Originally Posted by Lurchgs

Man- I am SO glad to see people like DayCabber here. I raised this question in CDL school and was told "yup, illegal". I asked for chapter & verse. They said, it's not in FMCSR, but in USC title 49 or title 18 (They couldn't remember).

So, I spent a weekend reading titles 18 and 49 and a couple others.

There are no federal laws or rules prohibiting guns in a CMV.

Yes, you have to be concerned about it - get a CCW. In fact, if you are OTR, get more than one, since odds are good that the CCW issued in your state will not be honored in all states you travel to. For instance, since I'm intending to drive Western 11, I'd get one from CO (I live here), IL, WA, OR, CA, NV, NE, and IA (NE/IA/IL for when I go visit my folks. If I were to start driving out there regularly I'd be adding a slew of other states).

So long as you don't flaunt the gun, or try to take it to a restricted area (court house, etc) and have a valid CCW for the state, you should be fine.

All that having been said. Two more things need to be a part of this whole thing.

1) Pay attention to your surroundings. Awareness will do wonders at keeping you out of situations that might require a gun. If you are uncomfortable, go else where and get on the phone. Call the police, call the company you are headed to.. SOMEBODY. Get more bodies down to the location.

2) If you intend to carry, *practice*. a LOT. Find a place where you are comfortable wearing the weapon, and KEEP it there. Practice drawing and firing until it is second nature - just like shifting. If you draw and DON"T fire, odds are increasingly good that the baddie will take the gun away from you. Yes, this means: never draw your weapon unless you are going to pull the trigger immediately. It also means: running away is a better choice, if you can.

Originally Posted by Lucky142

If you believe in the Constitution of the United States and specifically the 2nd Amendment, there is no legal law prohibiting guns. But just try to tell that to the Troopers in certain states where they really frown on guns.

Guns are the great equalizer and there is only two ways to deal with another human being: negotiation of force and you can't force someone who has a gun, so you must learn to negotiate.

Originally Posted by basalganglia

There is no shame in running "for your LIFE". Take the truck, take the cash, here's my x's cell phone #, tell her Bill says "hey".

Originally Posted by Lurchgs

Actually, I agree with you. But I'm still not going to carry into a courthouse!

Originally Posted by Lurchgs

I wish I could remember the man's name - ex Chicago homicide detective - but he teaches some self defense classes. Not "beat 'em up and leave 'em for dead", but 'how to survive an encounter"

His very first recommendation is "run"

reasoning is this:
The numbers he uses are WAY inflated, but it makes it obvious why he teaches as he does. I've forgotten all the steps, but it goes along these lines:

You are at gunpoint, and you run.

Assume a 50/50 probability that the mugger will fire the gun (it's far less than this, but we'll use these numbers)

Now, you are running, and he's fired the weapon. Assume a 50/50 probability that he actually hits you.

Assume you've been hit. Assume a 50/50 probability that it's a center-mass shot and you are dead.

Right there, it's a 12.5% chance you'll die if you run (IIRC, though, he had some steps I've forgotten, and the chance was down around 3%). All based on 50/50, which is very heavily biased in the unhealthy direction.

Compare that to the greater than 50% probability that you'll end up dead if you do NOT run. Not a hard choice to make.

I'll see if I can't find his lecture somewhere, and post a link to it.

(regarding 'hopped up on drugs': all the better. Makes it much less likely that they'll hit anything but the ground when they DO pull the trigger. Remember, the farther away you are from your target, the finer the muscle control needed to hit said target. )

Originally Posted by Lucky142

There was a such a case recently won in a Wisconsin town by a pizza delivery man that after being robbed twice on the job decided to carry a handgun even though the law forbids it. He stopped a 3rd robbery attempt with that handgun. He was charged for illegal possession but the judge sided with him and said given the circumstances the man had a right to defend himself. He has decals on his small pickup truck now that states "Driver carries no cash, but driver does have a gun". I read about it on yahoo news a few weeks ago.

I agree with what you said. When the government creates laws making it illegal to carry in certain areas, it only hurts law abiding citizens because only law abiding citizens obey them. These laws do nothing to stop a criminal with a gun. So how does this protect anyone? If the government could ever achieve taking guns away from citizens, wonder how they expect to get them away from criminals? The bad guys possessing illegally purchased or banned weapons would rejoice over something like that happening. Everyone would be sitting ducks for them.

Originally Posted by chief

specifically which law prevents carrying a gun in a truck? last time I checked, the 2nd amendment of the US constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms (doesn't say anything about guns though, does it?)

a company can make a rule that you can't carry a gun, but doesn't that violate your constitutionally guaranteed rights? even our company orientation guy says it isn't illegal to carry a gun in a truck, just against company policy.