Guns vs. Business on the NYT Editorial Page — and the Texas Version

Not often that employment issues get space on the New York Times editorial page, but last week it weighed in on the battle between business and the gun lobby over employers' rights to ban guns from the workplace that is being fought in legislatures across the country.

I am not a hunter, nor a student of the 2nd amendment, but I do know a bit about workplaces, and let me tell you this is an important issue for employers and its crazy to think employers shouldn't have the right to ban handguns. The NYT agrees, Workers’ Safety and the Gun Lobby.

If safety is the issue, which of course it is, the NYT points to this:

There is no debate that doing so [allowing guns at the workplace] endangers workers. Workplaces that tolerate guns are five to seven times more likely to suffer homicides than job sites that ban firearms, according to a 2005 study in The American Journal of Public Health. The notion that self-defense mandates keeping guns in office drawers or out in parking-lot glove compartments is a dangerous fantasy.

The debate is happening just up the street from me as the Texas legislature is in session and has several bills before it. One bill, HB 220, has already passed out of committee. It would prohibit employers from banning guns in parking lots unless two conditions are met:

(1) the parking lot, garage, or other area is completely surrounded by a gate and is not open to the public; and (2) ingress to and egress from the parking lot, garage, or other area are monitored by security personnel.

These kinds of exceptions, which are not practicable, are cover for legislators who can use the "exception" to show that they were "reasonable." Garbage.

Even worse, SB 534 has already passed the Senate, and like its counterpart HB 992 (also passed out of committee), provides a cause of action for anyone discharged for having a gun on an employer's parking lot that has complied with a convoluted scheme involving the employee providing his supervisor a written statement that he has a gun, along with copies of the gun license and allowing the employer to provide an alternative place for storage. I can just see it now, instead of a hat check closet, employer's will now have a gun check closet.

I am not terribly optimistic that these bills won't make it through the legislature. If you are concerned, you better speak up soon.