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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ind. Law - Governor signs more bills, including "guns at work" bill [Updated]

The list of bills received by the Governor has been updated again; 18 more were signed by the governor today. no new bills have been received.

Included in the bills signed today was HEA 1065, the "guns at work" bill. The governor issued this accompanying message:

Considering the clear language of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and the even stronger language of Article 1 Section Thirty-Two of the Indiana Constitution, protecting these rights as provided in HEA 1065 is appropriate. I also am compelled to give great weight to the overwhelming consensus of both Houses of the General Assembly as they passed this bipartisan statute. The law does contain ambiguities that the General Assembly may wish to refine at some future date, to avoid unnecessary litigation, but the understandable concerns raised against the bill do not suffice to justify a trespass on a fundamental right so expressly protected by our founding documents.
The last sentence of the governor's message, about ambiguity, itself appears to be ambiguous. One might read the message to mean the current exceptions in the bill cannot be justified, given the language of the two constitutions. Or, perhaps with more difficulty, it may be read to mean additional exceptions may be appropriate.

[Updated at 4:52 PM] Dan Carden of the NWI Times has this report:

Indiana businesses cannot stop employees from keeping guns in their cars at work under a new law signed Thursday by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Starting July 1, Hoosier companies are prohibited from enacting rules that ban guns in cars on their property, so long as a gun is stored out of sight in a locked vehicle, trunk or glove box.

Daniels said the right to bear arms is protected by the U.S. and Indiana constitutions and, as such, "should be infringed only for the most compelling of reasons."

The governor said an office shooting at the Department of Workforce Development in Portage earlier this month did not make him reconsider his decision to sign the legislation. * * *

Michael G. Rippey, president of steelmaker ArcelorMittal USA, urged the governor to veto the legislation, because it could make work sites less safe.

"There is no legitimate reason for employees to bring firearms into the workplace, either for safety or recreational purposes, and every employer should have the right to stop weapons at the plant gate or office door," Rippey wrote in a letter to Daniels.

The new law does allow some workplaces to continue to prohibit guns in cars, including schools, colleges and universities, child care facilities, emergency shelters, homes for the developmentally disabled, prisons, federal buildings, homeland security sites and utility companies.

During debate in the Senate, state Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, suggested the exemptions might make the law unconstitutional, because the Indiana Constitution allows an unlimited right to carry a gun anywhere, Wyss said.

Rippey called the exemptions "arbitrary and capricious."

While the governor admitted future General Assemblies may want to reconsider some of the exemptions, he said "the understandable concerns raised against the bill do not suffice to justify a trespass on a fundamental right so expressly protected by our founding documents."

A NWI Times story from March 16, 2010 includes these quotes:
The top U.S. executive of steelmaker ArcelorMittal is urging Gov. Mitch Daniels to veto legislation that would outlaw workplace rules preventing employees from keeping firearms and ammunition in their vehicles at work.

"I do not ever want to be put into a situation where I have to call the spouse or family member of one of our employees and tell them their loved one won't be coming home tonight because a fellow employee went to their car, got a gun, and shot a co-worker," ArcelorMittal USA CEO Michael Rippey wrote to Daniels one day after the bill was passed by the Indiana General Assembly.

The ArcelorMittal executive also derided provisions in the proposed law that provide exemptions for some industries as "arbitrary and capricious" and lacking any "rational basis." * * *

Although the Indiana law often is described as limiting guns to company parking lots, there is no such language in the bill. Instead, it simply prohibits most employers from taking any action against employees or contract workers who have guns or ammunition out of sight in their locked vehicles. The measure includes exemptions for child care facilities, schools, shelters and similar sites.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 18, 2010 03:08 PM
Posted to Indiana Law