There is currently a bill under consideration by the Utah Legislature that would change the way handguns may be carried in vehicles. Right now, unless you have a Concealed Firearm Permit, you may only carry a weapon in your vehicle if it would require two manual actions of the firearm in order to fire. In the case of a semi-automatic handgun, that would mean racking the slide (or dropping an open slide on a full magazine) then pulling the trigger. The new bill would require only one manual action--in other words, simply pulling the trigger.
Now honestly, this bill won't have any effect on me, but I would like to see it passed because it would basically extend existing firearm laws so that your vehicle is regarded in the same way as your home.
The thing that really gets me is the attitude of the bill's opponents. From the Salt Lake Tribune article:
"But having a ready-to-fire gun in cars could escalate road rage incidents from an obscene gesture to gunfire, said Heber Police Chief Ed Rhoades, president of the Utah Police Chiefs Association. Officer safety would also be jeopardized by a suspect's ability to just grab a handgun and pull the trigger while stopped by police."According to that logic, the only reason there aren't more road rage incidents or dead police officers is because people are just too lazy to rack the slide? I'm sure it's happened dozens of times: "I sure would like to have shot that guy who just cut me off, but pulling back the slide on my D.Eagle is just too damned much work!"