TEXAS: House backs bill to allow guns in cars at work

[GreenStormCloud]

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/house-backs-bill-to-allow-guns-in-cars-1452209.html
SNIP

With a voice vote, the House passed Senate Bill 321, which was sponsored by Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington. Before the debate, he had swapped out his similar House version for the Senate bill, which has already passed the upper chamber. The measure would prohibit employers from banning guns in their employees' vehicles that are parked at work.

Kleinschmidt said that in Texas, where many people hunt, residents see vehicles as extension of their homes and should have the right to keep firearms locked in their vehicles without fear of being fired or disciplined.

"It's an attempt to balance rights between employers and employees," he said during the debate on the House floor.

Coming into Tuesday's debate, the bill had broad support in the House. Kleinschmidt and 98 other House members, including a few Democrats, signed on to the bill.

SNIP

Now the bill goes to Gov. Perry who is strongly pro-gun and is certain to sign it. So Texas will be a bit lower in next year's Brady rating. Good for Texas.

[onehandle]

1. Conservatives are AWESOME!

Why won't Governor Perry run for President in 2012?

Sigh.

[sasha031]

2. usual texas has thier priorities straight

[jpak]

3. Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington - more GOP/NRA bullshit

they suck

yup

[MicaelS]

7. Nope, for once

They decided the individual was more important than business. They get it right once in a while.

And a CCW is worthless if you can't carry while on the way to, or from work, because your employer prohibits having a gun securely locked in your car.

[jpak]

11. Republican gun laws suck

yup

[iverglas]

17. yup, the hell with private property

Damned communitarians, that's what these Texas Republicans are.

Funny how that clock stopped in exactly the same place again, isn't it???

They're wrong about everything else, but they're right about this.

They don't have to obey the laws of probability!

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

25. I feel that the contents of one's car is private property of the owner.

I think that is why a warrant or probable cause is needed for police to search it.

I don't believe that a palce of business should have any say what is, or is not, kept legally in one's car.

[iverglas]

29. good for you

I'd try to figure out what that has to do with anything, and why I should care what you feel about it, but it might make my head hurt.

[Hoopla Phil]

35. Agreed. 100% n/t

[Atypical Liberal]

51. I agree with you.

I think the people need to be protected against corporate interests. It is not in the corporate interest to allow firearms on their property - for them it is only a liability and they don't particularly care about the safety of their employees. I'm glad to see employees empowered against corporate interests.

[rl6214]

27. Yeah, the hell with private property, I'll just turn over the title

of my car to my employer. They can tell me what I need to carry in my car.

[iverglas]

30. mmmm .. no

I mean, not unless you want to.

But the employer may as well turn over title to its parking lot to you, I guess, eh?

The essence of private property being the power to dispose of it as one pleases.

If one cannot control who comes onto the property and what they do while there, one may as well move to ... where's there left to move to now? Cuba?

You know. One of those places where they tell people what they may do with their property.

:rofl:

[rl6214]

33. Canada

Let's all move to canada!

[GreenStormCloud]

36. If enough of us do that, then we can vote in a gun-friendly government.

We could make it a gun owner's paradise.

[rl6214]

42. Sure is some nice hunting and fishing up there.

[iverglas]

44. yeah

Why, where I live, there are all the squirrels you could eat.

If you're fond of urban raccoons, you'd be in luck too. Just stay away from the feral cats. We have enough trouble with the asshole in the new monster townhouses in our back yard poisoning them.

[iverglas]

43. but

the US rejects imperialism!!!

:rofl:

Isn't it in the constitution or something?

[GreenStormCloud]

49. What imperialism? We would become Canadian citizens and vote.

Kind of like we did in the early 19th century with Mexico in the Tejas province.

[rl6214]

26. Gosh, everyone just sucks in your narrow little world

if you don't agree with it.

I know quite a few NRA members and quite a few conservatives and you know what? THEY DON'T SUCK, they are really nice people.


Must really suck to be you.

[northoftheborder]

4. Actually, I think this was a compromise with those who wanted....

....businesses to continue to disallow carrying guns on premises.

[spin]

5. Another win for gun owners who have a concealed weapons permit.

The bill contains some exceptions for the oil and gas industry. The bill says employees of an oil and gas company may not keep guns in their vehicles while at a lease if the lease prohibits it. It also says that only workers with concealed handgun licenses may have firearms in their vehicles when parked in detached, unsecured lots and that no firearms would be allowed in lots at refineries because of the potential for explosions.
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/house-backs-bill-to-allow-guns-in-cars-1452209.html

I would imagine that the number of people with concealed weapons permits will increase dramatically in Texas.

[Hoopla Phil]

37. It's not a bad change but I don't understand the exemption

for refineries. The parking lots for refineries are WAY away from any potential problems. Hopefully this will get corrected later on. The wheels of justice sometimes turn very slowly - but at least they are turning in the correct direction.

[slackmaster]

6. An employer can't stop you from keeping porn in your car. They shouldn't be able to ban guns either.

No brainer.

[jpak]

8. An employer con fire you for any reason in Texas

don't piss 'em off with yer stupid guns

yup

[MicaelS]

9. How are they going to know?

Unless they search your vehicle. Going to do that every day? To a hundred or more cars?

[jpak]

10. Open your trunk for the drug & alcohol sweep or your fired

yup

[MicaelS]

12. So you're going to search EVERY car, EVERY day?

And I notice you didn't mention guns. Just drugs and alcohol.

[jpak]

13. If they don't like it - too bad, find another place to work

yup

[Euromutt]

15. Yeah, screw workers' rights!

Pay them in scrip, make them shop at the company store, force them to participate in religious worship, have them spied on and bust up any attempts to unionize. "If they don't like it - too bad, find another place to work, yup."

What I find really remarkable that the usual suspects who bitch about encountering supposedly right-wing opinions on this forum aren't all over you like a cheap suit. But evidently, right-wing opinions (and it doesn't get much more right-wing than "if your workers don't like it, they can find another job") are just peachy as long as you're opposed to private gun ownership.

[jpak]

16. Screw property rights, the and the right of employers to run their businesses

They can carry their guns some place else

yup

[Hoopla Phil]

39. There in lies the rub.

The CAN'T "carry their guns some place else" because the "B" portion of the equation forbids it. There is also the problem of private property rights versus private property rights. Does an employer that provides for employee parking have the right to dictate what legal items are contained within the employee's car? I say no.

[iverglas]

48. you say no?

Does an employer that provides for employee parking have the right to dictate what legal items are contained within the employee's car? I say no.

Gasoline is legal. I wonder whether an employee could park a tanker full of that (or a number of other substances I could think of) in the employer's parking lot as of some kind of right.

The fact that possession of something is legal really does not give anyone an automatic right to possess it on someone else's property. Yeesh.

[Euromutt]

53. Do try to stay in touch with reality

For starters, we're not talking about carrying firearms, we're talking about employees being able to keep firearms in their personally owned vehicles, which happen to be parked in the company parking lot. You want to talk property rights; how about the right of an employee to keep anything he damn well pleases in his personally owned vehicle?

Second, property rights and some putative "right of employers to run their business" are not compatible in this issue. Since we're talking about businesses big enough to own an employee parking lot, we're talking about corporations, and corporations are owned by the shareholders, not by middle management and the HR department. In short, in a typical corporation, the people running the outfit aren't the owners, and vice-versa.

And call me an anti-entrepreneurial wingnut, but it is my firm belief that the power that employers can exercise over their employees should be stringently limited solely to matters that affect the employee's work performance. What an employee does on his own time and with his own property is none of the employer's business, provided it doesn't affect his ability to do his job. As long as an employee doesn't show up for work drunk, stoned or high, it's none of the employer's business if he keeps a case of whiskey, two pounds of marijuana and six ounces of cocaine in the trunk of his car (as long as it stays in the car).

I don't have an issue with employers running their business; I do have an issue with their trying to run their employees' lives.

[iverglas]

20. workers' rights

The words sound hollow and dirty in your mouth.

make them shop at the company store

Somebody is apparently making workers in Texas park in the company parking lot ... funny how I'm not hearing any squeals about that.

[GreenStormCloud]

34. Workers rights are about to take a step forward in Texas.

After Gov. Perry signs the bill and it becomes law. The blood-in-the-parking-spaces predictions of the antis will not happen. In fact, nothing will happen.

It has been over a year since Obama signed the guns-in-parks rider and the shootouts-in-the-campgrounds has failed to materialize. Nothing happened.

And next year Texas will have a better rating (Smaller numbers being better ratings) from the Brady's.

[iverglas]

45. this is too sad to be funny

Workers rights are about to take a step forward in Texas.

https://www.oag.state.tx.us/agency/righttowork.shtml

Texas is a right-to-work state. This means that under the Texas Labor Code, a person cannot be denied employment because of membership or non-membership in a labor union or other labor organization.
And we all know what that really means.

But screw union-busting, as long as the workers can tote their gunz to work.

[iverglas]

47. note

I screwed up the html. In case it wasn't obvious, the line "But screw union-busting, as long as the workers can tote their gunz to work" was my own comment, not an excerpt from the Government of Texas website. ;)

I know, it may not have been obvious ...

[GreenStormCloud]

50. It may be a different step forward than the step that you want...

...but it is still a step forward in reducing the bosses' power over the worker. I will admit that it is a tiny, mostly symbolic step. Very few, if any, employers in Texas actually check workers vehicles for guns. They all take a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" approach.

[iverglas]

54. yes, it's just a matter of preference

I prefer union rights, one of the major struggles waged by people worldwide over the last two centuries (some of whom are still dying in that struggle, so crucial do some people believe it is) and one of the most important steps forward in human history.

You prefer that people be able to take their guns to work.

You say tomayto, I say tomahto.

[iverglas]

21. "if your workers don't like it, they can find another job"

C'mon, do you really want somebody to come up with 100 situations in which you would say just that?

You know we can.

If your workers don't like working beside people of colour, they can find another job.

There's #1. Shall we go on?

[Hoopla Phil]

38. "it doesn't get much more right-wing than "if your workers don't like it, they can find another job"

Ain't THAT the truth!!!

[petronius]

28. I would oppose searches like that as well

I see no reason to allow employers to randomly search workers' property or persons at all, and searches in cases where specific malfeasance is suspected should be tightly controlled...

[beevul]

31. Pimping the war on drugs now...

Why am I not surprised.

[GreenStormCloud]

32. Employers don't do that. Instead they send employees to have a pee test. N/T

[iverglas]

19. "law-abiding gun owners"

One would think that if nothing else, they'd be a little concerned about the potential consequences if someone broke into their car and stole their little pride and joy. The potential consequences for other people, that is, but of course the consequences for them as well if the gun were traced to them.

But then I guess that wouldn't matter. No onus on them to prevent that happening. They're law-abiding gun owners. They do what they like.

[ManiacJoe]

22. Gun owners do think about that problem.

One obvious solution is not liked by the building owners: secure the guns inside the buildings either in lockers or on the owners.

[iverglas]

23. Quelle surprise

The "solution" isn't in anyone's interests. Oh, well, other than the gun owners in question. And what do they care about anyone else?

Solution without a problem, in any case.

[iverglas]

18. yes, because

cars are so commonly broken into by people who steal the porn in them and use it to rob the nearest gas station with ...

[DWC]

14. "So Texas will be a bit lower in next year's Brady rating"

We are doing our best to get to the bottom of that list.

Today I am even more proud to be a Texan.

Semper Fi,

[Hoopla Phil]

40. Damn skippy!

[lawodevolution]

24. Good. I'm more motivated to get my CCW now

[Hoopla Phil]

41. I keep my CHL just for the simple fact that it exempts me from the NICS check. n/t

[iverglas]

46. omg

Support for a licensing system!

Or is it just a licensing system for thee but not for me?

:rofl:

[lawodevolution]

55. soon Texas will go constitutional carry and we'll drop the need for CHL

but because people like you went behind our backs a while ago and made carry illegal, we have to first adopt concealed carry permits, so that there is at least one pathway to legally carrying and then later we can go to constitutional carry.

The step by step method is being used against your side now. In fact all of your methods are being used against you.

[slackmaster]

52. That is one of several reasons I got my Curio and Relic FFL

It's saved a whole lot of time and money.