I am with Tom Grieve on this one.
I support the spirit of the law while not supporting the law itself.
Savannah, Georgia has made it illegal, punishable by a $1,000 fine and thirty days in jail, to leave a firearm in an unlocked vehicle.
I agree that you shouldn't leave a gun in an unlocked vehicle. If it's a pistol that you carry for self-defense, it should be on your hip -- not in your car. Even if your car is locked, it's not a good idea to leave a gun in your car for any extended period of time.
Still, if a gun is stolen from an unlocked vehicle, it's by the mere nature of the law's existence that law enforcement is gonna start working on throwing the victim of the theft in prison before thinking about catching the thief.
Isn't there a possibility that some people won't report a gun stolen, or won't report the details of the gun being stolen, if they realize that they'll be facing jail time if they tell the complete truth?
How will the law enforcement prove that the car was unlocked. Even though it's a misdemeanor, it would still be a law that ends up in criminal court, with a burden of proof of beyond a reasonable doubt. A person could swear up and down that the car was locked. It's not hard to establish a reasonable doubt if the prosecution can only argue that there were no signs of forced entry. Contrary to popular belief, perjury cases are rare. Even if a person is lying about believing that his or her car was locked, it's hard to prove that the person was lying, and not just wrong.
Are cops gonna just start jiggling the doors of parked cars to check if they're locked? If they're not locked, are cops just gonna start checking gloveboxes for guns? That would be a constitutional mess.
Yeah, again, if you're in possession of that gun for self-defense, it should be on you, and not in your car. That doesn't mean that this is a good law.