I have always been careful to take cores out of any power armor i have in a settlement so the settlers don't jack it.

I'm too the point where if i get really good guns, I just give them to the settlers. An example, all the settlers on Spectacle Island have Gatling guns. Pretty funny watching them mow down enemies.

I have a modest power armor collection on the Island. Just one of each type. A Raider, a T45, a T51, a T60, and an X-01. They are in my collection room along with all the bobbleheads and magazines, tiny robot models, and the world series bat.

Anyway, I gave one of my settlers a Laser Gatling. During a big battle( not really, between the settlers and 400 defense they end pretty fast) she used the core and jumped into a power armor. She never left the collectibles room though and I was able to get her to leave the power armor.

I guess the moral is, don't give a settler a Laser Gatling if there is power armor sitting empty in that settlement.

Noted. You've also answered a question I've wanted to test but never got around to. If I give a core to a settler, will they be more inclined to use PA. Which is yes.

Ah I'll try that, I left a pink set of T-45 with a core in it by the gate at Sanctuary for the guard girl to use, but she's never used it. However I was always coming back and finding my PA suits randomly abandoned all over the place before I started pulling the cores.