Florida Firms Attacking 2nd Amendment In Workplace - With Video
Disney, Universal Studios, and get this…a toilet-paper plant owned by Georgia-Pacific, are among numerous companies that are seeking to ban guns in the workplace. And by that, I mean they don’t even want you to have a gun locked up in your car in the parking lot. NRA’s Wayne LaPierre was on Fox News talking about it, and there’s an article below from today’s Wall Street Journal:
Several major Florida employers are trying to get around a law allowing workers to keep guns in their cars, even as a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling supporting the right to keep handguns at home has emboldened national gun-rights lobbyists.
Shortly after Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a bill that says businesses must allow employees with concealed-weapons permits to keep guns in their cars in company lots, Walt Disney World Co. told employees it would stick to its no-guns policy. Disney claimed an exemption for employers who have a permit “to engage in the business of importing, manufacturing, or dealing in explosive materials” — in this case, the fireworks the company uses nightly to brighten the skies over four of its Florida theme parks. The company is a unit of Walt Disney Co.
At least three other businesses in Florida — NBC Universal’s Universal Studios in Orlando, the Jacksonville electric authority, and a toilet-paper plant owned by Georgia-Pacific LLC — also surprised the law’s supporters when they, too, claimed to be a gun-free workplace due to a variety of exemptions to the new law, which took effect July 1. The Florida Attorney General said Friday that Disney’s exemption complies with the new law and the office is in discussion with the other businesses. NBC Universal is a unit of General Electric Co.
The fight over carrying concealed weapons has intensified in some states since the Supreme Court ruling on handguns in the home. The court didn’t address where guns might be carried.
Now, employers across the country are facing new dilemmas about how and when to allow weapons on company property, as they try to balance the Second Amendment rights of their employees with federal laws requiring them to provide a safe workplace. In some instances, the business community finds itself at odds with the goals of the powerful gun lobby.
Florida is one of at least nine states to pass legislation allowing people to bring guns to workplace parking lots. This year, the Harrold, Texas, school district will allow employees who have licenses to bring concealed firearms onto campuses, saying they were needed to protect against school shootings.
Other states are facing legal battles over their guns laws. In Georgia, a gun-rights advocacy group is suing to stop the state from enforcing a gun ban at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The current debate over guns at the workplace began in 2002 when Weyerhaeuser Co. used search dogs to find drugs parked in vehicles at its Valliant, Okla., paper mill and in the process found 12 cars containing guns in violation of a company policy prohibiting firearms. Several employees were fired, galvanizing support among gun-rights advocates for laws expressly permitting licensed owners to keep their weapons in their cars while at work. A spokeswoman for Weyerhaeuser declined to comment.
Two years later, Oklahoma lawmakers barred employers from prohibiting “any person, except a convicted felon” from bringing a gun to work. Last year, a federal judge struck down the law, saying that it violated federal guidelines put out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is charged with preventing work-related injuries. The state is appealing.
Personal protection is at the heart of Florida’s guns-at-work law, says Republican representative Thad Altman, who voted for the bill. “A lot of women who carry firearms for personal protection want to be able to carry that firearm from, say, a dangerous apartment complex to their cars, and then back again at night,” he said, citing a recent crime spree near Orlando. “If they can’t have the firearm locked in their car at work, then they can’t carry it for personal protection either.”
Prior to the new legislation, Walt Disney World had a no-guns policy. In 2006, Disney fired a married couple for bringing a gun to work; they said they kept a gun in their car after being victims of a road-rage attack.
After the new law went into effect, Disney claimed the law didn’t apply to it, frustrating the law’s supporters. Wayne La Pierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association, says the exemptions claimed by Disney and other Florida businesses are forcing employees to make “a Hobson’s choice” between their job and personal protection. “When they’re driving home at 2 a.m., Mickey Mouse isn’t there to protect those people.”
One former Disney employee believes that choice is unjust — and was willing to stake his job on it. Edwin Sotomayor, a security guard who worked, most recently, in the Animal Kingdom, defied Disney by bringing his pistol to work on July 4, three days after the law took effect. Authorities met Mr. Sotomayor in the lot, and he was later fired. Now he is suing Disney to get his job back. Mr. Sotomayor and his lawyer declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Disney says, “We believe that the exemption is clear. And we continue to maintain our policy against guns and workplace violence.”
Critics say the new law increases the risk of workplace violence by making a gun available to an irate worker. Moreover, critics argue, the guns-at-work legislation provides no offsetting safety benefits because a law-abiding employee wouldn’t have time, in the event of an assault in the parking lot, to access a gun locked inside a car.
(WSJ)
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The private companies in this article like Disney don’t want to have guns in the workplace because should there be a shooting by an irate employee, they could be sued for Wrongful Death or Injury. It’s about liability, not particularly anti-gun sentiment. Or at least that’s my take on it.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pmI belong to the NRA and I am all in favor of the 2nd Admendment, but I think this is stretching it. Actually I think it is pushing to an extreme that in the end will give me and every other gun owner a black eye.
I don’t know many people that appreicate the government telling them how to live. it is my life, I will own guns, I will eat, drink and smoke what the hell I want. That said, I think businesses, like individuals have the right as to what they deem acceptable.
In my mind it is no different a dress code in the work place.
August 18th, 2008 at 3:32 pmI want to know how passing a law that allow’s companies to ban storing a firearm In the companies parking lot. From a CCL Licesed holder. Will stop anyone without a CCL from just walking In the front door with a gun and just start shooting everyone
Are they going to search every car
Every Person 
Every Day 
Who will stop that nut
When know one is there with a Firearm who is leally allowed to Carry a Concealed Firearm 
August 18th, 2008 at 4:00 pmI know what your saying. But the chances of that happening are millions of times less likely than driving to work.
My point is that government shouldn not be allowed to mandate how anyone runs their business unless of course it it creates direct harm to others (such as sex trades). If company policy states you can’t have guns onsite then so be it. It should be their right to make the choice that they feel benefits them best.
If you don’t like the companies policy you have the freedom to choose the course of new employment.
Another thing to keep in mind is that anytime the goverment makes a law you, me and everyone else loses a little more freedom.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:04 pmAs was said above, it is more a liability issue than anything. No I do not think that a business should have the right to dictate what I do with or have in my personal vehicle. After all it is just that MINE. not theirs. In most instances a company will not accept liability for any of your personal property, nor will they make an effort to ensure it’s safety and security beyond any “minimum” requirements. As such I do not feel they have the right to regulate that for which they will not assume responsibility. After all, a law enforcment officer has rules they must follow in order to search your property as well as make any seizures related to it. Which by the way is yet another amendment to our constitution. A business however noble it’s intentions should never have the right to deem a law or in this case a federal mandate “optional”. As to the supreme court not “defining” where we may store our guns, what they meant was clear, as stated in the second amendment under the word “bear”. Come on folks, no games it’s just symantics at this point. The law was set forth and that’s that. As a point of fact at my current employer, you are not allowed to have a weapon in your car. There policy on vehicular searches is this. We ****** reserve the right to search an employee’s vehicle at any time for any reason, failure to comply is considerred an admission of guilt and will result in immediate termination of employment. So yes, I have a problem with an employer deciding that a law or laws are “optional”
August 18th, 2008 at 7:02 pmI pose these questions to you.
Let’s say I have a CCW, I am an aquaintance not a friend, regardless of in the car or not, would you want me being around you with a gun? How about in your yard? How about in your house? Would you be comfortable with that?
What if I work for service company (like Heating & AC) that requires you to drive a vehicle and be in your house. Would you be comfortable with me packing heat?
I see both sides of this and I see each of your points. But as a business owner I wouldn’t want my workers carrying weapons in their vehicles and especially my vehicles. I don’t want them on job site. It would actually harm my business if customers found out I allowed my workers to carry weapons.
It is not that I don’t want you to own a gun, I don’t want the liability, I don’t want to keep track of whether or not you have a CCW and I don’t want to lose customers.
In my mind it all comes down to I don’t know you well enough to know whether or not I want you around me with a firearm.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:51 am