from Tampa news paper columnist Daniel Ruth:
THEY'RE ARMED, DANGEROUS AND NEXT DOOR
By DANIEL RUTH
Some years ago, long after a co-worker had left the Ministry of
Truth, a number of us learned that, during this person's tenure
among us, the individual frequently was armed and dangerous in
the workplace.
If there is such a thing as a retroactive, post-traumatic, primal
scream/crawling into a fetal position/whimpering with delayed
fear syndrome -- the idea that many of us once worked alongside
not only a complete crazy nut job, but a complete crazy nut job
with a GUN certainly qualifies.
Or, put another way, if you ever needed a reason to install the
mother of all panic rooms, consider this certifiably insane
statistic: At the moment, across our fair beloved state, there
are 354,552 Floridians with concealed weapons permits walking
among us.
Let's face it, you just know at least a couple thousand of those
folks running around with their hidden weapons are probably more
unhinged than Edgar Allen Poe meets Rudolf Hess.
A SIMPLE TEST
Or perhaps they are directly behind you in traffic. Brrrrrrr.
Which brings us rather neatly to state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Tea
Cup Poodle, the legislative supernumerary of the National Rifle
Association, who is the leading lotion boy on behalf of the gun
lobby to deny employers the right to bar workers from keeping
their weapons in their car while on company property.
How deranged is this?
TAKE THIS SIMPLE TEST.
Look around your workplace. Chances are there are one, or two, or
three, or more co-workers you and your colleagues have often
joked about as being the leading candidate to bring an AK-47 to
the office someday.
Or maybe that Dilbert from Hell is -- you!
And now Dennis Baxley, R-You Talkin' To Me?, wants to make it
just that much easier for your resident lunatic in the next
cubicle to turn Amalgamated Widgets into a killing field.
We live in an imperfect world -- filled with very, very strange
people who hear voices; who have issues; who really don't like
you just ... because.
And many of these people are down the hall -- seething,
fulminating, over in personnel -- filling out a job application.
PERFECT WORLD
Purely, as a general principle, can you make some kind of
abstract Second Amendment argument that law-abiding citizens
ought to be able to take their bazookas, their Uzis, their
50-caliber armor-piercing rocket launchers with them wherever
they go, including onto the grounds of Acme Nose Tweezer
International?
Well ... OK, whatever.
To be sure, in a perfect world where there was no workplace
violence, where some employees weren't more unhinged than Son of
Sam meets Lex Luthor, it would be fine if people drove into the
company parking lot with their NRA-approved death ray, or their
surface-to-air missile, or their Gatling Gun in the trunk. Who
would care?
However, if the private sector can regulate other forms of
employee behavior, such as smoking in the workplace, why can't
employers also establish rules governing the presence of lethal
weapons on private property?
There's no question the Florida Legislature, a subsidiary of the
National Rifle Association, will pass Baxley's Fortune 500 meets
"Six Feet Under" bill.
One question for Baxley, who does happen to have a conflict of
interest in his legislation since he is an Ocala funeral
director:
If as a result of the representative's legislative actions an act
of workplace violence leads to the murders of workers, would
Dennis Baxley also be willing to create a NRA-funded compensation
account for the surviving families?
Didn't think so.