TN passes PRO gun bill

Must I also allow my employees to exercise their other natural rights? Must I allow their freedom of speech/expression? If they have a klan sticker on their vehicle must I allow them to park it on my property? I would say no, I don't.

I may not fire an employee that is a member of a protected class for being a member of that protected class. I also may not eject them from my store, for example, for being a member of a protected class.

Now I don't own a business anymore, so it doesn't really impact me. Also, in VA, our attorney general just put out an opinion that a property owner may say employees cannot keep guns in their vehicle on the property if they wish. I agree with that decision. As I said, I have no problem with people keeping gun in their vehicles on my property. And, it should not be an issue unless the person that has the gun in their vehicle makes in an issue.
 
You don't have to let your employees have guns in their cars, parked on your commercial property. You can modify their employment agreement so they have to park elsewhere, or you can fire them if they're somehow dangerous or careless with their firearms.

Prohibiting people from having guns in their cars in a work parking lot is bad. It infringes upon the employees' rights as they travel to and from work.

On residential private property, you can do anything you want.

On commercial private property, the rights of employees and customers who are behaving lawfully must be balanced against the rights of the owner.
 
The federal government is allowed to tell me I cannot carry a weapon onto a military base, and that seems to have past the constitutional muster. But, as a private property owner I cannot do the same thing?

I think the solution, for me, if I felt strongly about the issue, would be to tell all employees they cannot park on the property.

I am concerned about property rights, but , also, I don't understand why people feel the need to make this an issue. If you want to carry a gun in your car carry a gun. Don't advertise that fact. As long as it is not against state law it should never be an issue.
 
A bit of clarification may prevent undue development of some concerns expressed.

overhead said:
The federal government is allowed to tell me I cannot carry a weapon onto a military base, and that seems to have past the constitutional muster. But, as a private property owner I cannot do the same thing?
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As noted by Tyme, this proposed law does not pertain to your private residential property. To the degree you invite the public generally onto your commercial property, you would not be permitted to prohibit people from having arms in their cars where you are unable to detect those arms through normal observation.

As a practical consequence of such a law, a business owner would not be able to give criminal law status to his wish to prohibit those he invites onto his property from possessing arms concealed in their cars.

overhead said:
Must I allow their freedom of speech/expression? If they have a klan sticker on their vehicle must I allow them to park it on my property? I would say no, I don't.
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A clan sticker on the outside of a vehicle is subject to ordinary observation.

The protection described in this bill is very narrow.
 
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If you want to carry a gun in your car carry a gun. Don't advertise that fact.

Agreed.

But lets just say you own a business that has experienced some thefts and wish to search all vehicles at the end of a shift in an attempt to find the culprit(s). During these searches you find an employee with a carry permit has kept their personel protection properly secured in their vehicle during that shift. If that employee has not done anything offensive or unlawful, they should be protected from termination just because their carry beliefs are different than your carry beliefs. It is no different than terminating an employee because you witnessed them entering a place of worship that differs from your place of worship.
 
"But lets just say you own a business that has experienced some thefts and wish to search all vehicles at the end of a shift in an attempt to find the culprit(s). During these searches you find an employee with a carry permit has kept their personel protection properly secured in their vehicle during that shift. If that employee has not done anything offensive or unlawful, they should be protected from termination just because their carry beliefs are different than your carry beliefs. It is no different than terminating an employee because you witnessed them entering a place of worship that differs from your place of worship."

I do not believe I have a right to search my employees vehicles or person. I only have the ability to ask them to leave or to fire them. If we are arguing that an employees car is their personal property and I may not regulate what they keep in it at my place of business how in the world could we ever justify me searching said property?

Va is an employment-at-will or a right to work state. I am not sure about Tenn. I can terminate an employee for any reason without having to justify my decision, unless that action violates federal law or state law. I cannot legally fire someone because of their religious beliefs because that is included as a protected class or something which I may not use against an employee. I would not do such a thing anyway.

Forgive me for taking this thread sort of off topic, that was not my intent. I feel as strongly that property right are important to a free society, just as I believe the 2nd amendment is important to maintaining a free society. I do not like the government telling me what I must or must not allow on my private property. But, I am a libertarian nutball. Once you allow them to tell you what you must allow, it almost always lead to them telling you what you must not allow. For example, laws that ban guns from churches, even though those churches are not public property. Again, sorry for the off topic.
 
overhead said:
"But lets just say you own a business that has experienced some thefts and wish to search all vehicles at the end of a shift in an attempt to find the culprit(s)..."

I do not believe I have a right to search my employees vehicles or person. I only have the ability to ask them to leave or to fire them. If we are arguing that an employees car is their personal property and I may not regulate what they keep in it at my place of business how in the world could we ever justify me searching said property?
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Clearly the new TN law gives an employee the right to keep a gun in the car. I'm not sure if TN or VA law give you, as the employer the right to search the employees car. I'm pretty sure SC law does not. I'll guarantee you it doesn't give you the right to search my car without a badge and a warrant.

As far as keeping a gun in the car goes, this was common practice at nuclear power plants back in the 80s. Security was beginning to tighten up after Congress passed some more laws - can they ever quit - and drivers would show up at he hates with a gun in the tractor, but instead of being allowed to check it at the gate they were supposed to "not have it" somehow. Go figure. One day it was ok for a revolver to sit in the security supervisor's desk drawer while a guy dropped a rig, the next day it was a potential terrorist act.

Anyway, since I was responsible for receiving a whole bunch of trucks, a whole bunch of revolvers and pistols spent time in the trunk of my car.

I can tell you there was a lot of gun trading done in that parking lot too. All totaled I worked at seven nuclear plants during the construction heyday, and I never saw a single gun behave badly. And you can bet that the craft laborers working premium overtime had plenty of money to spend on toys, and nice guns were a popular toy. In the trunk!
 
Forgive me, I do forget as it has been a decade or more but...
The company that I was previously employed by had a weapons ban and they also had a vehicle search consent policy. These were signed by all employees at time of initial hire including drug screens etc...
I have had my vehicle searched, along with all other employees at that particular location, coincidently in Norfolk. This subject did come up while talking to a lawyer freind and she explained that VA law, at least at the time, did not prevent the company from doing searches as everybody had agreed to it when they had hired on.
As a side not, that particular company largely overlooked any weapons in vehicles, due to the type of people we generally hired, as they were usually hunters, fishermen, etc that enjoyed shooting and other outdoor sports. Never worked a nuke plant, always WTP or WWTP. But a bunch of the crew in Norfolk had worked Surry!!

My point is, if my employer asks me to not bring firearms to work, I agree that once I am on his/her property I should grant those wishes by not being armed. If I leave my firearm secured and hidden from plain view, I am unarmed. I should also still be able to defend myself on my way to and from my place of employment. And I thank TN for progressing this law that will allow that regadless of an employers view.
 
Well, if you sign a consent then you have given consent. No two ways about it. If I want the job, then that's reason enough.

I agree that when I'm working on military bases the big sign out front is explicit that entry grants consent, and weapons are forbidden. So since I'm on a base this very second my gun is in a lock box in my hotel with a trigger lock in the trigger. Carry permit in my pocket is valid in this state allows me to get it back out at the end of the day.

But if I haven't given consent, then it's a totally different story. Show me the warrant.
 
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