Paging Mike Segroves for comment: This isn't breaking news, but I don't know how many people have heard about it (I came across it in a print legal journal - don't know if anyone wants to look for a link). In a recent amendment to the Self-Defense Act of 1995, the Oklahoma legistlature overwhelmingly passed language that bars any business from establishing a policy "that has the effect of prohibiting any person, except a convicted felon, from transporting and storing firearms in a locked vehicle on any property set aside for any vehicle." In other words, private companies on privately owned land can't tell their at-will employees that no guns are allowed on company property - they have to permit people to keep them in locked cars. Some of the big businesses with a presence in OK are challenging the new law (the challenge is also supported by the Tulsa police chief), including Halliburton (who'd have thought I'd ever be on the same side of an issue as Halliburton?). Discuss.
Hey, if I teach kindergarden, and I want to bring a gun in my car, its my right as a citizen because I'm just upholding my right to be a part of a militia.
This seems kinda weird to me. If you can and do own a gun, well, having it locked in your car is a nice thing. Going North on a hunting trip after work? Well, it would suck to drive an hour south to get home, then an hour back north to wind up where you started. On the other hand, its on company property, and if Mr CEO's wife/sister was killed by workplace homocide, well, I'd expect no sympathy if a company security guard saw a gun in my car. Especially because I'm a bit unclear on the legal defense. I'm on company property. I agreed to follow company policies in return for a paycheck. I can't smoke onsite. I can't smoke weed offsite. What's the difference between a loaded gun in a locked car in the parking lot, and a loaded gun locked in my break-room locker?
The bill's sponsor, Representative Jerry Ellis said he wanted to protect "our constitutional right to transport and store a firearm in a locked vehicle." Funny, but I don't recall the constitutional references to "locked vehicles". What sort of locks do you think horse-drawn carriages had back in the late 1700s? Here's a link to the story, but it's a pay-subscription site: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1101136523335