labor lawAdivision of labor law center

A Florida law that went into effect in July permits employees to keep guns in their locked cars at work. Under the new law, employers can no longer prohibit guns on their property. A Florida worker who has a valid permit to own a gun and carry a concealed weapon, can have that gun in his or her car in the parking lot while at work, eating at a restaurant or shopping in a mall.

 

Florida employers do not have to permit the employees to bring guns into the workplace. That’s still a matter of company policy.

 

The Disney Company is already challenging the law in court, while the National Rifle Association or NRA is defending the law. This is a battle that is sure to go to the US Supreme Court.

 

The Florida law, signed by Governor Charlie Crist in April 2008, went into effect this month. Under the new law guns are off limits at some sites including schools, prisons, nuclear power plants, military facilities and buildings that store explosives. However, amusement parks and other places where children typically gather are not excluded.

 

Disney is challenging the gun law partly on the grounds that its parking lots are public property, and as the property owner they have the right to set limits on its use. They also contend that the fireworks stored at the park and used on a daily basis exempt the park as a storage facility for explosives. They took disciplinary action against employee Edwin Solomayer when he brought his 45-caliber handgun to work, even though he left it locked in his car in a remote parking lot.

 

Gun-control advocates say that there will inevitable be more homicides at work if disgruntled employees merely need to walk out to their car and grab their gun. The NRA contends that tragedies like the Virginia Tech massacre would never have occurred, if more workers were armed with handguns.

 

Either way, this shapes up to be an interesting batter with far-reaching consequences in Florida and other states.

 

The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation have hired attorneys to fight the law, as well.  This is a complex legal battle because the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution guarantees property owners the right to set limits on the use of their property, while the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms. The two seem to be in conflict in this case.

Florida is not by any means the only state where employees can have handguns in a locked car at work. Laws in Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi also permit this. On the other hand, a similar law in Oklahoma was overturned last year when a judge ruled that it conflicted with federal worker safety laws. His take on the issue was that having handguns on the property probably posed a greater threat to worker safety then not wearing seatbelts or protective goggles.

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