Private property and guns

Utahns who struggle with their Legislature's insistence that concealed weapon holders should be permitted to tote guns into public schools, university campuses and some other public buildings were, undoubtedly, pleased with a recent Utah Supreme Court ruling that gives heft to private employers' policies to ban guns from the workplace.

The ruling centered on three employees of America Online Inc., who were fired from the company's Ogden call center in 2000 after they transferred guns between vehicles in the company parking lot. The company maintained the three men were fired for violating its "Workplace Violence Prevention Policy." The three men filed a lawsuit claiming they were wrongfully terminated because their right to possess guns was protected by the 2nd Amendment.

The court, in upholding a lower court decision, ruled that AOL had the right to fire the men because of Utah's at-will employment law. In a unanimous ruling, the court held that "the mature at-will employment law in the state of Utah rejects the idea that, in the face of a freely entered-into agreement to the contrary, an employee has the right to carry a firearm on his employer's premises."

While the court's ruling does not apply to public buildings or property, it furthers debate of what the opinion describes as "an evolving discussion about the role of firearms in our society."

The AOL case illustrates the considerable tug between private property rights and the 2nd Amendment. The Utah Supreme Court's reading of the state law indicates that "the Legislature has purposefully declined to give the right to keep and bear arms absolute pre-eminence over the right to regulate one's own private property," the ruling said. This ruling is a boon to private employers to craft gun policy as they see fit.

While the Deseret Morning New supports the rights of private property owners and employers to establish their own rules regarding guns on their property or places of work, we struggle to comprehend the rationale of Utah's laws that permit concealed weapon holders to carry guns in a number of public venues. Public opinion polls conducted over a number of years have consistently held that a majority of Utahns don't want concealed weapons in public schools and other public facilities.

When will the wishes of the "owners" of these facilities — Utah taxpayers — start to resonate with members of the Utah Legislature?