Gun rights bill OK'd

A second gun rights bill has passed the Utah House.

SB78 by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain, would allow anyone who can legally own a gun to take that gun with them to work or any other parking lot and store that gun in their car out of sight.

Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield, the House sponsor of the bill, said it is a response to a situation several years ago in Ogden when three employees of AOL, "at the far reaches" of the work parking lot transferred some guns between cars in preparation to go target shooting that night. Security cameras caught them, and per a company policy the three were fired the next day, said Oda.

Madsen's bill says that companies can't prohibit the employee bringing a gun in his car to a parking lot.

"Employees should not have to be disarmed from the time they leave home to the time they return home" from work, said Oda.

The House has already passed a bill that would allow a person to keep in a car a loaded gun, as long as it was out of sight.

—Bob Bernick Jr.