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Employers Should Not Fear the So-Called “Take Your Guns to
Work Act”
By Tracey K. Jaensch,I FordHarrison LLP
On March 9, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law the newly enacted Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, on March 9, the first gun control
measure enacted in the state in over 20 years. While, that law does not directly impact
guns at work, its passage and the mass shootings that led to it, causes us to focus
attention to guns in the workplace.
In 2008, the Florida legislature passed the formally titled “Presentment and Protection of
the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Motor Vehicles Act of 2008,” which has since come
to be known as Florida’s “Take Your Guns To Work Act.” Perhaps because of this
“reverse” euphemism, many Florida employers have come to believe that they can take
no action to limit employees bringing guns to work. Actually, the statute’s protections
are quite limited when it comes to permitting employees to have guns at work. If you
remember that the purpose of the Act was to allow employees to exercise their alleged
Second Amendment right to bear arms on their commutes to and from work, you will be
on your way to having a better understanding of the limited reach of this Act.
The Act, codified at Florida Statutes Section 790.251, applies to all employers who have
even one worker with a concealed weapon license. Since employers are not permitted
to condition employment on whether an employee does or does not have a gun license,
most employers rightfully assume that the Act applies to them if they have even one
employee, independent contractor, volunteer or intern. In addition to conditional hiring,
the statute prohibits:
1. Terminating or otherwise discriminating against an employee simply because the
individual possesses a firearm inside his or her locked, privately owned vehicle when
lawfully parked in the employer’s parking lot;
2. Preventing any employee from entering the parking lot or place of business because
his or her vehicle contains a legal firearm;
3. Taking any action against an employee based upon verbal or written statements of
any party concerning possession of a firearm stored inside a motor vehicle lawfully
parked in an employer’s parking lot; and
4. Searching an employee’s vehicle for guns.
Accordingly, the Act does not prohibit employers from terminating an employee for
bringing a firearm on the employer’s property. In the only reported Florida case to
review this issue, the court found that terminating an employee for bringing a weapon
on the business property, even after the commission of a crime on the property, was not
protected under the Act. Bruley v. Vill. Green Management Co., 592 F. Supp. 2d 1381
(M.D. Fla. 2008).
Additionally, the Act does not apply to employees using a company vehicle, even if it is
used during the employee’s commute, or to vehicles that are leased or rented by the
employer.
Importantly, the Act does not mandate that employers require employees to travel in
vehicles of other employees who carry firearms in their cars. Instead, employers are
encouraged to pay for transportation rather than insist that employees ride-share to an
event or other location with an employee who carries a gun if the other employees
object to doing so.
Employers can also limit employees carrying guns to customer sites. A federal court in
Florida struck down as unconstitutional the Act’s similar restrictions as applied to
business invitees, customers and vendors. Therefore, limiting employees from having a
locked weapon in their cars during at-work travel to customer or vendor sites does not
violate the statute.
The bottom line: don’t be afraid of the so-called “Take Your Guns to Workplace Act.”
Establish broad workplace violence policies. Conduct background checks, reference
checks and interview candidates. If you can, have an EAP policy in place for
employees with mental health, substance abuse or anger management issues, and
encourage employees to use it. Have safety plans in place for active shooters or
reported threats. In other words, employees with concealed weapons are permitted to
keep their guns locked in their cars and to use them for self-defense. They are not
permitted to threaten to use them or bring them into work or anywhere else but their
locked car during work hours while on lawful business for the company at work.
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If you have any questions regarding this article please feel free to contact the author, Tracey Jaensch,
(813) 261-7815 or tjaensch@fordharrison.com, or the FordHarrison attorney with whom you usually work.