Do you have any numbers to back up your guesses?
You just gave me some.
Actually, I have nothing more than the numbers you have. I simply don't think there are numbers collected and analyzed that could answer this, but anecdote and reports from cops, criminals, and each other all point to the unreasonable vulnerability of guns left in cars.
And my contention throughout this and other threads is that it is a risk factor we can, and should, work to lower. That there are reasonable other ways to accomplish being armed in public, that guns left in trunks, under seats, and wherever else just "always" don't represent a realistic way to address the need for a defensive weapon -- almost ever -- and that the cost-benefit analysis does not favor the concept of a "truck gun."
And, of course, that gunny folks don't want to THINK about it. Thinking critically about our habits tends to make us gunny folks very uncomfortable and angry. As though serious analysis which might lead us to not do something is equivalent to "the gooberment" or the UN coming in and taking away our rights.
I HATE that kind of blinkered, reactionary thinking that says we can't make good decisions because making good decisions, or even TALKING about them in real terms is somehow showing weakness to the antis or giving up our rights.
For your theory to work we have to assume that the only guns that are stolen from cars are those that are "routinely" left in cars and that all theft is from locked cars.
Actually it doesn't. We don't have enough information to make anything but GROSSLY general statements, and even when I strip it down to the most generously favorable interpretation of the numbers you gave me, we come out WAAAAY on the "against" side.
Was the gun left "routinely" or just that one time? We can't say, but that argument works against your point because a gun left "occasionally" would have fewer total chances to be intercepted by a thief. So any that were stolen on "just that one day" someone left their gun in the car would simply be statistical outliers putting more nails in the coffin of this argument.
Locked or unlocked? What does it matter? Are you really going to argue that guns left in cars that are unlocked are statistically different from guns left in locked cars? Why in heaven's name would that be so?
Look I agree that leaving a gun in an unlocked car out on the street isn't responsible any more than leaving one on your porch, but to say leaving one in a locked car with an alarm under motion lights with a dog thats a light sleeper is irresponsible is quite a stretch.
And I never said any such thing. In fact, I've pointed out that there are times and situations where leaving a gun in a car is really the best we can do. And times and places where your car or truck might be just as well defended/secured as your house, or nearly so. And times and situations where a gun left in a vehicle routinely is a VERY reasonable and responsible thing to do.
But I contend that those are far less common situations than "we" are willing to believe. And when "truck gun" or "car gun" or "trunk gun" is mentioned, it is very rarely in the context of intelligently balanced analysis of need, utility, and security.
