The Parking Lot bill that allows people to keep their firearms at work on company property has passed in Florida. NRA has their position on the matter, which I know many of you here agree with, and I respect that. Unfortunately, I agree with Robb Allen.
2 thoughts on “Parking Lot Bill Passes in Florida”
Comments are closed.
Libertarian political correctness is all well and good, but it is my car and my private property and it is the business of no one but a law enforcement officer with a valid warrant what I have in my car no matter where it is. It would be better if the law was more inclusive or if there was simply a recognition on an individual’s property rights concerning their vehicle, but this is a start in the right direction.
This is what I posted over at Uncle’s. They may have some bearing on this issue.
A business is not a person so it has limited rights under the law. Any public accommodation has to abide to restrictions under state or other governmental rules. No business has unlimited property rights. People have stronger property rights than a business.
For example: My home is my castle, I can invite or disinvite or refuse entrance to another person for any religious or bigoted reason I chose. However a business cannot do that. Apartments have to abide by Fair Housing Acts. Employers have to abide by a variety of rules preventing them from bigoted behavior or unsafe behavior or refusing entrance to invitees if they are a place of business that can reasonable expect the public to enter for business purposes.
Not all this is statutory law. Common law is prevalent in our justice system. Like a right of way. Suppose I own land that that has a pathway leading from a road to another road. I allow the neighbors to use this pathway. I have then given a right of way to that pathway and can be prevented from blocking if I change my mind.
Billy Beck stated in one example that he feel he has the right to search a guest. That is not correct. A homeowner does not any superior right to search a person than the person has a right to refuse. If the homeowner persisted it would be an assault, a violation of the person, the most basic property right.
Business has no statutory or common law authority to search a person or his effects. The 4th amendment does not apply since a business has no authority delegated to them that the government or police has. The government has been delegated with different authority that individuals and business do not possess.
The libertarian idea that a business has unlimited ability to fire at will is not correct. There are Labor Acts that impair that ability. Fair labor laws prevent corporations from taking excessive advantage over its laborers.
This law is to prevent employers from firing employees who chose to have firearm in their car. This type of thinking generated from an increasing worry about employees going postal. Plus a lot of people think; gun= bad. Gun on person = criminal. So with that type of thinking and concerns about safety of the labor force and management some companies decide to restrict employees having a gun in the car.
This actually happened in Oklahoma at a Weyerhaeuser plant during the hunting season. The company put the restriction in the policy manual and then during deer season asked some employees to open their vehicles. I do not recall if the employees complied or not but the result was they were fired. The employees did not file suit or contest the firing. The outcry was so great that the legislature put a law to stop the encroachment on the private lives of the employees and the privacy of their cars. Weirdly OSHA actually said that the law was not legal and I do not know the status now.
The legislature has a lawful reason to promote a law restricting a business since there are hundreds of such laws that are based on public policy reasons. This is a legitimate use of their authority. My beef with this law is that unfairly restrict lawful carry to only CCW holders. I have an issue with CCW people getting more rights than other lawful carry citizens.
No corporation has any authority to search a vehicle that they do not own. If the vehicle is a company vehicle then they do have the authority to make restriction on what can be in company property.