Proposed law: Companies can't keep employees from bringing guns to workNRA-backed bills raise freedom, safety concernsJason Garcia
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida businesses could soon face criminal charges if they try to stop employees from bringing guns to work in their cars, thrusting the state into a growing national debate pitting individual freedom against job safety.
Backed by the National Rifle Association, two state lawmakers have filed bills that would allow workers to have guns at work, as long as the weapons remain locked in their vehicles.
The legislation is modeled after an Oklahoma law that drew national attention when a number of major companies, including energy giant ConocoPhillips and oil-services conglomerate Halliburton, sued to have it overturned.
A Florida version could have similarly sweeping effects, particularly in Central Florida, where the region's largest employer -- Walt Disney World, with more than 57,000 workers -- does not allow its employees to bring guns onto park property. Universal Orlando, which employs 13,000 people, has a similar policy.
About 353,000 people in Florida, meanwhile, have concealed-weapons permits, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That figure does not include people who don't need to obtain the licenses, such as police and military personnel.
Despite the battle in Oklahoma, supporters are lining up in Tallahassee. The House bill has already attracted 10 co-sponsors.
Backers say they are confident they will get the law passed during next year's legislative session, which begins in March. The NRA is among the most powerful groups in Florida politics, wielding an active grass-roots membership and having contributed $330,000 to the Republican Party since 1996, state records show.
In the past two years, the group has won approval for measures that protect gun ranges from being forced by governments to clean up lead pollution from bullets, prevent police from creating gun databases and allow people to shoot attackers without first trying to retreat.
Marion Hammer, an NRA lobbyist, said the group will make the parking-lot bills (HB 129 and SB 206) a priority in 2006.
"For a business to tell you that in order to come onto their property, you have to give up your constitutional right is wrong," Hammer said.
Born in Oklahoma
Debate about guns in workplace parking lots erupted in 2002, when 12 workers at an Oklahoma paper mill lost their jobs after managers found guns in their vehicles parked on site, a violation of company policy.
The state's Legislature responded by passing a law giving employees the right to keep guns locked in their cars at work. Several companies filed suit in a case still winding its way through federal court.
The issue gained national attention in August, when the NRA, which says it has 4.3 million members, launched a boycott of ConocoPhillips gas stations. The group also has erected billboards that read "ConocoPhillips is No Friend of the Second Amendment."
State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said he decided to file a Florida bill after learning of the issue through media accounts, NRA publications and conversations with Hammer.
"I thought it was a good time for Florida to go ahead and take a position," Baxley said. "What we're trying to do is avert what we see as some backdoor gun control."
Under the bills, companies that try to stop workers from bringing in their guns would be committing a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.
Gun rights invoked
Supporters of such laws say they prevent companies from forcing workers to give up their constitutional right to carry firearms. It's important for people to have their gun close at hand, they say, citing examples where employees must walk through dark parking lots after work.
"An employer needs to recognize the right of its employees to lawfully defend themselves," said Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who is running for attorney general and has signed on as a co-sponsor to Baxley's bill.
A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush said the Governor's Office hasn't reviewed the proposal yet.
In an effort to blunt opposition from businesses, Baxley and Senate sponsor Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, included provisions that would shield companies from lawsuits should an employee commit a crime with the gun kept in a car on company property.
"I would think that business folks would embrace this readily because it gives them immunity from liability," Hammer said. "They should be happy as clams."
An issue of safety
But some companies say banning guns from their property isn't an issue of gun control or of liability; it's an issue of safety. They point to reports such as one from the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued earlier this year that showed shootings accounted for three-quarters of the 551 workplace homicides in the United States last year.
"If they have to get in the car and drive home to get a gun, chances are they are going to cool down a little bit," said Frank Mendizabal, a spokesman for Weyerhaeuser, which owns the Oklahoma mill that fired employees found with guns in their cars.
That the law could protect companies from lawsuits is irrelevant because immunity "doesn't prevent someone from being shot," he said.
Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called the proposal a "ridiculous" attempt to ignore property rights in favor of gun rights.
"Companies in America should maintain the right to be able to say, 'No guns in the workplace,' " he said.
Businesses wary
The Florida bills will likely face similar opposition from businesses.
"We would be opposed to any effort that would prevent us from determining who can or cannot bring weapons onto our property," Universal spokesman Tom Schroder said.
Bill Herrle, a vice president for the Florida Retail Federation, said the group questions whether the proposal would conflict with existing employment law and property rights.
"We are going to have some concerns with this," Herrle said, though he said the Retail Federation has yet to discuss the issue with lawmakers.
Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty said the company has not examined the legislation. But she defended Disney's no-guns policy as "in line with our top priority, which is the safety of our cast members and guests."
Despite all its successes in recent years, Hamm predicted that the NRA has picked a fight it is unlikely to win. As strong a force as it is in Tallahassee, he said, big business is even stronger.
"They've decided to take on the only lobby in America that is arguably more powerful than them, which is the unified business lobby," Hamm said.
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