When I was hired at my current job, one of the first things I did was flip through the company policy manual looking for a firearms policy. I didn't see anything addressing the issue. So I carried.
At a social event, later, where a few of my coworkers were present, gun rights came up, and a discussion of ccw issues followed. I was asked point blank if I had my ccw, and if I carried. I answered honestly. "Even at work?" "Sometimes." In retrospect I probably should have either kept my mouth shut or lied.
A few weeks later one of the coworkers who had been present came to me to discuss the issue, saying she was "uncomfortable" with it. I replied that while I respected her opinion and feelings, I felt I was within my rights.
A day later she then showed me in the corporate policy manual that firearms were prohibited in the facility, and only allowed unloaded and locked in the parking lot. I honestly don't know if I missed that in my original review, or if the policy changed.
Two days after that I get called onto the carpet in my boss's office, and was issued a formal letter "for the record" telling me I was not to carry in the company facility. So now I don't.
The moral of that part of the story is to keep your mouth shut.
So does that mean that the right expressed in the 2nd Ammendment, or any of the other human rights, are only ideas we entertain when supporting them is painless
As for this part, I disagree that my agreeing not to carry means that I am any less principled or that I have compromised my values or beliefs. The rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights expressly limit the government. All of those rights, however, may be freely bargained for in a contractual private relationship. After all, isn't the most valuable human commodity our labor (time, freedom)? And isn't that the first thing we give up when we agree to work for someone? Yes, I have the right to do whatever I want tomorrow - stay home and read a book, go on a road trip, go shooting - BUT if I want a job and a paycheck, I have to go to work. I don't have freedom of speech while on the clock, and I don't have the right to be free from searches. I have given all of that up in exchange for a paycheck. By your standards, about the only way to be truly free would be to be self-employed. That is something I would like to work towards, but unfortunately not something everyone can do, particularly in some professions.