Florida's New Guns-to-Work Law Restricted to Cars. Rigged Aston Martin Sales Skyrocket

The Florida state legislature passed a bill earlier this week that would allow anyone in the state with a concealed weapons permit to keep their firearm in their parked car, as long as the car is locked.

For employers, the law overrides the blanket bans most companies have against keeping or storing guns while at work.

The debate, which seems to have been more between the Chamber of Commerce and the NRA than anyone actually voted into office, is whether the employees' Second Amendment rights (a hot button issue in and of itself right now) should trump the company's property rights and interest in maintaining their businesses as they see fit.

In the Miami Herald, the Chamber points out that there is no way for them to know whether their employees have concealed carry permits - the records are exempt from Florida's open info law, and the new bill bars them from asking employees about their status.

In a deftly drafted response, State Senator Durell Peaden of Crestview had this to say (via Reuters):

"The second thing they wrote about in that constitution was the right to bear arms... it was what was dear in their hearts."

See, to me, it's disconcerting when a man whose sole job it is to create and pass laws would not only refer to the premier U.S. legal document as "that constitution" but would presume that they itemized the Bill of Rights in order of importance. Like they sat in Philadelphia and said "Whew. Thank God we got that freedom of speech out of the way. What's next? Housing Soldiers? No, let's do guns..."

Of course, Floridians seem to have more trust in their government than dumb yankee bloggers. Check out the Herald's poll, after the jump.

On the Miami Herald web version of the story, there's a poll with three options:

1. Yes. I own a gun and it's my Second Amendment right to bring it with me to my job.
2. No. I own a gun, but I don't see any logical reason for me to bring it to work.
3. No. I don't own a gun and don't plan on ever getting one and/or bringing one to work.

The results?


I'm honestly not sure what to say about this. I'm usually a pretty "individual rights" kind of guy, but this seems a little... dangerous. Oklahoma had a similar law that was recently kicked by an appellate court there. Alaska, Kentucky and Mississippi have similar laws.

Maybe it's living in Chicago during a year where over 20 high school students have been killed, most by guns (the latest young man was beaten to death with a bat, but in case you were worried about consistency, a man was shot over the weekend at a makeshift memorial for the student.) People here have been talking about giving principles and teachers the right to carry guns.

Anyway, whatever - make up your own minds. Fight about it in the comments. I can't figure it out.

Oh - one more thing. Next to that poll was this ad. One stop shopping on the internet, I guess.