Florida House passes bill allowing guns in workplace!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-0326workplaceguns,0,76218.story

Florida House passes bill allowing guns in workplace

TALLAHASSEE - Without debate, the Florida House gave the powerful gun lobby a major victory today by passing a bill to allow employees to take their guns to work - as long as the employee has a concealed weapons permit and the weapon is left in the car.

The bill (HB503) passed on a nearly party-line vote, 72-42, with Republicans largely supporting the guns-at-work legislation despite a last-minute lobbying push by business interests to kill the measure, which they called an attack on business owners' ability to regulate the workplace.

The controversial legislation for years has cleaved the Legislature's Republican leaders between two core principles: the right to bear arms and private property rights.

In a sign Republican leaders are looking to move past this divisive fight in an election year, there was no debate on the matter on the floor today. A handful of Republicans voted against the bill, with Democrats nearly unified in opposition.

Vote! What do you think?
The Florida House passed a bill to allow employees to take their guns to work -- as long as the employee has a concealed weapons permit and the weapon is left in the car. Do you support this bill?

Yes, I support this bill (310 responses) 60.1%

No, I do not support this bill (184 responses) 35.7%

I'm undecided on the issue (9 responses) 1.7%

I don't care either way (13 responses) 2.5%

516 total responses

A similar guns-at-work bill is moving through the Senate, but has yet to get a floor vote.

The House's vote handed a major political victory to the National Rifle Association, and a rare, public defeat for the business lobby.

"Attempts to water down constitutional property rights and employer - employee contract negotiations in favor of gun owner rights can only be viewed as an attack on the business community and the jobs it creates and sustains," read a letter sent to House members before today's vote, signed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Retail Federation and the Associated Industries of Florida.

"We have seen no egregious examples of gun rights being denied. No problem currently exists in Florida worthy of the proposed big government solution mandating less freedom, less property rights and more regulation."

The business groups had urged legislators "to tell the rifle association that jobs, freedom, fewer lawsuits and less regulation are more important than their constant political threats."

Oklahoma, Alaska, Kentucky and Mississippi have similar guns-at-work laws - although a judge struck down Oklahoma's law after finding it conflicted with federal workplace safety rules.

The bill prohibits an employer from banning guns on their premises. That means employees can bring their guns to work as long as they have a state-issued concealed weapons permit and leave the weapon in their car. However, concealed weapons permits are not a public record, so even the bill's supporters admitted employers will have no way of knowing which employees have the permits and which don't.

Certain sensitive workplaces are exempted from the law and can still ban guns on their premises, such as nuclear power plants, schools and jails.

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