Question about firearms

Some of the megas search the trucks when they are in the shop for maintenance or parked at the terminal. At those companies, whoever is searching the truck HAS A LOT MORE EXPERIENCE finding the "perfect hiding space" than the new driver has in thinking up which hiding space is perfect.

If a driver is going to bring a pistol into the truck, he has to treat that pistol as he would treat next week's winning lottery ticket. He can't assume people will take his word. He can't assume nobody will want that pistol if found. If the mechanic steals that pistol now you have a REAL dilemma. Do you report the stolen gun to the company, and get fired, and wander if the local cops are going to turn this event into a criminal case? Or do you ask the mechanics if they stole your gun, knowing they can say "what gun" and you can't do anything about it. Or, do you just wave goodbye to your $200-800 gun and hope it's never used in a crime?

Do you leave the gun inside the truck when you go take a shower or eat in the restaurant? It's not doing much for your security sashed somewhere in the truck while you walk to/from wherever you are going. When you have a breakdown and you get towed into a shop and spend the next 18-24 hours sitting on the shop's recliner is the gun on you, in your bag, or in the truck?

In everyone of these threads there are people thinking, if not 100% certain, that the only POSSIBLE situation they will ever face if they bring a pistol or don't is the one situation they have thought about once, but practiced their one saying about. You cannot know everything that will ever happen to you and you cannot be sure you won't be hit by some bad driver, be injured enough to be dragged away, unconscious, in an ambulance. And, after that you have know way to know if your company sends another driver to clean out your truck, how they send your stuff to you or back to the terminal, if they find your pistol, and if they find it do they fire you and you no longer have insurance paying for your very expensive hospital stay. An ambulance ride could easily be over $5,000. A medical helicopter could cost $50,000 or more. Anyone's imagination is far too limited to know or guess what will happen in the future. Having the pistol, when you are supposed to have it, could escalate a minor traffic incident that would have been a $80 ticket and embarrassment into a criminal event with some jail time or a traffic ticket AND getting fired on the same day with the rest of your day deciding how to get back home on your own.

Whether you decide to bring a pistol, knowing your company does not accept them, or you don't bring one and eventually find yourself in a violent crime with no weapon, and every situation none of us can even guess at, both choices have real important consequences and trying to sound tough doesn't protect you from any of those consequences. All the people that prefer to "be judged by 12 than carried by 6" are not forcing that future to happen by saying that phrase.

 

What do you do if you have to go
to california? Risk it and leave it in the sleeper? I’d be afraid to go to CA with no gun. Lots of mentally ill people and criminals. It’s like a 3rd world country there. Funny how the constitution doesn’t apply to blue states

 

The Base Commander decides gun policy at his base, within DoD guidelines. As God Prefers Diesels said, his experience applied at the bases he's been to, when he was there but you cannot depend on another base or the same base still having the same policy. If the military guards at the base turn you away and the local cops are especially hardcore about their local laws, such as can happen in NY or CA, showing up at a military base and getting turned away could turn into a criminal matter when the local cop stops your truck leaving the base. It's happened before and once you have a gun with you saying "sorry, I won't do it again" may not be

The Base Commander decides gun policy for visitors on his base within DoD guidelines. The only way to now for sure is to call the base before you get there and ask what will happen if you show up with a pistol. It's only going to take one change of Base Commander or another attack on a base for the policy that was true for a driver in the past to be radically different tomorrow.

 

I wouldn’t call a marijuana smoker a “junkie”. They’ll let you drink alcohol, which is straight poison, on your time off but you can’t smoke some marijuana. Its absurd.

 

One of my cousins that lives near Houston Texas lost a son several years ago. He was attacked somewhere on the south side and spent close to a week in the Hospital before he finally died. I don't have the exact figures. I was told his Medical Bills alone were almost $250,000. There is real money involved with being the victim of a violent crime!

 

The DoD generally won't get involved with civilians outside their gates. They will call the local police. If you are in one of the states that have a (REDACTED) toward firearms this could be the beginning of a major headache. I would also HIGHLY advise understanding what the DoD means by weapons. It means more than a firearm. Several years ago I was on Langley AFB with a close friend. I was wearing my hunting knife on my belt. I had a Major inform me carrying that was prohibited on the base. Nothing else happened, we left and I never again wore that knife on Federal Property. I don't even wear it while at the VA.

 

The NRA, GOA, Handgunlaw.us and others have the legal info about having a gun and moving between states online if you search for it. You are a lot safer relying on sites like that than the message board for any occupation or trade. Over the years I've noticed there are some people here that want ONLY answers from truck drivers because they are/were truck drivers. Over my life I have learned the right answer is more important than than the most convenient answer, the answer that tells me what I want to hear, etc. For every question about every thing there are people who make a living by being right. To exaggerate, some truck drivers would not run out of a burning building unless another truck driver told him about this one time in CT in 1997 when he ran out of a burning building. You can substitute leaving a burning building for investing for retirement, getting medical treatment, dealing with various family issue, or anything else. The lawyers are paid to be right about their advice. Truck drivers are paid to move freight safely, legally, etc. A plumber or truck driver talking about his experiences with a pistol are a lot less valuable than the lawyer for the NRA, Gun Owners of America, Handgunlaw.us, etc who are paid to know the CURRENT limits of the laws. Please understand this board has users giving their opinions and their opinions could be as right or as wrong as any other opinion. At best, we are giving you a shortcut to know what we have learned, but none of us are making a living practicing law or earning a living giving legal advice.

 

Just remember, nobody giving you advice or retelling stories about what happed in 1975, 2000, in NY, CA, anywhere else is going to bail you out or pay toward your legal defense if they are wrong.

 

I'm not an Attorney. I am, however, a big supporter of the 2nd amendment and I own several firearms. I also sometimes open carry around my home, as does several of my neighbors. There is something I would love to express, but I am having to self-censor because it is highly political. I will just say this. The 2nd has some major enemies today. I will just leave it at that. Carry interstate at your own risk. That is my best and only advice!