Employer's responsibility in regards to your safety.

[fivepaknh]

Should your employer either provide safe storage for CCW or accept responsibility for your safety to and from work? Many employers, like mine , prohibit weapons on their property. This includes the parking lot. A violations of this policy can result in immediate dismissal. This leaves only 2 choices. 1) Leave your weapon at home and be defenseless. 2) Violate the policy and risk losing your job.

 

[BogBabe]

Three bad options

From what I understand, it's perfectly legal, and goes to private property rights.

My company has such a policy. I hate it.

My options are:

A) Not carry at all. Bad option.

B) Lock my gun in the car -- still a violation of company policy, but not so strong a violation as carrying into the building. This leaves me disarmed and defenseless while walking to and from between the building and my car, and poses a risk of theft of my gun while it's in the car. Bad option.

C) Carry anyway in flagrant violation of policy and risk termination of my employment if caught. Bad option.

The two buildings on either side of ours have had shootings by "disgruntled former employees." I do not feel particularly safe walking from car to building and building to car.

Out of three bad options, I choose the one that is most acceptable to me.

 

[fivepaknh]

I choose B)

Leaving it at home means being unarmed on a 34 mile round trip. Unacceptable.

It's likely I'll never use it to defend myself, but I don't like anyone taking away the option.

 

[Bogie]

Where I work, they recently instituted a "no guns on campus" rule. That includes in your POV.

So.... If I'm at the range on a weekend or on a day off, where before I'd drop things and come in if someone had an emergency, I no longer do so, because it involves about 60 extra miles of travel to stash and retrieve my firearms. It's the company's loss, I guess...

 

[Drizzt]

In TX, an employer cannot prohibit you from keeping a firearm in your vehicle, as it is considered public property for those purposes. It's still not what I would recommend, though.

 

[Waitone]

I fully agree with the premise that says an owner of private property can allow or disallow the carrying of arms on said property.

But. . . . an enormous but::::::

If the owner of said property denies people to lawfully carry firearms on the property, and

an unfortunate event happens on the property that a reasonable person can conclude it would either not have happened or its impact would have been substantially different or less, and

if someone is injured or killed during that unfortunate event, then

civil litigation could be used to recover damages. In my view this situation is no different than a property owner maintaining an unsafe work environment. Health and safety law allows for both criminal and civil actions. This ain't no different.


I think we out to play the game by the rules. Its just the rules need to be evened out for both sides.

 

[Bulldog44]

I work in a psychiatric hospital that forbids firearms inside the building (but not in your vehicle in the parking lot). Several people there leave them locked in their vehicles, but I know of no one who tries to bring them inside.

If I were injured as a result of criminal activity (and believe me, we get threats all the time), I would probably pursue litigation if that option were available to me. A few months ago, a lady walked onto the psychiatric unit of a medical-surgical hospital in the same town and shot her son (who was a patient) dead in full view of nursing staff.

 

[yankytrash]

Express your dissatisfaction to the company's policy in a well-versed letter, to avoid heated "one-the-spot" discussion. Find other CCW permit holders to sign the letter - a petition, of sorts.

Explain the background check requirements and clean records needed to obtain a CCW permit, and that you only carry to protect yourself and others, at your own risk. Explain to them, too, that they will be held fully accountable for your safety should anything happen, even if it involves civil litigation in the aftermath.

If you truly care about your personal protection, you will pursue this matter to it's end result, and leave the job for a safer one if necessary.

I carry open everyday at work. I even do so in the presence of new customers. When asked about it, I simply reply that I am concerned about my safety and theirs, and I will deter or stop crime whenever I encounter it. I do so at my own risk, to make my community a safer place to live. One night, I hope the news is full of only good stories, instead of tragedy.

 

[Smurfslayer]

Hold on there...

DO NOT pen a letter or email to the HR dept. or management unless you want to pop up on radar for the next staff reduction.

If you're intent on making a stand, do so anonymously, by going to a local pro 2A organization & asking that a letter be sent on your behalf - anonymously !

If you blow it expressing your points, or there's an Anti in HR, or management, it's cheaper for them to eliminate your position than dice with you about a weapons policy that will be controversial.

SHOULD employers respect your right to self defense, by whatever means necessary? Absolutely.

Do they ? No.
Despite what many people think should be the case, an employer has absolutely no responsibility for your safety as it does not pertain to your duties. IOW, they can't legally make you risk your health as part of your job, but most of us do not require a firearm for the job we hold. Lawyers reccomend crafting weapons policy to ensure the minimum number of liability incidents occur. Safety has absolutely nothing to do with it, it's all about money.

If you look at the statistics, most gun shops allow employees to carry heaters. Most IT companies do not. How many IT companies suffer workplace violence vs. gun shops ?

 

[HankL]

Safety in the workplace

First read through THIS a while.
Employers are in a damned if you do damned if you don't situation no matter how friendly they are to the issue being discussed here. Can I make the call for my company that all employees can carry firearms at work and not risk litigation when the newbie warehouse guy has a ND while in the head and the errant round does damage to one of the other employees?

While I would love to set up a shooting range and make sure each person employed with my company is well versed in safe handling and proper response I have other things to do while I am at the plant. I'm talking about 100 employees from minimum wage help to 100K+ salesmen who I don't have the time to take through the range safety course

No problems with pdw in car, no problems with pdw at hand with individuals I really know and trust. It's still a catch 22.
OFF MY BOX
Hank

 

[fivepaknh]

HankL

I understand the position employers are in, but they don't have to discourage or advocate CCW in the work place. The whole subject should be avoided in the companies written policy. At the most they should state "illegal carry of weapons is cause for immediate termination".

Here's my companies policy verbatim:

Possession of Weapons

Employees are prohibited from bringing to work or carrying any
type of weapon or firearm while on company property. Any
employee found to be in possession of any type of weapon or
firearm will be subject to immediate termination of employment.

 

[BogBabe]

Employees are prohibited from bringing to work or carrying any
type of weapon or firearm while on company property. Any
employee found to be in possession of any type of weapon or
firearm will be subject to immediate termination of employment.

That's very similar to my company's policy.

Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of the word "weapon" is. In my job I regularly use boxcutters, X-acto knives, scissors, my pocketknife. I guess I'm subject to termination at any time for having such items in my possession.

 

[Tol]

I own a company. We make it very clear to every employee and subcontractor that CCW is welcome in/on/around this property.

It is a white-collar environment and I am surprised how rare my way of thinking seems to be in this setting.

After a couple of requests I am considering getting an office safe for people to keep weapons in. Some folks carry on lunch or the ride to and from, but not at work. They'd feel more comfortable with their weapon safed. A good safe is not cheap! I wish I knew of a way to have secure individual lockers. We'll see what happens.

There is a hitch. We contract out frequently to other companies. We are doing a lot of our business, in someone else's place of business. Most of them don't seem to have any official policy. But the occasional company is quite militant. They, ironically, are usually the places with the worst security, fewest lights in the parking lot, and most remote/most urban locations. I am glad I'm not working there much or, god forbid, full time.

We've never had an incident with any clients taking issue with our pro-CCW policy. We are not shy about it, and have gotten a few pats on the back for it. I wish that some of the other, larger companies would show some guts and not interfere with their employee's constitutional rights.