehicle, but you are more likely to own a gun.

While we’re at the grocery store, most people might not even give those stickers a second glance as a lot of them are probably in condition white.

But if you’re at your local shooting range, the probability that those stickers get notices increases. One instructor at a local rural range mentioned that other ranges in the bigger nearby city have had increased car break-ins in their parking lots because people are looking for guns.

Where do you think firearm window stickers get noticed the most?

Whether you have those stickers on your vehicle or not, do you leave any of your guns in your car while you’re at the range?

Please share your thoughts below.

15 Likes

I don’t know where they get noticed most, but I do know that I place NO stickers on my vehicles.

And no, I don’t leave any weapons in the car while at the range. The only time I do that is if I HAVE to go into a target-rich environment, such as a Post Office. Then they would be secured in the trunk, in a locked safe connected to the vehicle.

17 Likes

I have no decals or stickers on my vehicle. And I don’t leave firearms in my vehicle. In these times, it doesn’t pay to advertise no matter what your beliefs are.

22 Likes

I don’t have anything indicating any stance on anything 2A and have even limited my clothing on advertisement of such.
I’ve gone into the metaphorical “Mole Spider” mode… I won’t advertise I’m there and if an idiot ventures to dare fate (unprovoked by me), then that’s where it is.
When I go somewhere I carry and carry an extra mag. More than 2 looks like you’re asking for it- if you transport more keep them hidden in a vehicles spot that is very difficult to find.
Keep a criminal guessing and make others earn their guess work.

8 Likes

I also don’t have any firearms stickers or advertisements on my cars. Nowadays by advertising you are considered a show off, and are also looking for your car to get broken into. I have a sticker on my Fiat that states I support my local police department and that’s as far as it goes.

11 Likes

I try not to “advertise” either but I do have a Warrior XII sticker on my car. It’s an apparel company…

4 Likes

I recall seeing a clip, believe it was from Tim Kennedy at Sheepdog Response, or possibly Clint Emerson, who took a class to a WalMart parking lot and posed that very point…someone wanting to arm themselves and picking the most likely vehicles to contain firearms…

10 Likes

I’ve learned that it’s best to kept most things to yourself. Watching BLM and Antifa destroy everything motivated me not to even put a Knights Of Columbus sticker on my vehicle. Sometimes I feel like a target with my DV disabled veteran tags. I’ve thought about trading them in but veterans get free tolls in my state.

17 Likes

I try to be the “grey man” always when I am out. That especially includes my car. You will know nothing about me by looking at my car, except that I support the NASA memorial for the Challenger and Discovery shuttles (my license plates give that away). I have no personalized text on my license plate, no stickers of any kind on my windows, and nothing personal visible in the cabin of the vehicle. For many years, my vehicles were literally colored grey.

I don’t know if others notice stickers. I do, so I assume others - at least some others - do, as well. Just like my home, I want to do as much, or as little as it takes to make me less noticeable. I feel the less I am noticed, the less I am likely to become a victim.

11 Likes

For me, the firearm stickers are noticed the most during driving. That’s the moment I’m focusing on other cars and see more than usual.
Sometimes I’m looking at stickers while walking through shopping mall parking lot.
I found it very interesting…because these stickers told a lot about the people who just got in or out from the vehicle. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:
That’s the reason I do not place any stickers on mine.

Regarding leaving the firearm in the car… only at Range parking lot if firearm is prohibited during the class and no place to keep it inside the building. In such case, firearm is always separated from range bag.
Generally I don’t like to leave my firearms unattended.

5 Likes

I notice them at church a lot of the time. It may be partially because I am on the security team and I stroll through the parking lot and glance at the cars. I know a lot of people that think it is not okay to carry in church and will either leave their firearm in the car or assume everyone else leaves theirs’ in the car. I know that can become a targeted area for criminals to try and break-in, especially since we have a few hundred cars in the parking lot on any given Sunday.

Aside from that, I see them in traffic all the time because I still love to read peoples’ bumper/window stickers, to see what kind of person they are.

9 Likes

…or what kind of person they want the world to believe they are. :wink:

10 Likes

Just a thought, any papers in the glove box or console. Insurance or registration with name & address? If broken into they know where you live…

6 Likes

Well, since I’m not the only one who drives the car, the registration has to stay with the car. There are many other cars that are less hassle to steal or break into.

You have a point, yet you sidestepped mine. There is nothing visible from the outside that would indicate to a bad actor what they might find inside.

5 Likes

I love bumper stickers. As one of my favorites says “Everyone is entitled to my opinion”.
But no. I don’t like leaving firearms in my vehicles.
That being said, there are occasions when it’s unavoidable (IE the VA, my child’s school, a stop at the local precinct). For those times I have lock boxes in all mine and my wife’s cars. These are not only cabled to structure, but generally in the trunk.
My primary vehicle also has a custom built (⅜" steel / piano hinge) welded-to-frame box for my SHTF rifle.

5 Likes

The range is the last place I’d worry about having a sticker. Pretty sure criminals can figure out that cars parked at a gun range are probably driven by people who own guns.

I worry about the stickers as a tell in completely random unrelated places, like parked out in the dark at the movie theater…or the mall parking lot (what a terrible place to go!) especially after sunset. Or if you park your vehicle outside overnight at home. That’s where I’d worry about increased odds of somebody physically breaking in on a fishing expedition due to stickers

7 Likes

SOME PEOPLE JUST DONT GET IT <<image

11 Likes

At the most basic level, the entire idea behind a ‘concealed carry’ is the concealment. Putting a sticker on your car, wearing a branded T-Shirt, and many other choices can give away your concealment and advantages in every day life.

I’m of the opinion that weapons should NEVER be stored in a car if it can be avoided. Going in the post office, an employer that doesn’t permit carry inside the building, etc. mean the weapon goes in a locked box that’s bolted into the vehicle and the locked box is preferably concealed as well.

A joke my dad tells is that blinkers are just notifying the enemy of your intent.

IMO, stickers can be worse. :slight_smile:

And one last idea… correlation isn’t causation. Gun stickers on a car at a gun shop isn’t causation. Gun stickers in a Wal-Mart or grocery store, maybe.

10 Likes

I don’t know if I’m buying into that story because wouldn’t you safely assume that alot of people at a gun range are armed? Kind of like thinking that there may be guns in police cars so I will go to a police station and break into cars there?

3 Likes

No stickers for me.

5 Likes