Bring Your Gun to Work Legislation Passes Tennessee House Judiciary Committee

Looking to create a problem where no problem exists, a bill (HB 2021) pending in the Tennessee General Assembly would prohibit Tennessee employers from barring employees from bring firearms onto the employer's property.  The operative language is:

no private or public employer, including the state and its political subdivisions, shall prohibit an employee who possesses a valid handgun carry permit authorized by § 39-17-1351, from entering the employer’s parking lot and parking in such lot during the employee’s regular work hours when the employee's privately-owned motor vehicle contains a firearm that is stored within the trunk, glove box, or other enclosed compartment or area where the firearm is not visible from outside the vehicle and such motor vehicle is locked.

Forcing employers to permit firearms on their property is an utterly bad idea.  A sad graphic from the Department of Homeland Security listed the "active shooter" incidences in this country, including one at a church in the home town of the state senator sponsoring the "bring your gun to work" legislation:

Prepared by Department of Homeland Security

Bureau of Labor Statistics show an average of 70 people a year are killed at work by co-workers.  Legislation is about balancing competing concerns and any increase in the risk of workplace violence should be weighed against the need for the action.  No doubt, not everyone who would bring a gun to work is going to use it at work.  The point is, however, that it is impossible to fathom the need for legislation that gratuitously increases the risk for all Tennessee employees.

But what is even stranger about the legislation is a separate provision which seems to say that employers may not prohibit firearms but if an employer fires an employee for bringing a firearm onto the employer's property, the employee has no right to sue for wrongful discharge.

Legislation that solves no existing problem but increases risks for employers and is incomprehensible.  It has not been a good week in Nashville.