GotZoom
Senior Member
This could get messy.
-----
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida businesses could soon face criminal charges if they try to stop employees from bringing guns to work in their cars, thrusting the state into a growing national debate pitting individual freedom against job safety.
Backed by the National Rifle Association, two state lawmakers have filed bills that would allow workers to have guns at work, as long as the weapons remain locked in their vehicles.
The legislation is modeled after an Oklahoma law that drew national attention when a number of major companies, including energy giant ConocoPhillips and oil-services conglomerate Halliburton, sued to have it overturned.
A Florida version could have similarly sweeping effects, particularly in Central Florida, where the region's largest employer -- Walt Disney World, with more than 57,000 workers -- does not allow its employees to bring guns onto park property. Universal Orlando, which employs 13,000 people, has a similar policy.
About 353,000 people in Florida, meanwhile, have concealed-weapons permits, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That figure does not include people who don't need to obtain the licenses, such as police and military personnel.
Despite the battle in Oklahoma, supporters are lining up in Tallahassee. The House bill has already attracted 10 co-sponsors.
Backers say they are confident they will get the law passed during next year's legislative session, which begins in March. The NRA is among the most powerful groups in Florida politics, wielding an active grass-roots membership and having contributed $330,000 to the Republican Party since 1996, state records show.
In the past two years, the group has won approval for measures that protect gun ranges from being forced by governments to clean up lead pollution from bullets, prevent police from creating gun databases and allow people to shoot attackers without first trying to retreat.
Marion Hammer, an NRA lobbyist, said the group will make the parking-lot bills (HB 129 and SB 206) a priority in 2006.
"For a business to tell you that in order to come onto their property, you have to give up your constitutional right is wrong," Hammer said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-guns1002,0,4768146.story?coll=sfla-news-florida
-----
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida businesses could soon face criminal charges if they try to stop employees from bringing guns to work in their cars, thrusting the state into a growing national debate pitting individual freedom against job safety.
Backed by the National Rifle Association, two state lawmakers have filed bills that would allow workers to have guns at work, as long as the weapons remain locked in their vehicles.
The legislation is modeled after an Oklahoma law that drew national attention when a number of major companies, including energy giant ConocoPhillips and oil-services conglomerate Halliburton, sued to have it overturned.
A Florida version could have similarly sweeping effects, particularly in Central Florida, where the region's largest employer -- Walt Disney World, with more than 57,000 workers -- does not allow its employees to bring guns onto park property. Universal Orlando, which employs 13,000 people, has a similar policy.
About 353,000 people in Florida, meanwhile, have concealed-weapons permits, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That figure does not include people who don't need to obtain the licenses, such as police and military personnel.
Despite the battle in Oklahoma, supporters are lining up in Tallahassee. The House bill has already attracted 10 co-sponsors.
Backers say they are confident they will get the law passed during next year's legislative session, which begins in March. The NRA is among the most powerful groups in Florida politics, wielding an active grass-roots membership and having contributed $330,000 to the Republican Party since 1996, state records show.
In the past two years, the group has won approval for measures that protect gun ranges from being forced by governments to clean up lead pollution from bullets, prevent police from creating gun databases and allow people to shoot attackers without first trying to retreat.
Marion Hammer, an NRA lobbyist, said the group will make the parking-lot bills (HB 129 and SB 206) a priority in 2006.
"For a business to tell you that in order to come onto their property, you have to give up your constitutional right is wrong," Hammer said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-guns1002,0,4768146.story?coll=sfla-news-florida
