OK: Worksite gun law passes House

The Associated Press is reporting that the Oklahoma state House has approved legislation that would exempt businesses from legal liability if a gun stored in a worker's car results in injury or death at a work site. The House passed the bill 96-2 and sent it to the Senate for action.

From the story:

The bill's author, Representative Greg Piatt, says it supports a state law that allows workers to keep a gun in their locked vehicles at work. The law is being challenged in court by national employers.

The law was passed last year after 12 workers at a Weyerhaeuser Company paper mill in southeast Oklahoma were fired in 2002. The timber company had extended its long-time ban on guns in the workplace to the parking lot, and dogs found guns in the 12 employees' vehicles.

The law prohibits businesses and employers from establishing policies that prohibit anyone other than a convicted felon from transporting and storing firearms in a locked vehicle in company parking lots.

The measure was supposed to take effect November first, but a federal judge in Tulsa has blocked its enforcement.

While we'd like to hope that a liability exemption would make a difference to Oklahoma businesses, it is worth noting that Ohio adopted such an exemption as part of a concealed handgun licensure law in early 2004, yet too many businesses in this state still affirmatively disarm their employees and customers, despite overwhelming evidence that gun bans do not stop criminal attacks.

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