A company which is legally allowed to prohibit firearms on its premises, or refrain from hiring gun-owners, is simply enjoying the same rights which you and I possess as individuals.
Mike, no offense intended but that's probably the screwiest statement I've ever read on a gun forum. It's a remarkable accomplishment given the antigravitational nature of gun forums and their ability to roll the marbles in every direction simultaneously.
But to give you the benefit of the doubt I decided to test what you said about a company having the same rights as individuals.
So after I read your message I telephoned one of those companies and asked it to marry me. I know I'm already married but my wife probably wouldn't mind sharing me with the telephone company on weekends and evenings. It took some time to get to a real telephone operator but persistence won the day. I carefully explained that I've always had a crush on the phone company and finally got up the nerve to propose.
The operator asked if I was nuts. She said: "You can't marry a company and a company can't marry you." I told her what you said about companies "enjoying the same rights which you and I possess as individuals," but she wasn't impressed. When I told her I just read that in a gun forum, she said "Big surprise" and hung up on me.
Then I called Ben & Jerry's and scaled down my expectations a little. Maybe you meant I should woo the company a little before getting serious. But when I asked the local store how long it had a drivers license and where it went to school, the kid who answered the phone hung up on me. More than once.
Mike, no matter what company I asked about how it exercised the same rights you and I possess as individuals the response was pretty nearly the same. It seems that only you and other experts believe that businesses are just individuals in legal drag.
My heart is broken and my illusions are shattered. I figured at the very least I might get a date with the phone company and shoot the breeze with Ben or Jerry over a Cherry Garcia flipflop. I'll never believe anything posted on a gun forum again.
Pity. I thought that The High Road might consider applying for social security, getting vaccinated, voting in the next election, running for President, or auditioning for
So You Think You Can Dance.
All is not lost. Maybe you can get the Constitution of the U.S. revised to read "the right of the business to keep and bear arms" and substitute the word "business" for "people" throughout. It's preamble could be changed to fit your notions too. Currently it reads this way:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
So it looks as if the Constitution does not give businesses the same rights that people possess as individuals. In fact among the Earthlings it looks as if people are considered special beings, distinct from businesses, and that you've got the whole thing muddled in the midst of some really creative intellectual gibberish. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Maybe next year, after President Obama imposes change we can believe in?
