Posted on 03/13/2007 11:26:20 PM PDT by neverdem
The U.S. Constitution and most state constitutions guarantee the right to keep and bear arms. Transporting a firearm in your vehicle for protection while traveling to and from work, grocery shopping, to the doctor's office, to a shopping center or anywhere else people commonly travel is central to that right.
In Plona v. United Parcel Service, 2007 (U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio), UPS fired an employee for having a firearm stored in his vehicle in a public-access parking lot used by UPS employees and customers. The court found that "the right to keep and bear arms" is enough to form the basis of a wrongful termination. Further, U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich found that "allowing an employer to terminate an employee for exercising a clearly established constitutional right jeopardizes that right, even if no state action is involved."
Businesses are prohibited from discriminating because of race, age, sex, religion, nationality, etc. And clearly they are also prohibited from discriminating against those who exercise their right to keep and bear arms for personal protection and other lawful purposes like hunting and target shooting.
Individual constitutional and legal rights do not end when we drive onto a business parking lot. Simply put, business property rights do not trump the Constitution or the law.
State legislatures have a duty to protect the constitutional rights of individuals from abuses. They must act as a shield to protect constitutional rights of the people; they also must act as the point of a sword to punish those who violate our inalienable rights. That is at the heart of this debate.
Businesses cannot substitute their own political philosophies for constitutional rights. And nowhere in the Constitution are businesses given any authority to prohibit rights in their parking lots. Businesses have no more right to ban firearms in private vehicles than they do to ban books. Businesses may impose only restrictions that do not rise to the level of contravening protected rights.
Nor can employers require you to waive your protected rights. They cannot, as a condition of employment, require you to give up your right to vote; neither can they require you to give up your right of self-protection or your right to keep and bear arms.
On the common-sense side, think about a mom who doesn't get off work until midnight. She may drive 30 or 40 miles over dark, desolate roads to get home to her family. She may stop at a convenience store and pick up bread for school lunches the next day.
Her employer has no right to tell her that she'll be fired if she exercises her right to have a firearm in her vehicle for protection.
Think about women who work late hours as cashiers at supermarkets. And what about employees of all-night pharmacies, or nurses or lab technicians who work late shifts and drive to and from work through dangerous areas late at night?
As one female legislator asked, what about lawmakers who travel their districts at night for speaking engagements? Are they not supposed to park anywhere or stop for a cup of coffee or a soda or a bite to eat because they carry a gun in the car for protection?
A woman who is being stalked or who has obtained a domestic violence injunction against an abuser needs protection. Police often advise these women to buy a gun for protection because police can't be there to protect them. An employer violates her rights if the employer attempts to force her to waive her rights and chose between her life and her job.
The keeping of firearms in a vehicle is a preeminent right that is well-grounded in law and public policy. Legislatures must stop the abuse of our most basic and fundamental Second Amendment rights on the part of corporate giants.
How dare you consider self defense. The reeducation classes have started, you just need to...
Thanks for the link!
Utter nonsense. Why would the Second Amendment work differently than the First? My right to free speech is seriously curtailed while I'm at work. I could go to the mall and use abusive language or bad-mouth my company's products. Can't do that at work and remain employed. It's that simple.
Second amendment rights trump private property rights? I don't think so, but it'd be nice if it were so (for 1st amendment too!).
I see your point about property rights, but isn't my car MY property? I park in my employer's parking lot at my employer's pleasure, but it's nobody's business what I keep inside MY car for self defense.
I also understand that an employer can fire anyone for any reason (unless the employment contract says otherwise), but any employer who fires someone for having a gun in his car is an idiot.
Wrong.
but any employer who fires someone for having a gun in his car is an idiot.
AOL fired 3 employees in Utah, the court upheld AOL
Weyerhauser and Conoco-Phillips were fighting the State of Oklahoma over employees with firearms in the trunk of their vehicle.
Conoco - Phillips (the oil company) did file suit against the State of Oklahoma in federal court over a Oklahoma law that protected employees.
I do not have any idea how far this suit has progressed.
Could you keep a hustler in your car?
How about a Cobra in your Cobra?
This sounds nice, but is not the practice. Most states have laws that your guns must be disassembled during transportation. In Massachusetts, they will jail you if you even think about having a gun in your car. (Slight hyperbole there, but check out the laws in that ACLU-run state.)
Most universities ban all guns. That is quite diferent from the way things were in my youth, when my high school had a rifle team, and the members carried their rifles to school on the bus on days when they had meets. The bus driver would wish them good luck in the competitions as they borded. It was a different world then — and in most ways a better one.
This is actually an important article. I've heard lots of incidences where cases were made that took the point of view if you are in somebody's business, their rules trump your rights (Yes, I know the article said business parking lot, not "business" but I think the principle applies. Don't property rights convey with the person, not with the property?).
As I'm sure you know, the First Amendment applies to political speech, not smut speech, Larry Flynt to the contrary, so your reply is specious.
They don't. The employer's property[parking lot] ends at my property[vehicle].
The Constitution does not incorporate private businesses into the State. Your rights enumerated in the Constitution are enforceable against the state only, unless legislation specifically gives you (or the state) a cause of action against a business.
Neither circumstance applies here.
Texas is a 'right-to-work' state. You can get fired for any reason, or no reason.
Oh, really?
Airports can be run by private corporations, yet your rights are certainly trumped there.
Let me add further.
When you sit on an airplane, in flight, you are in a transport vehicle owned by a private corporation, yet regulated by the State.
Think you have any property rights there?
The rights referred to in the Constitution do not exist in transactions between businesses and individuals, except insofar as Congress has provided through regulation of interstate commerce (the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example).
Hence, while you are riding in someone else's airplane, you cannot make a speech, carry a gun, quarter a soldier under your seat. You are not free from unreasonable searches or seizures, as long as they are not carried out by an agent of the government. You may not freely exercise your religion. You may not peaceably assemble in the aisles or toilets. And so on.
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