infobong.com

Oklahoma recently passed a law blocking employers from banning guns on their premises. The state legislature thought workers should have the right to bring their weapons on private property. The law is being challenged in court by corporate interests who assert that their constitutional property rights allow them to decide their own gun policy. The NRA, which is defending the law, is framing the issue in terms of the second amendment.

I'm no fan of guns, and I'm frankly a little embarrassed that this is happening in my own state, but it raises some interesting issues. This post at "TPM Cafe House of Labor" points out that this assertion of property rights threatens "proposed local laws to require companies to allow the public and/or union organizers onto their property."

What I find more interesting is what this means for worker's rights generally. The WSJ article says, " in a surprise search, Weyerhaeuser Co. sent gun-sniffing dogs into the parking lot of its paper mill here. Mr. Bastible and 11 other workers were fired after guns were found in their vehicles." If Oklahoma passed a law specifically allowing guns in company parking lots, presumably that means employers are free to search you and your car at anytime? I'm guessing that if guns can be banned, employers could ban all kinds of media-making equipment like cameras or computers.* I don't expect anyone would try to take up this issue on First Amendment grounds, but random searches of employee vehicles seems like an unnecessary intrusion into workers affairs. It's too bad this issue has come up in the context of the Second Amendment.

*Look who hasn't taken a media law class.