Guns at Work
A gun slinging waitress maybe as rare as the hen’s teeth, but finding themselves at the end of the rope with repeated robberies, the baristas at ‘Jitterz Java’ a coffee shop in Spokane, Washington are up in arms to tackle the menace on their own. The owner of the joint, Sarah Chapel is all in favor to paddle their own canoe rather than call 911, and she says the customer’s response has been very positive and no offenses are taken. But with almost half of American states adopting ‘Bring your guns to work’ law, many employers are at wits end on how to keep guns off their premises.
Though the waitress at the ‘Jitterz Java’ joint admitted a revolver by her hip did deter an armed intruder to sneak in through the coffee shop’s window. Unfortunately a Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse who carried a gun everyday to the county courthouse was not so lucky, as he was shot dead in broad daylight at the parking lot, proving the ‘Bring your guns to work’ or ‘Parking lot laws’ worthless if it was meant to protect the individuals.
Going by the US Department of Labor assertion, in 2010 there were over 16,000 no-fatal assaults at workplaces, owing to which there has been loss of property, loss of productive hours, compensation claims, and tedious litigation processes. These figures are enough reasons of concern for the employers that want violence to stay away from their premises, who are also calibrating the physic makeup of their employees.
Though there are no federal laws relating to guns at work, but there are many state laws which define it, and each have their own degree of interpretation. Now this has put the employers in a catch 22 situation, allowing arms at work could mean risking fatal shootouts and bloodshed at their work places which could put their business in a fix. While if they prohibit the employees they stare at the barrel of civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance of the guns at work act.
The contradictions do not end here, the negligence claims can further rub salt over employers’ wounds. If an employee with previous blotted gun record shoots and injures a person, the employer can be sued for negligence in hiring, negligence in supervision, negligence in retention. Now you can ask yourself if this was the perception of justice which our forefathers had dreamed of when scribing the Declaration of Independence. Your guess is as good as anyone’s.
Though some breathing space has been given to the employers, they can restrict employees from bringing arms in their actual work places, but they cannot prohibit employees from bringing arms to their parking lots and store them in their locked private cars. But if an employee is mad as a hornet; can anyone stop him or her from running to the parking lot, pulling out the gun and going on a shooting spree?
Whenever a shooting incidence erupts in US, sleeping dogs are up and voicing opinions for and against the gun laws, while the US government does what it is best at, wait and watch while the controversy brews.