Texas: Action Needed - Employer Parking Lot Bill

C

Charles L. Cotton

Inactive
HB1301 - Employer parking lots.

The House version of the employer parking lot bill (HB1301) is up for a public hearing today (3/23/09) in the House Public Safety Committee. This committee has nine members and Representatives Caraway (C), Rodriquez (D) and Burnam (F) are guaranteed "no" votes. Vice-Chairman Frost (A+) is a co-author on HB1301 as is Rep. Joe Driver (A+), so they obviously will support the bill. Rep. Phil King (A+) should be a "yes" vote and I suspect Chairman Merritt (A) will support us.

This means Representatives Hubert Vo (A-) and freshman Tryon Lewis (C+) could well be swing votes. Please contact these members of the committee and very politely ask them to support HB1301. You might remind them that HB1301 has 37 joint authors and co-authors. Get their fax numbers and follow up your call with a fax. (I don't have fax numbers.) Here are the "talking points" on HB1301"


  • SB 730/HB1301 do not prevent an employer from keeping guns out of the workplace; it only applies to locked cars in the parking lot;

    SB 730/HB1301 provide employers immunity from civil liability for any injury or damage that may result from storage of firearms in locked vehicles, unless the employer is grossly negligent.

    SB 730/HB1301 allow employers to prohibit firearms in a parking area, if the parking lot is not accessible to the general public and the employer provides alternative parking for employees. Or the employer can opt to provide a place to lock up an unloaded firearm. This provision is especially useful to the petrochemical industry and any other business needing to protect sensitive areas.

    SB 730/HB1301 would not apply to company-owned vehicles, nor would it allow storage of firearms in vehicles parked on property where the possession of firearms is prohibited under state or federal law.

HB410 - Repeal of duty to show CHL.

A public hearing on this bill was held on March 9th, but Chairman Merritt (A) has not brought this bill up for a vote. Other bills have been brought up for a vote. Please contact his office and politely ask him to bring this bill up for a vote. It has 30 joint and co-authors and 300,000+ CHLs deserve to have a vote on this bill.

Please respond to this call to action folks; don't just assume others will do so. Our strength is in numbers and we need a response. DO NOT REFERENCE TSRA OR NRA!

Thanks,
Chas.
 
There is good reason to believe that Representative Brian McCall, Chairman of the House Calendars Committee, has tagged SB730 (employer parking lot bill) and will not let it out of Calendars Committee. In the alternative, he can let out of the committee so late that SB730 will have no chance of getting to the House Floor before time runs out. This is precisely what the Calendars Committee did to our parking lot bill last session.

We need to flood Chairman McCall's office with calls and faxes and tell him we want SB730 to be set on the House General Calendar now! It's fine to let him know that you understand that letting it out too late to be heard is just another way of killing the bill.

I'm so tired of this garbage.

Chas.

Chairman Brian McCall (512) 463-0594
 
I don't know how much weight my opinion will carry being a michigander but I will definetly weigh in with some mail. thanks for drawing attention to the topic Charles L. Cotton.

If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
Thomas Paine
 
I have been following progress on the House and Senate versions of this bill and have been wondering why progress rolled to a sudden halt. I thought maybe lobbyists dropped these in lieu of working on the CC on Campus or something.

I've placed several calls and emails re: these bills. Thanks for dropping a few more names I can put my .02 on.
 
Chas, I don't know enough about your parking lot bill to make any intelligent assessment, but I do know how the Idaho legislature was able to pass our own bill, earlier this year.

Did you get the Texas Chambers of Commerce (CoC) behind this bill?

The authors of our bill, did just that. They sold the bill to the CoC by stressing the bill alleviated civil liability issues for any employer who allowed, either by not having a rule or by specifically making it an employment rule, employees to keep firearms in locked vehicles.

Our bill was lobbied, not by gun-owners per se, but by the various CoC's that represented the employers themselves. That was the deciding factor in passage of our parking lot bill.

Something to think upon, if your current bill makes no headway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top