About a month from now, a 14th state will allow employees to store legally owned firearms in their locked, privately owned vehicles while at work.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) signed the bill into law. It takes effect Sept. 1, 2011.
“A worker’s individual and constitutional right to self-defense does not end when they drive onto their employer’s property,” said State Senator Glenn Hegar (R), the bill’s sponsor. Hegar calls the measure “good policy that provides workers with a means of viable self defense while commuting between their homes, their workplace and anywhere in between.”
Hegar says he sponsored the bill in response to a number of instances in which employees had been denied the right to protect themselves while traveling to and from work because their employers adopted “overly restrictive policies.”
“When an employer bars firearms on company property … they rob their employees … of their right to safety,” Hegar said.
The new law will protect employers from any lawsuit resulting from the use of a firearm stored on their property. Companies can still forbid an employee from carrying a firearm in company-owned vehicles or their offices.
The other states that have similar laws are: Oklahoma, Alaska, Minnesota, Kentucky, Mississippi, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Utah, Montana, Idaho and Arizona.
What do you think about these laws? Do they make workplaces more or less safe? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
