Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Second Amendment Cannot have firearms or ammo in your vehicle in the parking lot!

I work for GE and was just given an updated policy manual and one of the offenses listed "that are likely to lead to immediate discharge..." is:
"Possession or use of firearms, ammunition, explosives...or any dangerous weapons on Company property or in a Company vehicle".
The parking lot is company property. How can GE tell me what I can carry in my private secured vehicle?!? Also, how can they force me to travel disarmed going to and from work?!

I've written to Senators Snowe and Collins and a few Republican members of our state house and the NRA, but still haven't received a response from anyone.

Is there anything else I can do??

Thanks

In a word: no.

It's their private property. They can post it as they wish, within the confines of state law.

You choose to work there, so you play by their rules on their property.

Some companies have been known to use explosives sniffing dogs to find cars with ammo inside.

Dick

You would have to park off premise...

I worked for a company with the same policy. There are several reasons for the policy. It gives them better standing in a lawsuit if an employee goes postal. It is politically correct, making the company look like a good citizen. And it gives them cause if they want to fire someone.

The parking lot of the company I worked for was beside a theater, and after hours they allowed anyone to park there. I always wondered whether they could fire me if my wife parked my car and went into the theater, leaving a gun in my car.

There are some cases on this very subject pending right now. Contact the NRA. They are very interested in this subject.

Steve

You have to check the state laws, they may consider your vehicle safe harbor.

Kansas has such a law.

Now, aside from that you could still get fired, but they don't have the right to search your car.

I hunt ALOT, and I shoot MORE.. ALOT more than ALOT. There is always a gunpowder smell somewhere in my truck.

Spot

Thanks for the replies.

I still haven't received a reply from anyone I contacted--even the NRA.

Would my company still have the same "right" if they said, "No Bibles on company property"???

Below are some articles of interest.

http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?id=181&issue=53

http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=193&issue=53

It all depends on your states law. I live in Kansas and stay pretty current with the firearm laws for my state. Up until this summer a business could legally limit you from having a firearm in your car on their property. However, since the last update in our Concealed Carry Law it specifically states that if you have a CCW then you can keep a firearm in your car on any private property as long as it is not a gated access parking lot. In other words if you have a concealed carry liscense you can have it in your car in the parking lot as long as that lot can be accessed by the public. If you have to go thru a check station to get to the lot then you must follow the company policy. Again this is only for Kansas, you need to check your own state law. My recommendation would to be to call your State Attorney Generals office and ask them about the issue.

Yep - Countrywide's policies forbid them on company property, including parking lots, even if you have a permit. I don't think our state laws interfere with the property owner's rights in that regard.

In our town, a kid got suspended from school cause he had been out hunting, put the gun in his gun rack. the truck was in the school parkin' lot. they finally over turned the suspension cause his parents were very prominent. Talk about pulling strings. Dave

All very good previous posts and points. This isn't the first time I've heard of companies possibly rousting hunting-shooter minded employees. First time I read about this actually happening was in "American Rifleman," about incidents that occurred in Utah and Oklahome - two VERY CONSERVATIVE states where folks take their gun and hunting activities very seriously.

If it was me, just to avoid any confrontations with any kind of PC or anti-gun folks I'd NEVER TALK ABOUT guns, shooting, hunting, etc. etc. etc. while at work!

I'd be very quiet about my private life, just as a matter of personal conduct. PERIOD!

I would also find off-site places to park and refuse to let the company force to take a parking sticker to put on any of my vehicles. Then my "privacy" can no-way be construed as their business in any way whatsoever.

I agree totally with VA Nimrod's post, and as long as parking in the company parking lot wasn't a "requirement" for employment, I'd keep my personal vehicle "OFF LIMITS" to any company nazis.

I used to work for the Air Force and once had my car searched as a routine excersise for one of their dogs. Didn't like the feeling it left me with! Fortunately nothing other than tire-changing tools were in the car. I won't be coerced or intimidated again in a similar manner.

Plus, I like the idea of quietly asserting my "independence" by not having a company permit issued to me. "No Mr. Boss, I don't use the company facilities - so 'NO', I don't need to make my vehicle available for a search ...... "

The idea of vehicle privacy is important to me, but some situations really get out of hand! I remember hearing about a 17yo (potential) H.S. valedictorian getting kicked out of school for having an ax-blade in his car.

The young man had be doing some volunteer work over the weekend and when asked he'd been doing, he answered. Somebody looking for an "opportunity" alerted screwl officials, and when the 17yo's car was searched and a broken ax was found, the young man was suspended or expelled from school (zero tolerance!).

Lost his standing as a Valedictorian candidate, and possibly a scholarship - all for failing to unload a broken ax?

I never heard what the aftermath was ..... whether the 17yo was reinstated, whether the screwl nazis were sued for violating the young man's rights, what happened to his scholarship, etc.

Private companies can - AND WILL DO WHAT THEY HELL THEY WANT. I go to work to work and don't need the worries or petty games from the PC-crowd. Anything related to guns or shooting is much more serious than a broken ax blade. I'd rather protect my privacy and my rights by parking OFF-SITE (and keeping my private business to myself). But that's me.

Probably. It is their property; they can post it as they wish. You do not HAVE to work for them, thus there is no necessity of your presence there.

My wife recently got a job at a "big box" store , she is not allowed to have a gun in her vehicle. I can go shop at that same store and it is OK if I have a gun in my vehicle.

Mike

VANimrod, Your points are very "literal" as well as true - no disagreement from me. But to shift gears just a little ...... I know that if you or I had a locked attache case sitting on the front passenger seat, the Supreme Court has ruled that a cop cannot confescate that attache case nor force the owner to open it during a routine traffic stop.

My point is, if I had a (metal) tool box bolted to the floor of my vehicle and it was securely locked, what authority can an employer assert in getting me to let them search it?

I'll add that a clean, well-kempt vehicle usually doesn't attract the ire of a cop wanting to search a vehicle, but just how "draconian" and "snoopy" can an employer get? I agree that my presence isn't usually required for my bosses to conduct business - in the long term, but just how nasty does the law allow them to be?

I've thought much about this overall thread-topic, as I want to have a concealed AND SECURED "get me home" weapon in my vehicle, but this would probably mean more than just tossing something in my trunk. I also forsee the day when [confescation] road blocks will be the norm when the Hitlery Klinton's and Schmuckie Schumer's get their way, as well.

I've also wanted to join a trap club to shoot a couple times each month if not weekly, but am I going to have to go all the way home first to get my gun and shells? This would be for my enjoyment, where my previous example might be for 'survival' in a TEOTWAWKI scenario.

Comments please? Thanks ahead of time!

StubbleDuck;

You bring up a very interesting grey area.

An employer can make firearms on the premises verbotten, and can search vehicles based upon reasonable suspicion, or based upon random search criteria (the latter VERY rare, and normally only at high-security installations such as chemical plants, military contractors, etc.). But, what would raise reasonable suspicion?

Would that locked attache' case do it? Unlikely by itself, but that with, say, an empty .22LR ammo box in the floorboard likely could.

My personal vehicles have no firearms or hunting stickers (not even an NRA sticker) on them. There is nothing from the outside that would give the indication that the owner/operator is a firearms nut or even that a firearm might be in the vehicle. That's security in our area (criminals noting such things at night, or looking for a "good house" to case), but would be advisable in a situation where one would not want to raise reasonable suspicion.

Likewise, a locked case under a seat, or behind one, that is not visible to view from the outside would be very hard to ID as a firearms case, esp. with no other reasonable suspicion indicators on the inside or outside.

If the employer is VERY bad, I'd not even talk about hunting or shooting at work, wear anything that tipped someone off to my hobbies, or do ANYTHING that might let the employer know that I owned firearms. Yeah, some places are that bad. Of course, personally, I'd never work at such places, but I understand that some of you all might.

Remember this: if you are breaking the employers rule, it is there rule, the rule is valid and enforceable, and if you do so, you do it at risk of your job and likely of prosecution. Make sure that it is absolutely worth it to you to take such a risk, and if you do so, do it with as much forethought and planning as possible. Stupid is what gets you caught, 99 times out of 100. Be safe, be careful, and good luck.

VANimrod, our thoughts and philosophies sound similar. As I've gotten older and more synical (and experienced), I'm sometimes amazed how many employees are often too "outspoken." I was even that naive - once upon a time. Your point about the stickers, bumper stickers and empty shell box are very good ones! Not having or policing those (like trash) can also help keep the cop from snooping.

Just being the Devil�s Advocate for a moment...but since automobiles are quite easily broken into and/or stolen how smart is it to leave a firearm in them?

If you check the state and local laws in allot of areas you will also find out that having a firearm in a vehicle, that is not unloaded and locked in a container, is also against the law if you are within 1,000 feet of a school.

There is a school teacher in Oregon right now (Medford I believe) who is going through a big hassle with the school district because she has a CCW and wants to carry her gun while at work. Oregon state law says that cities and counties cannot restrict a right granted by the state to an individual so the lawyers are battling it out for the time being. The teacher has pointed out that the district has often had Police officers on campus as guest speakers and they all carried their firearms while on school grounds and in the classrooms.

A wise man once pointed out that any government powerful enough to give you everything you want is also powerful enough to take it all away.

Rick, all your comments are pertinent to this thread. You offer lots of things to also consider.

Thanks, Rick. Good points.

I live in Utah, where we had a fairly important decision in favor of the employer, AOL. Employees were fired, and it stuck, because they were going shooting after work, and moved firearms from one vehicle to another in a parking lot... get this... NOT exclusively for the use of AOL employees, but for which AOL had purchased parking privileges.

Across town, I worked for another company, with a similar policy. The head of company security and I used to go over to what is now Impact Arms during lunch hour and shoot. He would get his firearm out of his pickup, and we would both jump in my car, and we'd spend lunch making holes. Sometimes three or four of us would go. I figured that made the policy pretty much unenforceable.