Reminds me of my dad. He was conservative in the most milquetoast manner. He had a gun and on a major family road trips he would put it in the car.

He had a revolver that he had purchased a decade or more before, he never fired it and stored it in the box it came in. When we got ready to pack the family car for the trip, he would put his gun in the trunk, at the very front of the trunk and tell us not to touch it... then he would pile all the bags and suitcases and other crap on top of it.

One time we broke down in the absolute middle of nowhere. This was before cell phones were owned by average people, about mid 80's. The car had died, total piece of shit mid 80s gm car that broke down all the time and my father was no mechanic (and he never carried any tools). He tried restarting it several times without luck. So there we were on the shoulder of a highway, at least 50 miles from the closest city, no way to contact anyone, and my parents arguing what to do. There would be no way to walk for help, it would have taken ages to get there. We had no food, no water, no blankets or candles or flashlight or anything with us other than our suitcases and it was a cold mid-December. (fantastic planning by our parents....)

We sat there for what seemed like hours. The night was pitch black, no moon and the windows were completely fogged up. Suddenly a car drove past us and you could tell they slowed without hitting their brakes at first. They pulled back around and then up behind us and sat there for a moment.... then red and blue police lights lit up on their car... it was a state patrol officer. He slowly approached our car and our dad rolled down the window to explain the situation, and how badly we needed help. And right after that my dad got excited and added "Oh but we're safe, I have my pistol back in the trunk!"

The trooper was seemingly caught off guard by this. I can only imagine what he's thinking upon finding this idiot family out here with a pos car, nothing to stay warm, no food or anything to drink, no tools, and multiple children in a small car on a freezing cold night.

After a pause, the trooper replied slowly and with a slight tone of condescension "Well sir, if I were you... I'd have it up front with me and I'd have it loaded."

To sum up, the trooper radioed help for a wrecker service to get us into the next town. We called family who were willing to drive about 500 hundred miles to pick us up from the gas station/repair shop and took us to their house to eat and sleep.

Keep your gear with you. None of it will do any good stored where you cant get to it.