Owners of private parking lots would no longer be able to stop gun owners from storing their weapons in a parked car under a bill that received tentative approval in the Senate � one of two bills getting majority support from state senators Thursday.

SB78 is an attempt to balance private property rights with the right to bear arms, said sponsoring Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi. The measure allows a religious group, or a company that operates a secure facility, to continue to prohibit guns from being stored in their parking lots.

"What happens if they (a gun owner) have employers that have policies that ban guns in the parking lot?" Madsen said. "That impacts employees beyond the workplace. It impacts them after work when the want to get a bite to eat at a Trolley Square."

But Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, said he worried that passing the measure would be an incremental step toward allowing guns in all privately owned facilities.

"We're departing from a long-established law in the state of Utah and that is that an employer can protect his property," Bell said. SB78 now moves to the Senate's third reading calendar, where it will be voted up or down.

By a 26-3 vote, the Senate also approved SB201, a second gun-rights bill sponsored by Madsen. It now goes to the House.

The bill would prohibit the government from confiscating lawfully owned weapons in the event of a declared emergency, including from people with concealed weapons permits.

Madsen said he realized the need for the bill after seeing news reports of guns being taken from New Orleans residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Disarming innocent citizens, he said, left them defenseless.

Sen. Pat Jones, D-Salt Lake, said she had a hard time understanding how the bill would make people safer during a disaster. And Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, questioned why lawmakers should take away a power of the governor and other authorities they might feel is needed in a disaster.

But Madsen said that when "your 911 services isn't going to do you any good," the responsibility for protecting loved ones will rest with gun owners.

He said his bill provides that "when times get really tough, the government can't step in and make it worse" for law-abiding citizens by taking away their means of protection.

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