I've had my car broken into in the past. I have stuff stolen — the car stereo, personal items in the car, etc.
That background would make me feel extremely uncomfortable about leaving a firearm in a car while I was in shopping or at work. And with good reason. Thieves seem quite aware that people are stashing their precious firearms in their vehicles while they go places where they aren't allowed to carry them.
'In 14 of 15 cities that provided data for the study, police departments reported a 40 percent average yearly increase in the amount of guns stolen from cars. The cities with the most gun thefts from vehicles are, in order: Atlanta, Georgia; Jacksonville, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Austin, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada. The rise in the number of stolen guns coincides with the rise of guns sales in the U.S.; pistol manufactures made 600,000 firearms in 2001, and more than 3.6 million in 2014, according to Trace.'
It's worth noting that, even if we cracked down severely on how we sell guns to people, there are a lot of guns that go on the market from theft, often entering supply pipelines to locales with more stringent gun control laws. That people are treating the security of their firearms so cavalierly as to have them easily stolen from vehicles says something about their dedication to gun safety, not to mention to fighting crime.
The Problem With Leaving a Gun in Your Car – The Atlantic
In the United States, 1,600 guns are stolen every day—and many of those end up being used in crimes.
When I worked at the hotel (graveyard shift), I once had a woman check in about 2 AM. Salt Lake has a lot of vehicle burglaries, so I mentioned that she'd want to hide anything she left in the car.
She said, "I'm from Oakland. I never leave anything in my car I ever want to see again."
That's on my very short list of "words to live by".