Tennessee Firearms Assoc. Inc.

Folks, I have searched the General Assembly web site and found no bill yet submitted for parking lot protection. I have written to Sen. Mark Norris of Collierville Tennessee asking him to sponsor such a bill. He had sponsored similiar legislation during the last session.

I am copying my letter to him here. If any of you feel as I do about this, please feel free to edit it as necessary and forward it on to your representatives.

Sam Cooper

Senator Norris,

I am writing to you as my representative, Mr. Kyle, would not be open to my concern. Also, at this time I have no representative in the House. I was represented by Ulysses Jones and no successor has been selected at this time.

Last session, you introduced legislation to protect the rights of Handgun Permit Holders to keep a firearm secured in their private vehicle while parked on their employers parking lots.

I supported similiar legislation that was in the House introduced by Josh Evans, Ben West and Mr. Fincher. I traveled to Nashville on two occasions to speak at the House Judiciary Criminal Practices Sub-Committee and at the subsequent summer study in support of these bills.

I have not found any similiar legislation introduced yet in either house.

I have done a great deal of research on this subject and have compiled a lot of information about similiar bills and laws in other states. Many of those states have language that I feel would make such a bill less objectionable to business and property owners. Oklahoma's and Florida's laws have both withstood court challenges.

This is important legislation. I understand that much publicity was given to firearms bills during the last session and many feel other matters need attention. However, while the restaurant carry bill was important, as a permit holder and handgun carrier, I have always had the ability to go somewhere else to eat. Such an option does not really exist for your employement. While some would say I should quit and find another employer, after 31 years with FedEx and the current job market, that is not a viable or realistic option.

There are many people in Tennessee in similiar circumstances who by our employers prohibition, take our rights to protect ourselves during our daily commute.

I hope you or someone would sponsor such a bill and give me the opportunity to work with you in getting it passed.

It is going to take a huge public push to get this passed. The General Assembly will receive huge business opposition to this bill, will argue it accomplishes little but impairs property rights etc while the whole time the real issue is the campaign funds that they have invested.

What we need to consider is the alternative ways of achieving this goal. Perhaps rather than the straight approach we need to consider another "property rights" approach like a modification to the "castle doctrine" by providing that if the location subject to the castle doctrine presumption then there is an absolute right to have and/or store a firearm in that location - think about it.

I am a believer in the old saying that there is more than one way to skin a cat. How we get there is not as important as the end result. While I can understand using the Castle Doctine, my concern with that approach would be that it may take a court case to test it's ability to do what we want. I can easily see a person being fired because a employer will still contend that the two property rights issues are in conflict, (where do your property rights end and where do mine begin, or can two different property rights "environments" occupy the same space) and argue theirs trumps yours.

In the mean time, an employee is out of a job while a court case makes its way through the system.

I understand how much the business lobby will work to oppose such legislation. I also know that a lot of our General Assembly members feel that gun rights issues need to take a back seat this session. It is a shame how corporate campaign contributions can trump the opinons and input of constituants. I heard that first hand when Josh Evans flat told me that he would not push his bill last session because the Republican leadership told him to back off because of threats made by the business lobby to support opposition candidates and cause them to loose their slim majority in the next election.

We both know that their argument of impairing propert rights is as bogus as a three dollar bill. When the business lobby presents that argument we have to put holes in that argument or the members of the General Assembly will accept it. Besides, every provision I have ever read in the Constituion regarding rights always refers to people or individuals. I can't remember ever seeing where a entity that exists on paper is granted rights.

If expansion of the castle doctrine does the job, I can go with that but such expansion is not going to provide the added protections that exist in other states to keep an employer from making such items a condition of employment.

I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV so take this for whatever it's worth. In my opinion, our best argument is as follows.
Giving employers the right to regulate what's in our cars allows them to ban whatever they choose. If the concern is dangerous weapons then they can ban tire irons, jack handles, baseball bats and anything else ever used to commit bodily harm. People that have tool boxes in the bed of thier trucks could have them searched for hammers, hatchets, axes, large wrenches, pry bars and who knows what else. While those items have other uses, they're not needed by most employees while at work or while traveling to and from. In many areas, personal safety is a serious concern. Permit holders would no sooner travel through those areas unarmed than to drive around without a spare tire and the tools to change it. Parking lots are not just for the benefit of the employee, the employer benefits from providing parking areas as well.

Golf clubs and baseball bats are potential weapons, as are firearms. If I want to play golf or baseball before or after work, I can have these items in my vehicle, on an employer's parking lot. If I would like to go to the range, I must drive past the range, to my home to get my pistol, rifle or shotgun, then drive back to the range. I have had to refuse an emergency call-in to work several times as I was legally carrying a weapon in my vehicle during my time off work.