🚀 go-pugleaf

76% of U.S. states now have right to concealed carry laws. 
http://www.nraila.org/images/rtcmaplg.jpg
These are the safest places in the U.S.

I'm SURE, after reading the following article, we'll hear from all the 
paranoid socialists who think that concealed carry in the workplace will 
lead to "blood running in the streets" but that's been debunked. Gun laws 
only infringe the rights of the good people, because CRIMINALS DON'T OBEY 
LAWS ANYWAY.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2004-12-09-guns-
cover_x.htm

Companies that ban guns put on defensive
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY

Ronald Honeycutt didn't hesitate. The Pizza Hut driver had just finished 
dropping off a delivery when a man holding a gun approached him.

<cool photo of Pizza Hut guy with a gun>Pizza delivery employee Ronald 
Honeycutt lost his job because he possessed a weapon. 	

By Shawn Spence for USA TODAY

Honeycutt wasn't about to become another robbery statistic. He grabbed the 
9 mm handgun he always carries in his belt and shot the man more than 10 
times, killing him.

Honeycutt faced no criminal charges, because prosecutors decided that he 
acted in self-defense. But the 39-year-old did lose his job: Carrying a gun 
violated Pizza Hut's no-weapons rule.

"It's not fair," says Honeycutt of Carmel, Ind., who has found another 
pizza-delivery job and continues to carry a gun. "There is a constitutional 
right to bear arms. If I'm going to die, I'd rather be killed defending 
myself."

	  LAWS VARY BY STATE 		

State laws on right-to-carry

Employers have long banned guns from the workplace as part of a violence-
prevention strategy, but those policies are being tested as states pass 
laws making it easier for residents to carry concealed guns � in some 
cases, crafting legislation that strikes down employers' attempts to keep 
guns off company property.

That means employers, who have traditionally shied away from such 
politically charged issues as gun control, are filing lawsuits to preserve 
their no-guns-allowed rules. Gun owners are also fighting back, boycotting 
companies that ban guns or fire workers for having them.

"Are we promoting open firefights in the parking lot?" says Paul Viollis, 
president of Risk Control Strategies in New York. "For legislation to 
permit employees and contractors to bring loaded firearms to work in 
vehicles is blatantly irresponsible."

In 35 states, practically any non-felon can obtain a license to carry a 
concealed weapon, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. 
Those states require law enforcement officials to issue a license to carry 
a concealed weapon unless the person is in a prohibited category 
(generally, a convicted felon). Employers can still generally ban guns 
inside the workplace as long as they post signs or take other clear steps 
stating that no weapons are allowed, legal experts say, but some 
legislators are calling for new laws that would take that ability away.

Gun bans challenged

The ability of companies to ban guns in their parking lots is coming under 
strong attack. In Oklahoma, a number of employers, including Conoco 
Phillips, are trying to overturn a law that allows employees to keep guns 
in locked vehicles on company property. The law was supposed to go into 
effect Nov. 1, but enforcement has been blocked as legal wrangling over the 
bill continues.

Gun-owner groups say employers who ban guns are stripping away workers' 
right to defend themselves on the job. Roughly 76% of all workplace 
homicides are robbery related, compared with 7% in the general population, 
according to an unpublished 2003 report by the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Having a gun is what Terry Pickle believes saved his life. In 2001, the 
owner of Pickle's Pawn Shop in Salt Lake City, was at work when two 
intruders broke in. They didn't ask questions or demand money. They simply 
walked in and opened fire.

But Pickle and his son, David, grabbed the loaded guns they carry and fired 
back, injuring one. The intruders fled, firing at a customer as they left. 
Pickle says he now knows firsthand that guns on the job can deter crime and 
keep employees safe. The two men were later caught and sentenced to prison, 
with one serving 10 years and the other serving 7 1/2 years.

( Melissa's note: He woulda been in a pickle without his guns! :) 

"It saved our lives," Pickle says. "We would have been shot, probably dead, 
had we not had the ability to protect ourselves. They came in shooting. No 
words, nothing."

Employers assert rights

But others say laws that now allow guns in parking lots infringe on 
employers' property rights � endangering all employees and creating a 
situation in which a potentially violent worker who gets upset could have 
easy access to a firearm.

( Melissa's note: They could anyway - CRIMINALS DON'T OBEY LAWS! )

In 2003, Doug Williams, an employee at a Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, 
Miss., left the building, retrieved a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle 
from his truck and returned, shooting 14 workers and killing six. The 
company bans guns on company property, but acquaintances said in news 
reports that Williams carried guns in his truck for target practice.

( Melissa: Exactly my point! At least if his good co-workers had been 
armed, they would have been able to defend themselves! )

Impulse attacks, some employers say, is a major reason for banning guns on 
company property. In an average week in U.S. workplaces, one employee is 
killed and at least 25 are seriously injured in violent assaults by current 
or former co-workers, according to Department of Labor data. Most of those 
attacks involve guns.

( Melissa: While 1000 die every day in the U.S., from tobacco smoking. 
Perspective? )

"Do you want your mail guy or delivery guy carrying a loaded gun when he 
comes to the door?" asks Patty Sullivan, a Pizza Hut spokeswoman.

( Melissa: You bet! )

"What if he's not happy with his tip?"

( Melissa: What if he isn't now? CRIMINALS DON'T OBEY LAWS! Have you EVER 
heard of a pizza delivery person shooting a deliveree? How absurd! How 
paranoid! It just doesn't happen! )

Sullivan says the company takes a number of steps to help ensure drivers' 
safety, including confirmation calls to new customers who place an order, 
limiting delivery hours in high-crime neighborhoods and training drivers 
never to go inside a home.

But as more states pass laws allowing residents to carry concealed guns, 
employers who haven't taken a stand regarding guns on the job are being 
forced to choose sides.

An Ohio law that went into effect in April in most cases allows employees 
to have concealed guns on company property except where explicitly banned 
by employers. If employers don't ban weapons, employees can bring guns onto 
the work site without informing their bosses.

( Melissa: What a good idea! )

"Employers have updated policies. Others have said, 'We don't want to raise 
the issue.' Businesses feel pressure from groups threatening boycotts (if 
they ban guns)," says Jackie Ford, an employment lawyer in Columbus.

( Melissa: As they should! )

At Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio, the law has brought discussion and 
debate.

"What if a plumber or truck delivery guy or Coke machine guy has a gun with 
them?" says Howard Korn, campus police chief.

( Melissa: What if they do now? So what? )

"The law is still being worked through. There's been a lot of discussion 
about this."

And in Minnesota, a 2003 law generally allows employers to ban guns from 
their buildings if they post signs and inform visitors of the ban, but they 
can't restrict employees with permits from having firearms in their cars in 
the parking lot. The law is currently not in effect because a judge in July 
declared it unconstitutional; an appeal is pending. Many companies have 
responded by posting no-guns-allowed signs.

"Employers don't want guns on their property. The concern is for the 
hothead employee who has an altercation and heads out to their vehicle, and 
they have a gun there," says Mary Krakow, an employment lawyer at 
Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis.

( Melissa: Nothing can ever stop such an employee. Why? Because CRIMINALS 
DON'T OBEY LAWS! )

Courts backing employers

So far, some state courts are siding with employers who want to keep guns 
away.

At an America Online call center in Ogden, Utah, a security camera recorded 
three employees transferring guns from their cars. They were parked in a 
strip mall parking lot that included parking for AOL employees, lawyers 
say. The employees were off work and planned to go target shooting.

All three were fired by AOL for violating a workplace-violence-prevention 
policy that banned guns. The three fired workers sued, saying the policy 
violated their right to bear arms. Utah allows residents with a permit to 
carry a concealed firearm in a public place; you don't need a permit if 
it's not concealed.

But the Utah Supreme Court in July sided with AOL and said employers have 
the right to set policies banning guns in the workplace.

A matter of self-defense?

Even as employers wage legal battles to ban guns, some state legislators 
say companies should have less control. They support legislation that would 
allow employees with proper gun permits to carry concealed weapons on the 
job, not just into the parking lot.

"Companies are prohibiting the rights of employees to protect themselves," 
Democratic Oklahoma state Sen. Frank Shurden says. "I am in favor of 
letting a licensed permit holder carry the gun in the workplace. There's no 
reason to fear law-abiding citizens."

( Melissa: THANK YOU! I'd vote for HIM! )

Gun-owner groups say the real risk is that workers unable to have guns 
could be attacked and have no means of self-defense.

About two-thirds of employers have written policies that specifically 
address weapons in the workplace, the reporting of violent incidents and 
threats of violence or violent acts, according to the Society for Human 
Resource Management. Large employers are more likely to have such policies.

Gun advocates also are pushing for laws that would make employers who ban 
guns liable if workers are injured in an attack on company property. "We're 
fighting back," says Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation in 
Bellevue, Wash. "Employers have rights. But if you don't allow an employee 
the means to protect themselves in the parking lot, there can be liability 
for the company."

Defending yourself

Employees such as Robert Wisniewski agree. The 53-year-old nurse in 
Brandon, Fla., says he started carrying a gun in his car after he was the 
victim of an attempted carjacking when driving home from work.

But he stopped carrying the gun, he said, because he works at a veterans' 
hospital where weapons aren't allowed in the parking lot.

"When I go to work and hit that parking lot, I have to go unarmed, even 
though my state says I have the right to have a gun," says Wisniewski, who 
is also a firearms instructor. "I'm not one of those gun nuts, but you 
should have a right to defend yourself."
____

EXACTLY! 

AND, we have the proven solution to end school shootings too. Stop making 
schools into Victim Disarmament Zones! Arm the teachers. If a teacher won't 
protect the children in his/her care, would you want them teaching them?  
http://www.jpfo.org/school.htm


-- 
Yours In Liberty,  Melissa  - Colorado, U.S.A.
http://melissasliberty.blogspot.com/

The last best hope for liberty, to give the world its first Bill of 
Rights:  http://www.UPAlliance.org/billofrights.htm