Stop endangering employees

The Washington Times ^ | August 23, 2005 | John R. Lott Jr. and April L. Dabney

[neverdem]

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The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com

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Stop endangering employees

By John R. Lott Jr. and April L. Dabney
Published August 23, 2005

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Banning guns from the workplace seems like the obvious way to prevent workplace violence. At least that is the policy at ConocoPhillips and many other companies. The nation's largest oil refiner bans employees from storing locked guns in their cars while parked in company parking lots. The issue erupted this month when the NRA announced a boycott of Conoco and Phillips 66 gasoline stations and editorial pages across the country attacked the NRA's action as outrageous.

    Two-and-a-half years ago, 12 employees at a Weyerhauser plant in Oklahoma were fired when they were caught unawares of a change in the company's ban on guns policy that was extended to the parking lot. The company had used trained dogs to find guns in employees' vehicles. Oklahoma's legislature overwhelmingly passed a law letting employees keep locked guns in their cars, but two firms, ConocoPhillips and the Williams Co., are challenging the law in court on the grounds that it endangers worker "safety."

    Gun-free zones may appear like the solution to violence, but consider an analogy: Suppose a criminal is stalking you or your family. Would you feel safer putting a sign in front of your home saying, "This Home Is a Gun-Free Zone"? The answer seems pretty clear. Since law-abiding citizens will obey the signs, such "safe zones" simply mean that criminals have a lot less to worry about. Indeed, international data as well as data from across the United States indicate that criminals are much less likely to attack residents in their homes when they suspect that...

[RWR8189]

Hmmm...

Methinks someone didn't read the article...

[English Nationalist]

Now, if I was going to go postal at work, I can't see I'd be that bothered about whether or not I was allowed to be carrying the gun in the first place.

[ChefKeith]

I don't go to things that require an outside link as of 3 days ago.

Been burned too many times that way and am still fixing problems from 3 days ago when I tried a link.

ma$$ media SUCKS!

[rackatoot]

ChefKeith,
Please read the article. Thanks.
Rackatoot

[Waco]

Outlaw crime, it'll solve everything, even your overbite and hemoroids!!!

[caver]

We got a similar policy where I work. You can even have a gun in your car in the parking lot. That's crazy.

[Coldwater Creek]

You can retrieve the article from the Daily Oklahoman.

These men were all hunter's.

Concono Phillips is loosing good customers, because of this lawsuit.

[mylife]

My Company has a similar policy and I think it is preposterous.
Banning Guns within the compound is fine, but banning law abiding citizens from keeping a fire arm in thier vehicles in the parking lot (which is hell and gone from the facilty) only serves to deprive law abiding CC license holders from a means to defend themselves on the journey to and from work.

Suppose you work 2nd or 3rd shift and you have to travel through a lonely stretch of road to get to work or travel 60 mi unprotected because the company said so. It is unreasonable.

Laws, Rules and signs wont stop a maniac from committing a crime, but they do deprive law abiding citizens of thier second ammendment rights.

[Mane in Virginia]

"The new rules that prohibit lawful gun-owners from having guns on company property look more likely to actually wind up costing more lives, rather than saving them."



Right on the money here. I have never had to use my CHP but will not hesitate should the need arise.

Where is the ACLU on this?/s It is indeed a shame that we (gunowners) have to fight everyday to persue our hobby.

[libstripper]

True, but you'd be very bothered if you thought somebody else might be packing heat, probably bothered enough not to try to waste the premises in the first place.