Monday, January 18, 2016

MichiGuns And Employer Parking Lots

A story was recently relayed to me that is quite a cautionary tale.

The subject of our story, while non-union, works (or should I say worked) in a non-union environment.

Apparently a union member he was having a bit of a dispute with made a false claim that he was seen by the union guy carrying a gun openly in the parking lot and entering the workplace.

Security stopped him in the workplace and he did not have a firearm on him at all nor in the office anywhere.

However, he did have NRA and other pro-gun stickers on his car, and did have a handgun in the glove compartment which he can do as he has a CPL.

The employer has a clear and written no firearms on the premises policy which covers company owned parking lots.

You know where this one went right?

Michigan is an at-will employment state and lacks any protection for firearms owners leaving their firearms in their cars on company property. The subject of the story, after he admitted he had a gun in the car, got fired tout suite and has no recourse against his employer, even after working there for almost two decades with no negative incidents and even as the originating report for the incident was false.

Working in a non-permissive environment, especially with a clear prohibition on firearms on property, an employee can be put in a difficult position of having a gun in the car but then being fired for it, or not having the gun in the car at all which can leave the employee vulnerable on their journey to and from work, and his workplace was in a not very nice area.

If you're in one of those environments, I'd strongly recommend not having any advertising on your vehicle that there might be a firearm inside and not talking about firearms in the workplace.

It's stuff like this that makes me a proponent of the "allow employees to have guns locked in employee vehicles in company parking lots" laws.

5 comments:

Old 1811 said...

Two points:
I don't believe in putting any stickers on vehicles. A car bearing NRA or pro-gun stickers, sitting unattended in a parking lot, is screaming, "Break into me! You might find something good!"
Employers who deny you the right to keep a firearm in a locked vehicle in their parking lot are also denying you the right to be armed during the trip to and from work. That could be an unconstitutional infringement of civil rights.
I'm not a lawyer. Just thinking out loud.

Old 1811 said...

See above. Google hates me.

Murphy's Law said...

Like Old1811 says, no gun stickers on my cars, and for this reason. No sense tipping off the bad guys OR others who just want to cause you trouble.

B said...

As Murphy says....Plus why let the cops know that you are "One of those kind of people"....Some might applaud you for it, others see you as a threat.

I choose not to advertise.

Aaron said...

Yes indeed, I tend to advise people not to advertise, nor to act as blowhards about it but to keep a low and peaceful profile.

Old 1811 - unfortunately court's haven't recognized that as a civil right. They generally do not even recognize claims when someone is disarmed by company policy in the workplace and is then attacked at the workplace and can't defend themselves due to company policy and is then harmed or killed. It sucks, but that's the current state of the law, at least in this state.