Another Win for the Constitution!

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Judge Won't Stop Guns-At-Work Law


By CATHERINE DOLINSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

Updated:

TALLAHASSEE - A federal judge declined on Wednesday to stop Florida's new guns-at-work law from taking effect on Tuesday.

The law, which Gov. Charlie Crist signed in April, will allow employees possessing concealed-weapons permits to keep guns in their vehicles while parked on their employer's premises. Not only will employers not be able to stop them, they won't be able to ask whether an employee has a gun in his or her car, either.

Florida's fight over guns at work, which began in the Legislature in 2005, has pitted conservative factions against one another. The Florida Chamber of Commerce, arguing that the law violates property owners' rights, asked for an injunction in federal court in Tallahassee on Wednesday. On the other side: the National Rifle Association and the state, arguing that the issue is a matter of an individual's right to bear arms.

Chief District Judge R. Hinkle said he was neither granting nor denying the injunction, but other obligations and the need to research the case further will probably prevent him from ruling before mid-July, he said.

The law not only grants employees with concealed weapons permits the right to keep guns in their cars, it permits customers to do so as well, but there's a catch, argued Barry Richard, the chamber's attorney, building on questions that Hinkle raised about the statute.

It Hinges On Weapons Permits

As the judge noted, the statute applies only to "employers" defined as businesses with at least one employee possessing a concealed weapons permit. If the business lacks such an employee, it does not qualify as an "employer" - in which case, neither employees nor customers of that particular business have a right to keep a gun in their car on the premises.

A business might have a single employee with a weapons permit one day, but not the next, Richard argued - meaning that the customers' rights to have a gun on premises would change daily. "It's utterly irrational, and the United States Constitution protects us from legislative acts that are irrational and that impose onerous obligations on us," he said.

A Matter Of Convenience?

Attorney Jonathan Glogau, arguing for the state, said that both Richard and Hinkle were stretching the meaning of the statute.

Among those who would benefit from the law, Glogau said, are gun owners who want to drive straight from work to go hunting, as well as employees who want to keep a gun in their car to protect themselves while they drive to or from work. That form of self-defense is only feasible, Glogau and NRA attorney Chris Kise argued, if the employee has a place to store the gun during work hours.

The latter argument appeared to carry the most weight with Hinkle, who challenged Richard to prove why protecting that self-defense option was not "rational" justification for the law. Richard said that allowing guns to be stored onsite was not necessary to preserve that right.

Glogau also disputed Richard's contention that the Florida statute violates federal workplace safety law. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act does not regulate firearms at work, but Richard argued that dangers posed by guns at work violate OSHA's very purpose.

Glogau countered that OSHA leaves it up to states to regulate workplace safety issues not covered by the federal law. It is the plaintiff's assertion, he said, and not a fact that guns make the workplace more dangerous.

Kise argued that businesses don't have to restrict their employees' gun rights to protect them.

His remarks drew fire after the hearing from Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the state chamber of commerce.

"They see no problem with small businesses being required to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on metal detectors and asking every customer who comes into their store to empty their pockets," Wilson said. "It's unfair, it's irrational and it's unconstitutional."

'It's Hard To Say'

Kise responded to reporters' questions about a Kentucky man who reportedly killed five people and himself Wednesday at a Kentucky plastics plant. According to The Associated Press, the man used a .45-caliber pistol he had in his car.

Kise said he had heard the gun was not in the man's car. "I don't think anything - whether this law or any other law - would have prevented the unfortunate situation that took place in Kentucky," he said. "Except, perhaps some type of metal detector devices or employee screening, or some sort of more active human resources management on the part of the company. But it's hard to say."

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or cdolinski@ tampatrib.com.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln