The NRA has been pretty bad on gun rights and even worse on private property rights, and as I wrote some time ago (here and here), it supports state laws that prohibit employers from banning guns in parking lots.
CBSNews reports on this continuing saga:
Employee parking lots have become an unlikely focus in the fight over gun rights.
The nation’s largest lawyers group is taking on the biggest gun rights organization over employers’ rights to bar workers from leaving guns in their cars while on the job.
The National Rifle Association says the question is whether employees can protect themselves on their drive home.
The NRA has embarked on a state-by-state campaign to get legislatures to enact laws that require employers to allow their workers to bring guns on company parking lots.
“When you get off work at 12 o’clock or 1 o’clock and you’re driving home, you have the right to protect yourself if you’re accosted on the highway,” said Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s executive vice president.
Of course, part of the problem here is that the roads are not privately owned and so if people have firearms in their cars they won’t be able to stop in parking lots where they are banned. Still, the NRA’s objective seems not to be gun rights but rather gun ubiquity at any cost, including the destruction of property rights.
The National Rifle Association is effectively telling business owners that they are now less in control of their parking lots. What’s ironic is that ultimately, government guns would be used to enforce those laws.
10:06 am on February 11, 2007
