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I was just thinking when was the last time I saw a gun rack in a pickup truck. I know growing up and while I was a younger man I used to see gun racks in pick-up trucks quite often especially around hunting season. It was a common sight. My first truck had a gun rack. But it has been a long time since I have seen one. Is it because we are such a liberal state now that we don't want to upset others on the road by showing off our guns or have some moron call 911 because there is a rifle visible, or is it because the laws are so tricky are we afraid of attracting LEOs or is it because theft is higher than it used to be or have we all gone into hiding as we don't want to broadcast that we have guns or are they still there hidden behind tinted windows or do we only use trucks for work and all there is no room in the window of Subaru for a gun rack.
 
General degradation of honorable/moral society. You cant leave that stuff in plain sight and expect it to be there when you come back.

If they legalized shooting thieves - it wouldn't be nearly an issue.
 
Growing up I too saw lots of pick ups with gun racks , no one really gave it a second thought...
Unless it was to "check out " the rifle or shotgun there in passing.

However , in today's world , in many parts of the US it may not be the best of ideas.
Theft comes to mind as well as vandalism....or folks just "assuming" things about you 'cause of the sight of a gun in a gun rack.

All of which is a shame , because firearm ownership is not a crime nor and one should have to "hide" the fact that one is enjoying a Right.
Andy
 
I think that because most pickups these days have extended cabs of some sort the easy rider rifle rack isn't needed anymore.
This is something I've thought, too. And the only gun racks I've seen for sale are those cheap, plastic kind that are supposed to wedge into the rubber around the window. Might as well put your rifle on the floor if the rack's going to drop it there anyway... The good metal gun racks are hard to find and then the installer actually has to drill holes in the truck. Most people these days don't have the skill or the tools to do that.
It all depends on where I am, but most places I take the truck with a rifle in the rack I'm not concerned about parking it somewhere (locked, of course). I like having my truck parked at the shop in Portland with a rifle, shotgun, or "Oh My God", an AR in the rack. :D
20201017_101058.jpg
 
I remember back in the 1980s they were real common in the rural areas where I grew up. They gradually disappeared over the years. (My own pickup has a single rifle rack, but I only use it when on my own property or when out I know it will not be left unattended.) As to why, my guess would be:

  • Theft. Leaving an object (or several objects) worth hundreds or thousands of dollars in plain sight with only a little glass for protection is no longer viable.
  • Changing truck designs. The old cabs were pretty cramped for space and spartan. The new ones not so much, so it is easier to securely store a long gun someplace else.
  • Changing tastes. Styles come and go, so this might have been a factor.
 
I used to have a two-gun rack in my '83 Toyota pick-up rear window that I carried my Mossberg 500 shotgun and Colt AR15 around in all the time (in NE Portland no less).... right up to the time in '89 when that FREAK shot up that school in Stockton California who carved "Hezbollah" on the buttstock of his AK.
 
Subaru happened.
Until a couple of years ago I'd have called BS on this, but then I got a little car. It's not AWD, but I use it all of the time and have taken it on the roads of our property, and typically drive it with reckless abandon. I spend very little to drive it compared to that green Ford.
 
How else dose one display his lever guns? :s0108:
Or Winchester Pre-64 70, or Savage 99. or...?
Growing up in eastern Oregon I loved checking out the long guns in the back windows of trucks. The first time I saw a Marlin lever it was in a truck. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it WASN'T a Winchester! :D It wore a scope. What the heck was wrong with that guy?
 
Is every one posting here near, or at, "Old Fart" status? Or grew up rural/semi rural? I grew up what you'd call semi rural, I suppose, and it wasn't uncommon to see guns in trucks when I was in high school '70-'73 in The Salt Lake Valley.
 
Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 58. I lived in Sisters and John Day as a kid, moving to Milwaukie in '74. I've spent a lot of time in rural Clackamas County since then.
 

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