back to work, back to not carrying

[Liberty]

how do they "check" a car...do they have such a thing as "gun sniffing" dogs?

Yep. There certainly are. Same canine skill-set that allows them to sniff-out certain explosives.

Maybe we need to find less stinky ammo.

[Txemtp69]

the EMS agency I work for has a "no guns policy" when the policy first was put into place several years ago another supervisor and I joked about being given an hours notice before searches as to "offload" our weapons. That being said almost all of our administration is heavy "pro-gun" so I have no clue why this policy exhists.
I know of a few employees who carry (only cause I know they carry everywhere at least in their vehicles - on person when not on duty) and as long as I don't see a weapon being shown to another employee I have no problems with it. In fact I'd feel alot better if they were allowed as the more responsible/trained people with a gun will work in my favor God forbid someone come in looking to kill people.

[mr.72]

I am beginning to think in my case, the policy is written as some generic, boiler-plate HR policy document that they were furnished from some contract HR outfit. In a staff meeting the other day someone calling into the meeting was openly talking about guns (although I only caught the tail of the conversation so I don't know the content really). It didn't seem to be causing any great alarm. For the time being I am a contractor at this company but when the time comes to respond to a permanent job offer, I may have been there long enough to have gained the credibility to question this issue without being immediately invited to leave. We shall see.

[StewNTexas]

Not real sure about simply sticking it in the console. Found some really good in-car security boxes/safes at decent prices. You can get a lockable box for around $30 bucks. Take a look at
Center of Mass. Any decent Google search should bring them up. I would give you the exact address/link, but am somewhat tech challanged.

[suthdj]

My employer is one of those that reserves the right to search you, your belongings and vehicle while it is on the premises I have seen them doing searches on lockers they provide but it was after a theft. I figure if I don't want them searching my car I will just say no and remove it from their parking lot. They have no legal right to search your vehicle however they also have no legal requirement to keep you employed.

[sneedb82]

My employer is an Oil/Gas drilling contractor. We are fairly large, with headquarters in a small town. The office I work from (as I'm an office junkie, not a rig hand) is an open facility, thereby I mean no private entry gate, or the like. However, other locations/branches/divisions do have some facilities with a gated access, requiring a key code to get in.

However... The employee handbook applies to the drilling side of the company and claims nothing specific to the management services side of the company. All handgun and weapon (knives) policies are geared towards the drilling part of the company. Nothing in the handbook even relates to office staff, specifically dress code, conduct while in the office, or anything else. The policy claims that the weapons are not allowed on the premises, or in the vehicle on the premises, or on the vehicle on the job sites (drill sites) due to contractual agreements with clients (like it matters, because they have a zero tolerance policy anyway, regardless of whether the client approves of handguns being on the site or not).

Needless to say, I conceal because that's what it means... conceal. I do not carry inside the building however, simply because I have some respect for my job and employer. I'd love to place my safe in my office filing cabinet, as they could not worry about it being "readily" accessible and fundamentally easy to use against any employee or management member. However, we have a safety/investigations officer employed fulltime, and he's a former Texas Ranger. He is allowed to carry in his pickup, but not in the company pickup (understandable... so he uses his own P/U for business purposes and gets reimbursed for all expenses instead, so he could carry). He told me that since I have my CHL, to just speak with higher ups and get the approval to have it on my person (in my car), since it is still against "policy" to carry inside the building... The guy isn't even in the office every day of the week, as he's an investigator.. he investigates fraud and other crimes against our company... so he's hardly ever in the office

I'm a little perturbed that they do not trust us to have the weapons available during business hours, since all doors (except the main front entrance) are electronically locked and require a push button to exit and a key card to enter. It would be a tad difficult to make it from the front of the building to where we are at after the first shot is fired if more of us were allowed to have the proper security measures.

Sorry for the rant.

[mr.72]

I have taken to parking my car in the lot in an area not immediately adjacent to my company's end of the building. Clearly I am not parking it on the employer's "premises" by any stretch. Yesterday my wife came to pick me up for lunch and she said "why did you park way over there?" and I said "because my gun is in my car and they have a 'zero-tolerance' policy for carrying weapons on company property". She said "well what good could it possibly do you all the way out there in your car? I mean, if some gunman comes in the building, you guys are all screwed." I said "exactly".

Duh. So simple even a 4-year old could figure it out. But so-called human resources professionals do not get it.

[Mithras61]

Duh. So simple even a 4-year old could figure it out. But so-called human resources professionals do not get it.

Human resources professionals are paid to NOT get it. Their job (among other things) is to limit the employers responsibility which can best be done by restricting employees access to firearms (there is no penalty for them in having a non-employee shooter come in and kill people). Basically, this policy is all upside and no downside for the employer. The only way this will ever go away is either by mandate from the state or by having someone successfully sue them for the wrongful death of a spouse/loved one.

[nitrogen]

coworker gave me an interesting tip. Can't vouch to how well it'd hold up in court, though.

Keep your firearm in a container labeled "Medical Records" Maybe keep a doctors bill or something in there, too, so it actually is.

If anyone ever asks to search it, you just state that you are denying their access to your medical records under the medical records privacy act.
it's a stretch, but who knows, it might just work. Or it might get you fired, which it would have anyway.

Just sayin'.

[mr.72]

it's a stretch, but who knows, it might just work. Or it might get you fired, which it would have anyway.

Interesting idea. I figure it applies differently for each different workplace and situation. In some cases, maybe the accusation that you might have a gun is enough to get you fired. In other cases, maybe they will only fire you because they want to fire you anyway and having a gun is a convenient reason to do so. It's not like the most valued employee at a company is going to be carrying daily for a long time with nobody being the wiser, then suddenly one day someone makes a suggestion that they have a gun and they them march them right out the door and say "ok, now who's going to take over designing our Next Big Thing?"

The reality is, once they are searching your desk or car for some kind of contraband, you might as well go ahead and dust off the resume.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

nitrogen:

Interesing idea about keeping your piece in the "Medical Records" file.

Maybe the HIPAA law would cover you?

That would be the proper place to keep your "thoracic perforator".