Mitch Daniels has been a business-friendly governor, so maybe he'll veto this when it gets to his desk:
Hoosiers who want to keep guns in their cars while they're at work gained more support Tuesday in the General Assembly.
The state House of Representatives voted 76-21 to approve a bill that would make it illegal for employers in Indiana to prohibit workers from keeping firearms in their locked vehicles on company property.
The bill written by Rep. Robert Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg, would protect employers from liability if there is a workplace shooting when they are in compliance with the law. It would also repeal a provision that allows local governments to adopt ordinances that restrict lawful possession of firearms during disasters and emergencies.
The Senate approved a bill Monday that would allow workers to keep firearms in their vehicles. It will now consider Bischoff's more-comprehensive proposal.
This is really a property rights issue more than it is a Second Amendment issue. My right to be armed does not entitle me to take a weapon onto someone else's private property against the owner's wishes, whether that property is a church or a restaurant or my place of employment. Now, allowing a gun to be kept in a locked car in the company parking lot seems pretty reasonable to me, and I would hope that most employers would see the reasonableness of it. But they aren't required to be reasonable by my definition, or the government's, either.
Let the government get away with this, and the next thing you know they'll be telling businesses they can't allow smoking on their property. Heck, they might even decide they can take your property for economic development purposes. Then where would we be?
