You wrote about her feelings:
That even if she was alone and someone broke in, she wouldn't have time to wake up, get to the safe, and grab the firearm anyway.
Okay, so defensive firearm use is out for
her. Whatever, right? But, would she be willing to consider having that sort of setup (guns in a readily-acessible safe) for
you?
Remeber that, as she and you try to have a discussion about this (and you should), that a
discussion is not the same thing as a
lecture. Make sure that she understands this as well.
Don't use fear (news accounts of violent-crime victims) to try to sway her; that rarely works. An occasional pointing out of a news account, when it happens, of a successful DGU may even be more effective, but not in the actual discussion of the topic.
My mom was a liberal raised in Massachussetts. Since 09/11/2001, she has made a rapid shift to the other side. I was still living with her when I was sworn in as a LEO, and she begrudgingly accepted what comes with that. I've been out of that line of work for a long time, now, and a couple of years back, she expressed a little surprise during a phone conversation when I happened to say something about "going shooting" or something. She apparently had assumed that I didn't have any guns anymore, maybe because so much time had gone by and I was now the father of a small child.
Earlier this year, she was visiting and was telling me about the movie "2016", which I have not yet seen. As she was beginning, I asked her if it was the type that "would make me wanna go out and buy more guns" and she replied "oh, definitely." So, it seems as she has relaxed her gun-shyness quite a bit.