Big_Rob
04-10-2008, 04:46 PM
Read the comments, all they can do is spout off the same old tired bullshit about the streets turning into the wild west and how gun owners are going to lose it at work and kill their co-workers.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flfguns0410sbapr10,0,5168476.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Florida Senate passes controversial guns-to-work bill
Crist says he will sign the controversial measure into law
By John Kennedy Jamie Malernee and Jerome Burdi
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 10, 2008
TALLAHASSEE
The Republican-led state Senate handed a major election-year victory Wednesday to the National Rifle Association by approving a measure allowing some 500,000 Floridians with concealed-weapons permits to carry their guns to work.
In South Florida the reaction was mixed, with business owners expressing concern and gun owners declaring victory. The measure bars employers from banning guns on their premises, provided workers hold concealed-weapons permits and leave the guns locked in their cars.
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said he will have no problem signing the measure into law.
"The Second Amendment is very important," Crist said of the U.S. constitutional guarantee protecting the right to bear arms. "I understand there are competing interests ... but people being protected is most important to me."
The 26-13 Senate vote broke along party lines – as did the House vote a week earlier in approving the measure. Democrats in both chambers sided with business groups fiercely opposing the change.
The vote capped a three-year effort by the NRA, which deluged lawmakers with thousands of e-mails and letters. Just as it had the past two springs, the gun battle pushed Republicans into a political crosswind, forcing them to choose between two drivers of GOP politics: gun supporters and the business lobby.
Those two sides remained at odds Wednesday as news of the passage spread to South Florida.
Charles Caulkins is a lifelong member of the NRA. Yet the Fort Lauderdale labor attorney called the guns-to-work bill "a very bad idea."
"It's completely unnecessary and it exposes employees and employers to unnecessary risks," said Caulkins, managing partner of the Fort Lauderdale firm of Fisher & Phillips, which represents employers. "What if someone loses their mental capacity, goes out and gets the gun and comes in?"
He also said the measure could be ruled unconstitutional. A similar law was struck down in Oklahoma for violating federal workplace safety rules.
"To have property rights wholesale voided is a big mistake," he said. "I'm sure there will be a challenge."
Werner Heldenmuth is the manager of the Flamingo Petroleum gas station in Davie and prohibits weapons on the premises. He said he doesn't care what a new law might say.
"No law, no one in the world, can tell me what I can do on my property," he said, "unless we're going into a police state – which is where this is headed."
But at the Revere Gun Range in Pompano Beach, Mike Mathews applauded the new legislation. The NRA-certified gun instructor said it restores rights that gun-owners should have had all along.
"I carry a gun all the time," Mathews said. "I think a lot of folks feel that they've always had this right and it was taken from them."
Jay Dewing, owner of Dewing's Fly and Gun Shop in West Palm Beach, said the bill passed should have gone further, and that being able to have a gun in one's car isn't enough.
"Let's say I'm in the mall and there's a mall shooting," he said. "The only reason I see to have [a gun] there is for moments like those and you won't have it."
About 500,000 Floridians have concealed-weapons permits. But since the Legislature has shielded these records from public view, businesses may not know who is allowed to carry a weapon, critics say.
Certain workplaces, though, can still ban firearms under the bill. Among them: aerospace and defense plants, nuclear-power facilities, schools and prisons.
The NRA has pushed the past two years for legislation that would have allowed anyone owning a gun to keep it in their car at work. But last year's effort was defeated in a House committee only two days after a gunman killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech.
Some predicted there wouldn't be much change under the new legislation because many people already keep guns in their cars.
"The state allows you to drive around with a loaded gun for protection," said Joe Rice, manager of Delray Shooting Center in Delray Beach. "There are a lot of dirtbags out there that will kill you just as soon as look at you."
Others, like the leader of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce, had more dire predictions and urged people to contact Crist in hopes of persuading him to not sign the bill.
"The first priority for Florida employers is the safety of their employees, but this legislation does not make workplaces any safer, and studies have shown it may actually lead to more incidents of workplace violence," chamber president Troy McLellan said in a letter.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flfguns0410sbapr10,0,5168476.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Florida Senate passes controversial guns-to-work bill
Crist says he will sign the controversial measure into law
By John Kennedy Jamie Malernee and Jerome Burdi
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 10, 2008
TALLAHASSEE
The Republican-led state Senate handed a major election-year victory Wednesday to the National Rifle Association by approving a measure allowing some 500,000 Floridians with concealed-weapons permits to carry their guns to work.
In South Florida the reaction was mixed, with business owners expressing concern and gun owners declaring victory. The measure bars employers from banning guns on their premises, provided workers hold concealed-weapons permits and leave the guns locked in their cars.
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said he will have no problem signing the measure into law.
"The Second Amendment is very important," Crist said of the U.S. constitutional guarantee protecting the right to bear arms. "I understand there are competing interests ... but people being protected is most important to me."
The 26-13 Senate vote broke along party lines – as did the House vote a week earlier in approving the measure. Democrats in both chambers sided with business groups fiercely opposing the change.
The vote capped a three-year effort by the NRA, which deluged lawmakers with thousands of e-mails and letters. Just as it had the past two springs, the gun battle pushed Republicans into a political crosswind, forcing them to choose between two drivers of GOP politics: gun supporters and the business lobby.
Those two sides remained at odds Wednesday as news of the passage spread to South Florida.
Charles Caulkins is a lifelong member of the NRA. Yet the Fort Lauderdale labor attorney called the guns-to-work bill "a very bad idea."
"It's completely unnecessary and it exposes employees and employers to unnecessary risks," said Caulkins, managing partner of the Fort Lauderdale firm of Fisher & Phillips, which represents employers. "What if someone loses their mental capacity, goes out and gets the gun and comes in?"
He also said the measure could be ruled unconstitutional. A similar law was struck down in Oklahoma for violating federal workplace safety rules.
"To have property rights wholesale voided is a big mistake," he said. "I'm sure there will be a challenge."
Werner Heldenmuth is the manager of the Flamingo Petroleum gas station in Davie and prohibits weapons on the premises. He said he doesn't care what a new law might say.
"No law, no one in the world, can tell me what I can do on my property," he said, "unless we're going into a police state – which is where this is headed."
But at the Revere Gun Range in Pompano Beach, Mike Mathews applauded the new legislation. The NRA-certified gun instructor said it restores rights that gun-owners should have had all along.
"I carry a gun all the time," Mathews said. "I think a lot of folks feel that they've always had this right and it was taken from them."
Jay Dewing, owner of Dewing's Fly and Gun Shop in West Palm Beach, said the bill passed should have gone further, and that being able to have a gun in one's car isn't enough.
"Let's say I'm in the mall and there's a mall shooting," he said. "The only reason I see to have [a gun] there is for moments like those and you won't have it."
About 500,000 Floridians have concealed-weapons permits. But since the Legislature has shielded these records from public view, businesses may not know who is allowed to carry a weapon, critics say.
Certain workplaces, though, can still ban firearms under the bill. Among them: aerospace and defense plants, nuclear-power facilities, schools and prisons.
The NRA has pushed the past two years for legislation that would have allowed anyone owning a gun to keep it in their car at work. But last year's effort was defeated in a House committee only two days after a gunman killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech.
Some predicted there wouldn't be much change under the new legislation because many people already keep guns in their cars.
"The state allows you to drive around with a loaded gun for protection," said Joe Rice, manager of Delray Shooting Center in Delray Beach. "There are a lot of dirtbags out there that will kill you just as soon as look at you."
Others, like the leader of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce, had more dire predictions and urged people to contact Crist in hopes of persuading him to not sign the bill.
"The first priority for Florida employers is the safety of their employees, but this legislation does not make workplaces any safer, and studies have shown it may actually lead to more incidents of workplace violence," chamber president Troy McLellan said in a letter.