Loading...SB 43: IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED
URGENT EMPLOYER ALERT
[Note: If applicable, please also share with your human resources, security, risk management, workers’ compensation and legal departments.]
Businesses will not be allowed to turn away employees who want to bring guns to work, if a proposed new law working its way through the Georgia state Senate, is enacted. Under SB 43, employer-policies banning firearms from their property could become illegal as early as this July.
SB 43 takes away the right of employers and property owners to adopt preventive policies for their own business and property to prevent the introduction of weapons in the workplace but at the same time, holds employers subject to massive and costly litigation if an attorney can prove the company “should have known” weapons in the workplace might be used in the commission of a crime. “It just defies common-sense,” George M. Israel III, president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, says.
That bill, SB 43, states in part: “ ... no private ... employer shall establish, maintain, or enforce any policy or rule that has the effect of prohibiting an employee from transporting or storing a firearm in a locked motor vehicle in any parking lot, parking garage, or other employee parking area.” The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 7-3.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce strongly opposes SB 43 and asks you to contact the members of the state Senate immediately to indicate your opposition to SB 43. Call your Senators today at (404) 656-5030 and ask them to vote “no” on SB 43.
SB 43 would strip employers of the right to make reasonable rules for their own property and business, and expressly would deny businesses the right to ban firearms from their parking lots, unless a business owner hires guards and constructs a separate “secure parking area” for workers who wish to bring firearms to work.
Israel called the bill a notable intrusion on employers’ rights and one that could have a major impact on corporate risk management policies and add significant costs to property-casualty, liability and workers’ compensation insurance policies.
“The platform on which many legislators have been elected has been ‘less government’ in the affairs of business,” George M. Israel III, president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce stated. “This legislation runs directly counter to that position, and is an unprovoked attack on private property rights and the rights of business owners to determine the best policies for their workplace.”
Concerned members of the Georgia Chamber should also contact the members of the Georgia House of Representatives, who are considering identical legislation, HB 143.
Contact information for all members of the Georgia House and Senate, including email addresses, phone numbers and fax numbers, can be found by clicking here.
In addition to members of the Senate, please include in your contacts the office of the Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle. Please include in your contacts in the House, the office of the Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, the Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter, the House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, and the Majority Whip Barry Fleming.
