It’s a sad fact that people shoot other people unintentionally. I’m not talking about mistaken identity shootings but completely unintentional shootings. Probably the most famous incident was when Vice President Dick Cheney shot his hunting partner. However, that was far from an isolated occurrence. Reading the news reports provides plenty of such incidents.
We absolutely don’t want to shoot someone unintentionally nor let someone get shot unintentionally. A firearm is an instrument of ultimate personal responsibility. It’s not like a car, where sometimes we can blame someone else for negative outcomes. When a firearm we are handling goes off, we have to bear the consequences, period. If we leave it sitting around unsecured and someone else makes it goes off, we have to the bear the consequences, period. Sometimes, the consequences are tragic, in either case.
tacticalprofessor 
Agreed, especially about handling in the car.
I was stopped by LE about a month ago while legally carrying. I went through my rehearsed routine : Both hands on the wheel. “I’m legally carrying concealed. My license and CWL are in my back right pocket. I’m carrying on my right hip. What would you like me to do? “.
His response was to place it in the glove-box. I complied, but in my head I was screaming “wtf!!”. Why ask me to take my pistol, which was pointed in a safe direction (down), with a covered trigger guard (holstered), and move it? Luckily for all of us, it made me be sure my trigger finger was indexed on the ejection port and I was slow and deliberate. I saw the many ways it could have gone bad. He had his hand on his gun the entire time.
A previous officer on a previous stop had said “Yours doesn’t come out-neither does mine “.
I always leave it up to the officer, but the latter seems inherently safer.
chefjon, the easiest way I can think of precluding that situation in a stop is to keep your ID and your weapon apart from each other. If I carry on my right hip, I put my ID in my shirt left breast pocket – at that point, the separation keeps the officer in charge of the stop much safer.
A retired LEO I know puts his IDs on his car’s visor (with a clip) when he gets in his car, and then back on his person when he exits the car. A bit more extreme, but accomplishes the goal.