Just got another NRA funds request but this one really got my attention. It seems some of Corporate America has taken to terminating employees for having legally owned and carried firearms locked in their car in the company lot!
AOL and Weyerhauser are named in the letter.
How many of you out there are reading this because you have an AOL account?
I know both corporations will get irate mail from me but no business unless they retreat on this absurd policy.
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Cant wait for 2012!
If guns kill people, spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat!!!
I think this very topic was discussed a couple of weeks ago. In any event, BTBowhunter I mean no disrespect towards you, but your thread title sounds exactly like something the NRA would do; a scare tactic of sorts - "Fired for owning a gun?" Well, it has nothing to do with "owning" a gun. If you take a gun onto a public school campus, you're likely going to serve jail time if you're caught. But you're not going to go to jail for owning a gun. You're going to go to jail for having a gun on school property. These folks at AOL and Weyerhauser who have been fired weren't fired for owning a gun. They were fired for having a gun on company property.
I think it's a dumb policy, but they are private companies and can do as they wish. Employees who don't like it need to find somewhere else to work. Fortunately the folks I work for don't have such a policy. I have a handgun in my desk drawer in my office.
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My old company.. Jones New York and my present company.. Siemens.. They all have this "policy" in their employee guidelines. No employee shall posess a firearm on themselves, in their car or on compamy property at any time. Failure to adhere to the policy shall result upto and including termination.
The AOL issue happened a few years ago. Where you guys been? Several employees had vehicles searched, and were fired for having firearms in their vehicles. Problem was, AOL shared a parking lot with the rest of the business complex, and it wasn't a secure lot, and it didn't belong to AOL. I wouldn't use those people for anything!
The Weyerhauser case is from Oklahoma. Oklahoma legislature passed a law allowing citizens to lawfullyposess firearms in a vehicle anywhere in the state. Tied up in court, currently.
For the purposes of a CHL, Texas defines parking lots as public areas, and the are NOT part of a business premise.
I think this very topic was discussed a couple of weeks ago. In any event, BTBowhunter I mean no disrespect towards you, but your thread title sounds exactly like something the NRA would do; a scare tactic of sorts - "Fired for owning a gun?" Well, it has nothing to do with "owning" a gun. If you take a gun onto a public school campus, you're likely going to serve jail time if you're caught. But you're not going to go to jail for owning a gun. You're going to go to jail for having a gun on school property. These folks at AOL and Weyerhauser who have been fired weren't fired for owning a gun. They were fired for having a gun on company property.
I think it's a dumb policy, but they are private companies and can do as they wish. Employees who don't like it need to find somewhere else to work. Fortunately the folks I work for don't have such a policy. I have a handgun in my desk drawer in my office.
BenGarrett: I couldn't have said it better myself.
the company i work for is the same way. they search our cars when and if they want. i cant even have my bow in my truck so i can go hunting right after work. it sucks, i hate it.. but there is nothing i can do, i need to work.
This is one of those few issues that come along that can be debated from "both" sides of the fence, with both sides left feeling evenly justified at the end of the day.
On the one hand, there are many Americans who know that it is their "right" to carry a firearm whenever and wherever they please.
On the other hand, there are those who have seen to many instances of employees going "postal" and as a result set these policies into effect.
But the simple fact is; If you are on private property, You're individual "rights" are somewhat limitedto the whims of that private property owner...IE. if that private property owner states that, as a condition of employment,"you" as an employee will not have a firearm, or other weaponon their property, then that is the end of the discussion.
There is no recourse.
Your only other option is to seek employment somewhere else.
It is what it is.
I am relitively confident that those policies are pretty clear in any companies "policies and procedures" handbook.
Just got our company handbook and it goes one step further. It says no "firearms while on company business". I have a CCW. I spend half my work time on the road and I'll be damned if anyone can tell me not to have it in my vehicle when I leave the office. Our parking lot is public, so it will stay in my truck when I'm atthe officebut it goes with me wherever I go when I leave.
As far as it being an employers right to dictate what can and cant be brought onto their property, I believe they have that right. Private property rights are just as important as our gun rights. Searching your car without permission is another story. I can see keeping them out of the workplace IE the building. An employeesvehicle is another story, The police dont have the power to search your car withouteither a warrant or probable cause. How is it OK for a corporation to do it?
Last but not least, it is definitely my right to show my displeasure with their policies by not patronizing their company.
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Cant wait for 2012!
If guns kill people, spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat!!!
Fired for owning a gun?
