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Michael Peltier: Both sides in gun law claim victory
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TALLAHASSEE — In the showdown over guns at work, both sides claimed victory last week as a federal judge shot down some arguments from retailers over employees but let stand for now their ability to bar customers from packing heat.
In the latest chapter in what has been a battle over the past few sessions, gun advocates claimed a major victory when federal judge Robert Hinkle, chief justice for the U.S. Northern District of Florida, barred employers from punishing employees with concealed weapons permits from keeping them locked in their vehicles.
Nor, Hinkle wrote in a 39-page ruling, could employers fire or refuse to hire an employee with a lawful gun permit.
“This is a victory for the people,” said Marion Hammer, president of United Sportsmen of Florida and former head of the National Rifle Association. “The business groups lost, pure and simple.”
But Hinkle upheld a request from retailers to prevent customers to lock lawfully permitted firearms in their cars while shopping or visiting a private business, saying the law as written sets up a double standard.
“Judge Hinkle upheld a very narrow application of the statute that allows only employees who hold a state issued concealed weapons permit to keep a gun locked in their vehicles in the parking lot,” Plaintiff
Rick McAllistor, president of the Florida Retail Federation, said in a statement. “Customers and other visitors remain subject to the business’s policies.”
The law, which legislators passed earlier this year, has spawned debate pitting the National Rifle Association and some employee unions against a coalition of business groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Federation, which asked the judge to delay enforcing the law that went into effect July 1.
The law specified that companies that employ workers with concealed gun permits could not prohibit customers from locking guns in their cars.
But businesses with no employee carrying a permitted concealed weapon could prevent customers from packing heat.
Hinkle said the law was largely unworkable given employee turnover and moreover treated similar companies differently, a constitutional no-no.
“This record makes clear that some businesses believe guns in parking lots are a danger and wish to ban them,” Hinkle wrote. “But surely some businesses do not.”
The parties have until Aug. 12 to appeal. One thing is for sure: Combatants will return next year to shoot it out again over a customer’s right to carry a legally owned gun into a shopping center or laundry mat near you.
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Michael Peltier is the Daily News’ Tallahassee Correspondent. E-mail him at mpeltier1234@comcast.net
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I will not patronize any business that insists on making me easy pickings for a mugger in their parking lot.
The first liability lawsuit will put that mucky-muck to rest.
#1 Posted by Naplestango on August 3, 2008 at 11:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Anti-gun liberals lose much of their fervor when it is suggested they show the courage of their convictions by posting a sign at their residence: "No guns in this house."
I would suggest that all businesses with similar anti self defense views band together in some sort of an ad coalition to purchase space in the newspaper touting their "gun free zones." We would quickly know if the public sees that as an advantage or perceives the policy as turning them into fodder for some suicidal nutcase who doesn't care about gun prohibitions.
As far as I am aware, nobody has ever put up that no-gun sign on the front lawn, and I suspect most of the owners of "No weapons here" business establishments would blanche at the idea of having their perverse notion of safety widely publicized. The policy makers' silly assumption is that the armed shoppers will simply return to their cars to store the weapons then come back to spend their dollars. But not a single gun owner I know would enter such an unsafe condition -- even if they were unarmed in the first place.
I am well into the second renewal of my CCW permit and have only seen the statutorially-required "No guns allowed" sign posted in two business establishments. I did a U-turn both times. One of those was a coffee shop in Ft Myers -- which went out of business a few months later.
If someone has a more comprehensive list, perhaps he or she should send it in as a Letter to the Editor. I'm sure both the public and the hoplophobes would appreciate the free publicity.
#2 Posted by bsdetector on August 4, 2008 at 4:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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