Laws for transporting firearms - and how stupid they are.

Since Michigan has another series of gun laws going into effect, I wanna address one of the stupider laws that a lot of states have in regard to transporting firearms.

Now, to be clear, if I'm transporting more than one gun, l like taking all of my carry guns to the range, I'll have one on my person, fully loaded with one in the chamber; but, the rest will be unloaded and locked in the back. But, a lot of laws do try to make it so any gun your transporting has to be unloaded and locked in the back. Even here, in a state that doesn't have such laws, there are a lot to people who bought guns for personal protection, and still keep them unloaded or unlocked in their cars.

First of all, not a good idea to leave a gun unattended in your car.

Beyond that, there was a scene in the movie A Knock at the Cabin, where one of the family members being held hostage makes a break for his car to get the gun for personal defense after being assaulted. This whole sequence showed why this a bad idea. Of course, the gun had been useless through the entire movie up to this point, because it was in the car when the captors broke into their cabin. But, when he finally gets to the gun, it's shown not only get the gun wasn't loaded, but neither is he magazine. This whole scene is this dude trying to load a magazine while being stabbed over and over again.

One thing that everyone needs to keep in mind, is that one of the elements of self-defense is imminence. If you use your gun on somebody, and you fail to convince a jury that you were in imminent danger, you go to prison for murder.

In the A Knock at the Cabin scenario, of course, the guy would be justified in using deadly defensive force. He was under assault with a deadly weapon, and he had two family members held inside; so, he wasn't just trying to get his ass out of there.

But, this isn't a likely scenario. If you're attacked in such a way that you'd be justified in using your gun on a person, you're probably not getting to your car before you're dead or seriously injured.

Even if you were to manage it, you have a whole other problem on your hands, which is the question of avoidance. Even in most stand your ground states, juries are allowed to consider the possibility that a reasonable person would have fled rather than using deadly force. It's a valid question to the jury, "If the defendant had time to get to his car, open the trunk, open the case, load the gun, and fire, why didn't he have time to get into the driver's seat, start the car, and drive off?"

The most likely scenario, if you keep your personal defense weapon unloaded and locked, or simply just not on your person, is what happened is South Florida earlier this year.

A female rapper was assaulted by two large men. They had her pinned to the ground. Eventually the men made the decision to disengage. At that point, the women walked in the other direction, seconds later returned with a gun, and fired, killing one of the men. She's charged with murder.

Stand your ground just means that, if a fight is brought to you that you didn't agree too, you don't need to show that you exhausted every possibility of escape. It doesn't give you the right to return to the fight, or commit an act of revenge.

The difference between self-defense and murder can be fractions of a second. It usually is a split second. That's why you keep the gun on you and loaded and practice retention, and don't just leave it in your car.

An unloaded gun locked up in the trunk of your car isn't a personal defense weapon. It's useless. Either you're going to be wishing you had it while you're being stabbed or beaten to death; or, if you do use it, you're probably going to prison for the rest of your life, because it's hard to prove that you were under imminent deadly threat while having the time to grab the gun.