Concealed parking permit
Golly gee, Wally ... what's the big deal? Well Beav, the big deal is that once again a newly-enacted Florida statute has pitted the elites with a bent toward condescending, authoritative central planning against the usual suspects. You know, freedom-loving but crudely ignorant, unwashed, trailer-living, hayseed types.
Ahem. Governor Charlie Crist signed a bill into law this past Tuesday that will allow Florida residents to keep firearms locked in their vehicles while at work. Essentially the new law, effective this July, proscribes businesses from prohibiting customers or employees from keeping legally-owned firearms locked away inside their own cars.
It is important to note that the law pertains only to those law-abiding residents who possess a valid concealed carry weapons permit. We must stress legal and law-abiding because they are germane to yet another brouhaha dealing with constitutional rights.
"But B2, B2!" you wheedle, your angst-infused body all a-twitter and trembling like Man O War at the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby, "Won't crazed employees head to the parking lots, grab guns, and start wasting their bosses? Everybody knows that's what will happen!"
C'est possible, mais non, mon petit petale de fleur. The only people who would consider such thoughts are honest citizens unfamiliar with firearms, the law, or crime statistics - and therefore easily misled by fear tactics - and those avidly promoting a particular and probably disingenuous agenda.
It's all in the interpretation
Although firearms will still be off-limits at locales such as schools, prisons, nuclear power plants, military facilities, explosives depots and similar sites, Florida's new law will almost certainly be tested in the courts - and soon. In addition to the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida Retail Federation, you can make book that the nation's notorious anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment organizations will climb aboard as well.
Anti-Second Amendment acolytes decry the law for a number of reasons. They argue that the legislation: 1) Punishes private property owners and employers with expensive fines and lawsuits if they don't comply; 2) Undermines the free-market ability for an employer to set conditions of employment; 3) Cheapens state and federal discrimination laws by allowing employees to sue for what they own rather than who they are; and 4) May lead to an increase in workplace violence.
Reality unchained
Almost sounds well-reasoned at first nudge, doesn't it? Let's look a bit closer:
1. Punishes private property owners and employers with expensive fines and lawsuits if they don't comply.
An application of common sense reveals that it is patently ludicrous to paint this as a property rights issue. Employers and businesses must also comply with OSHA regulations, Equal Employment Opportunity legislation, and a plethora of other civil rights and safety restrictions.
2. Undermines the free-market ability for an employer or business owner to set conditions of behavior for workers or customers.
Again, no existing workplace legislation prohibits an employer or business owner to set conditions of employment or conduct - unless it nullifies constitutional and statutory rights of employees and customers. This applies not only to Florida but in all of the United States and Territories as well.
3. Cheapens state and federal discrimination laws by allowing employees to sue for what they own rather than who they are.
Hmm, there are those pesky constitutional rights again - write this down: Corporate property interests cannot override constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. Additionally, the comparison to discrimination is absurd and requires no response.
4. May lead to an increase in workplace violence.
Annually documented data consistently suggests that statistical rates of violent crime are significantly higher in "Gun-free Zones" and jurisdictions with repressive anti-gun laws when compared to jurisdictions prescribing concealed carry legislation and progressive firearms policies.
Doubt that last one? Honest research into annual FBI statistical analyses will compel you to agree. I won't do your legwork for you, but you can begin your edification by browsing a few archived B2J articles containing statistics and relevant source links: You make firearms safe, Crime and other mullings, RKBA Part I, RKBA Part II, and RKBA Part III.
Civil rights trump personal ideology
As Marion Hammer, architect of Florida's landmark 1987 concealed carry legislation, so eloquently stated: "An employer's political philosophy or abject contempt for firearms rights does not trump a law-abiding person's fundamental constitutional right to self-protection, even at a place of employment."
Recent significant court decisions necessitate B2 to revisit the matter of constitutional interpretation vis a vis the Second Amendment - the dynamic has changed, and for the better if you are an American who cherishes personal liberty.
Until then, happy parking.