Guns-To-Work Disarmed

In what some saw as a shoot out between the 2nd Amendment and the 5th Amendment, it looks like property rights trumped gun rights–this time.

The the Alabama House Commerce Committee voted unanimously yesterday  to carry over SB 360, the “Guns-to-Work” bill, effectively killing the legislation for this session.  This is good news for property owners, employers, and individuals, according to the Business Council of Alabama.

According to Rep. A.J. McCampbell, D-Linden, a business owner, he supports the Second Amendment right to bear arms and personally owns several guns, “but as a businessman, I have a responsibility to the people who come to do business with me.”  McCampbell added, “I draw the line at caring for the safety of people I’m charged with caring for at my place of business.”

 Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee,  said the timing of the bill was “very bad,” and that it is wrong to tell an employer he could not tell his employees not to bring a firearm on his property. “Truly you are violating the right of that employer,” she said.

The bill would have made it illegal for a property owner to establish a policy prohibiting employees, customers, or individuals from bringing guns on to their property or work place.  The bill would have made it possible for a worker or customer to bring legally permitted firearms into a parking area and leave them in their private vehicle, even if the property owner did not want them to do so.

With frequent incidents of workplace shootings, including the recent incident in Huntsville, many employers and business owners feared that the close proximity of a firearm could prove deadly in cases where a workplace argument or a business disagreement could escalate with tragic results.  The property owners also feared that unwanted firearms on their property could expose them to liability and inhibited their efforts to provide a safe environment for their employees and customers.

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