American Bar Association challenges NRA "Bring Your Gun to Work" campaign

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American Bar Association challenges NRA "Bring Your Gun to Work" campaign

by Martha Rosenberg http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_martha_r_070211_american_bar_associa.htm






The NRA's enemies list just keeps getting bigger:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senators Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton and Feinstein, New York City Mayor Bloomberg, the entire Democratic Party, the New Orleans Police Department, the United Nations, Weyerhauser, ConocoPhillips, Katie Couric, Rosie O'Donnell, George Soros, Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, George Clooney, animal activists, illegal aliens pant pant and now the American Bar Association.



The nation's largest lawyers group with 413,000 members is opposing the NRA's "bring your gun to work" campaign which seeks to strip employers of the right to bar workers from leaving guns in their cars while on the job.

With over 800 people killed a year at work in the US, the ABA no doubt thinks supporting an employer's right "to exclude from the workplace and other private property, persons in possession of firearms or other weapons" is a no brainer.

But not so to the NRA.

Not only is there the issue of private property--your vehicle is "an extension of your home," according to Marion Hammer, an NRA lobbyist in Florida where the controversial no retreat law was passed a few years ago--there's safety.

"When you get off work at 12 o'clock or 1 o'clock and you're driving home you have the right to protect yourself if you're accosted on the highway," says Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president.

(Will LaPierre say "if you're accosted at work" once the bans succeed? Pretending the NRA had nothing to do with arming the workplace--hey, it's the bad guys--just like it does with the nation?)

And then there's the inconvenience of No Firearm Zones.

"People could drive on their highways with the guns, but they couldn't stop anywhere," laments LaPierre. "In effect, you're nullifying the right to carry."

That's the point home rule communities would say.

The "bring your gun to work" debate dates back to 2002 when eight employees at a Weyerhauser paper mill in Valliant, OK were fired for having guns in their vehicles on a company parking lot.

While the employees' suits went nowhere, public outcry led Oklahoma lawmakers to pass a law prohibiting property owners and employers from barring anyone except felons from having firearms in locked vehicles in parking lots on their property.

But there was a wrinkle.



It looked at two workplace shootings in Mississippi just months after the Weyerhauser incident--seven dead and eight injured--and said you want us to legalize WHAT?, filing a federal lawsuit to block the Oklahoma law.

It's still in the courts.

"ConocoPhillips went to federal court to attack your freedom," thundered LaPierre to his constituents. "We're going to make ConocoPhillips the example of what happens when a corporation takes away your Second Amendment rights. If you are a corporation that's anti-gun, anti-gun owner, or anti-Second Amendment, we will spare no effort or expense to work against you, to protect the rights of your law-abiding employees."

But the boycott belly flopped and the only example shown was the danger of hollow saber rattling or telling a man to go to hell without the authority to send him there, as LBJ used to say.

Meanwhile ConocoPhillips said it respected "the rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns," and was just trying "to provide a safe and secure working environment for our employees."

And there were more wrinkles.

A version of the Oklahoma law in Florida which
banned workplaces including churches and hospitals from prohibiting firearms--including machine guns!--was too extreme even for the gun friendly state. (Imagine a doctor with bad news for a patient.)

"We're not against the Second Amendment, but guns are inappropriate in our workplaces and workplaces include parking lots. We control those," said Randy Miller, a lobbyist for the Florida Retail Federation which represents 12,000 businesses in the state.

Nor did it fly with the Blues who no doubt know something about the costs of treating gun shot wounds.

"Possession of firearms in the workplace or on company property is strictly prohibited," said Bruce Middlebrooks of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, which has 7,500 employees in the Jacksonville area.

Not only would the law present logistical problems said critics--metal detectors; employee mental health screenings--who would walk a fired employee to his car? ("I did it last time!"/"but he was a welterweight!")

In challenging "bring your gun to work" laws, the American Bar Association speaks for many who have had enough of the NRA's emo.

Its King Baby crying about the right to own machine guns, buy more than a weapon a month, bring weapons into home rule communities and, now, into the workplace when people have Real Problems.

And its fear mongering about armed and dangerous men who are often the very ones it's armed--in the home and workplace.



Martha Rosenberg is staff cartoonist for the Evanston Roundtable.
 
The NRA's enemies list just keeps getting bigger:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senators Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton and Feinstein, New York City Mayor Bloomberg, the entire Democratic Party, the New Orleans Police Department, the United Nations, Weyerhauser, ConocoPhillips, Katie Couric, Rosie O'Donnell, George Soros, Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, George Clooney, animal activists, illegal aliens pant pant and now the American Bar Association.

I couldn't think of a better list of people to have as enemies.
 
"A version of the Oklahoma law in Florida which
banned workplaces including churches and hospitals from prohibiting firearms--including machine guns!--was too extreme even for the gun friendly state. (Imagine a doctor with bad news for a patient.)"

Jesus, people listen to fools like this????

Why not "Imagine a psycho on a shooting spree in said church or Hospital, with all the legal people defenseless, waiting for police to respond."

The news loves to talk about guns harming and murdering, but they hate to see one save a life, unless maybe its a police officer.

Grrrr

-Weer'd Beard
 
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While I hate dumbass policies that state that somone cannot bring a
gun into work. As a general rule, most companies, even ones with
apolitical leadership have some sort of dumb policy like this. It's just
an extension of lawyerism creeping into the workplace. I agree
that however dumb it is, the employer can dictate just about whatever
they want.

I draw the line at vehicles, though. At a minimum no employer should
be able to dictate whether or not someone should be allowed to keep a
gun securely stowed in their (privately owned) vehicle. Those kind of
rules are just assinine and compromise people's safety and rights.


-Mike
 
I couldn't think of a better list of people to have as enemies.

If I were dictator, most of the people on that list would be
incarcerated and/or tried for treason- since thats what they
are... treasonist thugs dedicated to destroying our nation and
trying to make it a part of the EU socialist poop-farm.

-Mike
 
if I were to bring a gun to work they would never know...

they have no such devices to detect a firearm. Their security is a joke....
 
Learn some info about the Weyerhauser and ConocoPhillips cases

At Weyerhauser and ConocoPhillips management changed policy that all employees and their possessions (vehicles) where subject to search on company property. Management hired a search dog firm to bring case recovery dogs to their parking lot. At every vehicle that the dogs alerted on, they insisted that the owner open the vehicle. If you didn't open your car, you were fired. How are you going to hide your gun from a trained dog?
 
This whole thing sounds like it falls under what I call my "it's only illegal if you get caught" rule. It's also a good way to screw with the man.

The fact that they used dogs is good info - what that means is that probably the dogs are keying onto gunpower residue. So if you work in a situation like this what you need to do is build some sort of secret compartment into your vehicle - then rub gunpowder all over the vehicle in all sorts of places.

The dog will of course key into the gunpowder - but if you rubbed it on the exhaust - and the tires, and the underbody, and the engine, and the floormats, and the glove compartment, and under the seats, etc. - and the gun compartment is well hidden - then all you have to do is say - well I do go shooting occasionally with my friend Bubba - that must be where the powder residue came from.

Let them try and find the secret compartment when the dog keeps keying in on crazy stuff like the powder residue on the exhaust system and tires. There are plenty of places that can build secret compartments into your vehicle - good car stereo shops are one place that usually have this kind of skill.
 
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At Weyerhauser and ConocoPhillips management changed policy that all employees and their possessions (vehicles) where subject to search on company property. Management hired a search dog firm to bring case recovery dogs to their parking lot. At every vehicle that the dogs alerted on, they insisted that the owner open the vehicle. If you didn't open your car, you were fired. How are you going to hide your gun from a trained dog?

What was the dog alerting on? Hoppes #9?
 
Doesn't the law say that a vehicle is considered personal space for purposes of searching? Just like your house - your vehicle can't be searched without a warrant? Or is that just a state by state thing?
 
Doesn't the law say that a vehicle is considered personal space for purposes of searching? Just like your house - your vehicle can't be searched without a warrant? Or is that just a state by state thing?

It sounds like the company did the searches therefore the 4th Amendment does not apply.
 
If my employer starts dictating what I can or cannot have locked in my private vehicle I am gone. My employer does not and will not run my life. If I want to go to the range on the way home from work I will.
 
Presumably, the company had to give employees notification of this policy change, and most likely had them sign a statement saying that this was a condition of employment.

It's now part of your contract. The employer is saying that they don't want firearms on their private propery.

I personally find it disgusting, and won't knowingly buy from these companies anymore as a result.

Whoop-t-doo to Weyerhauser and Conoco I'm sure, but every little bit helps.
 
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