This always struck me as one of those "How in the hell would they know?" kind of situations, combined with "Who the hell would let his employer search his car?".
If we're talking about some kind of super-secure facility I can almost understand it (and I'd imagine there is armed security anyway), but for 99.9% of the rest of us working stiffs?
Pragmatically speaking, I kind of don't care either way. If my employer told me I wasn't allowed to keep a gun in my car, I would anyway. How would they know? If they asked to search my car, I'd refuse. "I was looking for a job when I found this one".
On the other hand, are an employer's property rights (we're talking about a parking lot
)
really being infringed, if the State says "You know what? It's none of your business if there's a gun in an employee's car?" I mean, how far does this go? "My parking lot, my rules. If there is any pro-Sanders or pro-Clinton literature in your vehicle, you can be terminated. Oh, and that Prius of yours is subject to search."
At some point, it just becomes silly. I'll support their right to ban guns inside the building (I don't have to like it), but you've got to draw a line somewhere, right?. And I think your car out in the fucking parking lot is that line. Otherwise they effectively own you while you're driving to and from work.
Then again - who am I to tell someone who they MUST associate with, against their will? If you're not allowed to fire somebody for any reason (i.e., decide to exercise your freedom of association), then you really don't
have that freedom, do you?
Like I said,
pragmatically speaking, I kinda don't care either way. It's not really a hardship for the employer (get over it), and it's not really much of a "win" for gun owners, either. Seriously, who wants to work for a company like that anyway? They'll just find another creative way to fire you. Yay, winning.