Editorial in paper today:
Terre Haute News, Terre Haute, Indiana- TribStar.com - TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: Please — a little common sense on workplace safety
Terre Haute News, Terre Haute, Indiana- TribStar.com - TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: Please — a little common sense on workplace safety
TERRE HAUTE — Unless you work for yourself in a one-person operation, part of your employment is dealing with the personalities, habits, quirks and occasional emotional problems of other people.
How do you feel about all of them being free to keep a loaded gun in their car in the company parking lot?
This so-called right is the latest hot cause of the gun lobby and its many pro-gun friends in the state General Assembly. Not enough that Indiana is one of the loosest, least prohibitive places in the nation to buy, sell, carry, conceal, use and keep forever firearms; Senate Bill 25, and House Bill 1065 aim to move all that freedom closer to the front door of our workplaces.
Frequent flyers of late in the Assembly, bills such as these also have passed in several states and are under consideration in about 10 others. (An Indiana Senate version passed 42-8 last year, but the House did not deliver.) Supporters say the laws are all about personal safety and uniform fairness: Why should a law-abiding gun owner have to take his or her shotgun, rifle or handgun out of a vehicle just to drive to work?
Maybe if Indiana had a few more safeguards in place regarding legal gun ownership, the fairness argument would resonate. But the state does not.
Rifles and shotguns? No permit, registration, license or permit to carry is required to own one — or dozens. Handguns? The only permit required of Hoosiers is a permit to carry.
Background checks for guns purchased from non-licensed dealers at flea markets, gun shows, via classified ads or private sales? You must be thinking of some other state.
Little wonder Indiana is known among pro- and anti-gun folk alike as one of the top “source states” for legal guns that end up being used illegally in other states.
Last week, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce came out, forcefully, against these needless, dangerous changes to existing gun law. Nobody’s idea of an anti-Constitutional bunch of liberals, the 5,000-member Chamber issued a news release stating its position:
“Proponents of these bills emphasize an individual’s right to bear arms, but property owners certainly have the right — and obligation — to provide a safe workplace for their employees. The consequences can become violent, often deadly, when guns and the workplace mix.”
The Chamber cited several studies that show employee safety decreases in workplaces that do not prohibit guns on the premises. The organization then asked: “So, knowing all of this, why in the world are Indiana legislators advocating for guns in the workplace?”
The sorry answer: Because easy access to guns in this state is a political priority that often outranks safety and common sense. It’s way past time for Hoosier legislators to listen to groups like the Chamber of Commerce and change their ways.