[Dan from Michigan]

I'm not a fan of Robert Reich, and disagree with him completely, but this is a back door tactic I didn't even think about until he wrote it.

[RightWinger]

I have a carry permit but if I leave my weapon at home, I can't protect myself going to and from work.

My employer doesn't allow guns on company property but they don't search cars either.

Decisions, decisions?

[41Thunder]

Apparently Oklahoma’s lawmakers are more concerned about protecting gun owners than protecting average working people.

That statement makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The last time I looked, many of the "average working people" in Oklahoma, are in fact gun owners. I too am no fan of Robert Reich and believe he is totally off the mark when it comes to guns in the workplace.

[Blood of Tyrants]

He is an idiot. Does he really think that because it is against some stupid law to take a gun into your workplace that it will prevent someone from MURDERING their co-workers? If anything, this will GUARANTEE that the people inside their workplace are unarmed against a person in a murderous rage.

[snowsislander]

I suspect that Mr. Reich's "study" is the same piece of garbage summarized here:

http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr05/loomis042105.html

Unfortunately, Mr. Reich neglected to actually cite whatever "study" he might have been referencing, so this is not a certainty, but this "study" is from UNC, it seems to be on the same topic, and it is reasonably recent.

[Doomonyou]

Where's the freakin hurl alert?!

[flashbunny]

Here's robert Reicccccccchhhhh contemplating his article...

[semaj]

Robert Reich = imbecile

[Oztrich Boy]

Guns At Work (Clintonite Robert Reich pushes for OSHA total gun ban in all workplaces)

How do the police and army feel about this?

[StormEye]

"In fact, gun-related homicide is the leading cause of
death at the workplace for women."

He forgot to include children and minorities.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"About 17 employees are murdered every week in American workplaces by someone with a gun"

---

This is an order of magnitude lie, because it includes disarmed cabbies, liquor store clerks, and 7-11 clerks, not to mention cops, bouncers, and security guards who are all killed while "employees", but not by fellow employees.

You can tell a lot by how hard they have to lie.

[snowsislander]

My guess is that this is the abstract for the North Carolina "study"; it's from the American Journal of Public Health:

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Employer Policies Toward Guns and the Risk of Homicide in the Workplace

Dana Loomis, PhD, Stephen W. Marshall, PhD and Myduc L. Ta, MPH

The authors are with the Department of Epidemiology and the Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dana Loomis is also with the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Dana Loomis, PhD, Department of Epidemiology, CB-7435 UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435 (e-mail: dana.loomis@unc.edu).

This population-based case–control study of North Carolina workplaces evaluated the hypothesis that employers’ policies allowing firearms in the workplace may increase workers’ risk of homicide. Workplaces where guns were permitted were about 5 times as likely to experience a homicide as those where all weapons were prohibited (adjusted odds ratio=4.81; 95% confidence interval=1.70, 13.65). The association remained after adjustment for other risk factors. The findings suggest that policies allowing guns in the workplace might increase workers’ risk of homicide.

The abstract (and the full article, if you want to pay for it -- $7.00 for one day's on-line access to it) can be found at http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/95/5/830

The methodology is specious. This is not an actual study of a study of a large number of workplaces or the numbers associated with them; instead, it is a "study" of "factors" found by looking at a grand total of 264 workplaces (87 where there was an employee homicide, and 177 where no employee homicides occurred.) No idea on the methodology of choosing the 264, but I would not be surprised if it was just as shoddy as everything else I can see about this "study".

It's a pity that Mr. Reich didn't actually bother to cite his study, but I think it is a good guess that this is the one.

[Still Thinking]

Apparently Oklahoma?s lawmakers are more concerned about protecting gun owners than protecting average working people.

Wouldn't the "average working people" BE gun owners? This is Oklahoma, most of them are probably not clueless liberals, after all.

[Still Thinking]

I'm not a fan of Robert Reich, and disagree with him completely, but this is a back door tactic I didn't even think about until he wrote it.

If the feds use any more back door tactics, I don't think my "back door" is going to be able to take it.

[trubluolyguy]

Let me get this straight Mr. secy. you honestly believe that banning guns from the workplace (or anywhere else)is going to stop disgruntled employees that snap from shooting up the place. You really believe this? Then please explain to me D.C.'s rise in violent/gun related crime since that $h!thole banned guns.

[Fido969]

Reich is an idiot.

He was pushing "socially responsible" investment funds for pensions, when the real problem with pension funds was lack of diversification. Had he been on the ball and doing his job during the time he was head of the DOL, instead of pushing a leftist agenda, a lot of people with pensions during the Enron debacle could have avoided a lot of grief.

This guy is the one of the biggest phonies and bags of wind I've ever seen. If it wasn't for NPR he would have faded into a justified oblivion years ago.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is OSHA required to base its nannying upon scientific studies?