Posted on 03/29/2006 10:04:37 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Should you be able to take your gun to work?
08:17 AM CST on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 By Vicente Arenas / KHOU
There's a battle looming over your right to take a gun to work. The controversy centers on whether you should be able to leave a firearm in your car.
If Granger Durdin could take her gun everywhere, she said she would.
"With the crime rates the way they are and with being a young female, I sometimes feel a little bit more vulnerable and with a gun I have the protection that I need to be safe," said Durdin.
The 29-year-old manager is not alone.
"It's very important. You don't know when someone is going to come after you," said gun owner Brenda Lorisch.
In Texas, businesses have the right to keep concealed weapons out of buildings. Now there's a move to allow companies to prohibit them from parking lots, too and that has some concealed carriers upset.
"I believe that's an infringement on civil liberties," said gun owner Pat Warren.
There are no real statistics that will tell you how many people take their guns to work and leave them in their cars. But when it comes to firearms, people in the gun industry will tell you that most people who have licenses to carry them won't leave home without them.
"It takes away our right to protect ourselves going to and from work," said Cheryl Lamar, Hot Wells Firing Range.
Houston-based ConocoPhillips is challenging a law in Oklahoma that allows workers to leave guns in their cars parked on company property.
The company said it is simply trying to provide a "safe and secure working environment for its employees by keeping guns out of their worksites, specifically refineries, natural gas plants and distribution terminals."
11 News found a sign outside an area plant prohibiting weapons, but saw no such signs in the company's parking lot. Still it's clear guns aren't welcome there.
When asked if she thought that this could lead to workplace violence, "Yes, I've heard that. I don't agree," said Sue King, NRA board member.
King grew up around guns. She said ConocoPhillips' efforts are a waste of time.
"If you think back to the incidents of workplace violence that we occasionally, rarely have in this country and keeping the Oklahoma legislation in mind, you'll realize that those people who commit workplace violence are either outright criminals, they're mentally unbalanced or they are true psychopaths," King said.
"I feel that it's a problem," said Tomasita Garza, Texans for Gun Safety.
This group disagrees with King, saying there are other problems with leaving a gun in a car.
"The reason being no vehicle is safe. No matter what kind of deterrents you use to keep your car from being stolen, it can still be stolen," said Garza.
ConocoPhillips is one of several companies asking an Oklahoma judge to clear the way for employers to prevent workers from keeping pistols in the parking lot.
The company says it, "supports the second amendment and the rights of law abiding citizens to own guns".
It's that amendment that granger Durdin says it gives her a little more confidence and the right to protect herself wherever she may be.
Looks like a bunch of petty bosses who want to control more than work habits. When did it start that any boss thought it was just peachy to act like a jackbooted thug by ripping into someone's vehicle?
A freedom lover isn't someone who just wants freedom for themselves. Any petty dictor want that.
Exactly. Thanks Shooter.
The term is indenturement, look it up.
The term is "indenture". The only significant difference between indentured servitude and slavery, is that an indenture eventually expires. During the term of his indenture, he is not free to quit, and is therefore a slave.
You are free to quit. Therefore you are neither a slave nor an indentured servant. Please don't be ridiculous.
The company says it, "supports the second amendment and the rights of law abiding citizens to own guns".
Apparently their PR flacks have never heard of an Englishman named George Orwell.
Logical... Controlled access to the lot should be required if they want to prohibit firearms on the premises in a motor vehicle.
I have noted many large commercial enterprises with expansive parking facilities have security that is virtually nonexistent. This conflicts with the right to defend yourself.
“A covenant not to defend myself from force, by force, is always void.” - Thomas Hobbes.“The right men have by nature to protect themselves, when none else can protect them, can by no covenant be relinquished.” - Thomas Hobbes.
It is sort of like the U.N. trying to force the Israelis not to defend themselves against the Phillistines when the U.N. won't do a damn thing to clamp down on them either...
Nothing wrong with an honor system. So your boss trusts you--hey, he doesn't know you like I do. :-)
“A covenant not to defend myself from force, by force, is always void.” - Thomas Hobbes.
Hobbes was an idiot, but this statement is almost true. Not completely true, but almost. Regardless, it has nothing to do with this case: the parking lot owner forbids the parking of cars containing weapons. This is not the same as requiring you to submit to a mugging, although you may find it inconvenient to defend yourself without a gun.
If the risk of a mugging is so very high, I would (1) negotiate with my boss to allow guns, or maybe (2) park somewhere else, or maybe (3) hire a security escort service, or maybe (4) convince the boss to hire security guards, or maybe (5) carry a gun but store it off the premises, for example in a rented locker next door to the workplace, or maybe (6) carry a switchblade or ballistic knife, or maybe (7) study Tai-Chi as a martial art, or maybe (8) carry pepper spray, or maybe (9) change jobs to a safer neighborhood, or maybe...
If you honestly bought Hobbes's reasoning, and you really believed that it was applicable, you would insist on carrying a gun inside the office as well.
Oh, and by the way...
A security barrier is a great idea!
If you are dealing with honorable people... trouble is, there is no way to know if a stranger lurking in a parking lot is honorable. In most cases they are not... (You don't want the rape and robbery statistics on that.)
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If you honestly bought Hobbes's reasoning, and you really believed that it was applicable, you would insist on carrying a gun inside the office as well.
The nature of my previous occupations required it.
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But, unless nobody is the wiser... for my purposes, if it were necessary; a Seecamp LWS in my boot or a flat dagger up my sleeve would go unnoticed.
I really think both extreme sides on this issue are equally ridiculous...
“For God's kingdom was in [Israel], and the nations round about were the kingdoms of the Enemy.”
Still true today... isn't it?
Stopped clock and all that.
As Bob Hope said to Jane Russell, "That's a nice pair of .45's you've got there." Said Jane, "Yeah, and I'm packing a set of guns too."
Oh, I get it; sort of like where an employer, such as the owner of a bar or other business, can allow smoking on his property because he owns it! Smoking bans notwithstanding of course! Can't have it both ways Poto.
Yes!
I am opposed to government-mandated smoking bans, so I'm not trying to have it both ways.
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