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.
The last thing I want is for them to have a loaded pistol in the trunk of their car.
If they have to drive all the way home to get their gun to blow my brains out - at least they have a chance to cool off on the drive home.
If all they have to do is run out to the parking lot to get the loaded gun - I'm a goner.
Absolutely. But unlike union thugs, you can't harrass the folks who choose not to go along with your boycott. If you keep your hands to yourself, I wish you the best of luck with your boycott.
I agree
Or on a military base.
The lot is mine; the car is yours. You can put whatever you want in your car, including a harem of fuzzy llamas, and I can tell you whether or not your car is allowed in my lot.
I have a right to fence in my lot, and you have no right to plow through the fence, or to run through the guardpost. If I don't put up a fence or guardpost, the property is still mine and not yours. For society to work properly, most people need to realize that.
That depends on where you work.
Not allowed to here, glad I'm near a window on the ground floor... If TSHTF, that window is getting a monitor through it and I'm outta here.
If employers only want criminals to have firearms at their place of business, who are we to stop them?
Government employees shouldn't be armed at all. They're dangerous enough as it is.
No. Actually. They are not fully enforcable. Depends on local statutes and case law. In many places, they have been found to be exactly as I describe them, violations of the property owners Rights. Namely, the car owners.
You have no "right" to enter another's property in violation of their rules.
Ah, so if they make it a rule to engage in homosexual sodomy you'd be fine with that? Don't be silly. A private entity can no more strip a person of their inalienable Rights than the Government can. It violates the very premise upon which this country was founded.
So, do you have the right to hold a political rally in your employer's parking lot?
If it was a rally inside my car, sure. It'd be an awefully small rally though.
You must be a great boss...
That is incorrect, due to laws against discrimination in hiring and the potential for disparate impact. The babyseat example is one where there would be an obvious age bias to the policy, making it illegal due to age discrimination.
Period. End of story.
My car is an extension of my homestead; there should be no problem with my keeping a gun there, no matter where it's parked.
In your car, yes. In the office itself is up to the company, who I'm sure would say no.
That's true: today, US law does disrespect property rights--not to mention the freedom of association. To that extent, however, it's US law that's in the wrong.
...illegal due to age discrimination.
Yup, freedom of association is much undermined. Luckily for me, soon it will be illegal for pretty girls to refuse to sleep with ugly guys. After all, if I can prove that she sleeps around pretty indiscriminately, then her refusing me can only be chalked up to bigotry against unattractive men.
so bring your own gun to work to protect against those very same PMS maniacs you so fondly spake of.
"...Well he should have armed himself then..." Clint Eastwood as William Muny in "The Unforgiven"
A strange example, but okay, I'll play. Okay, say a private property owner wants to have a gay orgy in his house. A condition of attending the party is that you have to engage in homosexual sex while there. If not, you will get booted out of the party. If you refuse to engage in homosexual sex, can the owner of the property deny you an invitation or kick you out? Of course.
A private entity can no more strip a person of their inalienable Rights than the Government can.
Your rights have not been stripped. You are not forced to work for a particular employer.
If it was a rally inside my car, sure. It'd be an awefully small rally though.
So, as long as you are sitting in your car, you can violate your employer's rules? That is just a ridiculous position.
Not on a mil base.
Close, no cigar:
what it's about is whether or not your employer, the "guy who owns the parking lot," has the right to deprive you of your Constitutional rights on the way to and from work
Now if you hate guns, fears guns, or think guns are somehow inherently evil, just say so, but don't try to confuse a rational discussion.
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