You're a small business owner ...

[Taurus 66]

Let say hypothetically you are a small business owner. Would you allow your employees to CCW on the job? Would you have any specific criteria outlined prior to carry?

 

[strat81]

It's not my business if they carry or not. The only limitation might be if it was someplace full of volatile, explosive widgets... say, a dynamite factory or storage facility (can a gunshot ignite dynamite?). You get the idea.

Also, if they were required to work in a clean room or something like that. They could have 12 guns, a carton of cigarettes, a bad of weed, and a dead hooker in the trunk of their car and I wouldn't care about that.

 

[chipp]

I am a small business owner and would allow employees to carry on the job.

<Would you have any specific criteria outlined prior to carry?>
We'll of course I'd have to be able to see it and maybe hold it if the employee let me.

I can't imagine anyone on here is going to say no to that.

 

[doubleg]

Sure I would.

 

[Lupinus]

I'd not only allow but activly encourage it.

And instead of a big sign saying no to CCW the sign would be welcoming them

 

[Declaration Day]

I would allow my employees to CCW. Currently though, my business partner and I do most of the work ourselves, and when we do hire somebody it's a part-time college kid who's not old enough to get a CCW.

 

['Card]

Depends.

If my insurance carrier specified (and many of them do) that as a condition of my policy, that my employees couldn't carry firearms while on my dime, and that requirement was spelled out in a legally-binding contract which I signed? Then no. No shootin' irons at work.

I may not like that kind of policy, but if I agreed to it, then I'm going to abide by it. Pretty simple equation, really. No insurance = No business. No business = no job for me and the employees. CCW'ing is nice. Paychecks are nice too.

 

[pistolman1974]

I'm a small business owner...and the only employee so all my employee's can carry.

Ok, seriously it doesn't matter, if i owned a large fortune 100 company I would still allow them to carry

 

[ZeSpectre]

If I trusted someone enough to hire them (which means I'm trusting them with my business, especially when it is a small business) then I trust them enough to allow CCW.

 

[Taurus 66]

[QUOTE='Card]No insurance = No business. No business = no job for me and the employees.[/QUOTE]

Would you have any specific criteria outlined prior to carry?

How about insurance companies which are more flexible to CCW based upon specific criteria? such as 21 years of age or older, proof of "valid" permit, "x" number of hours in gun safety courses, psychological background check, etc ...

Would this fly with some insurance companies?

 

[strat81]

The NRA offers insurance programs for individuals... do they offer commercial policies for businesses that allow CCW?

 

[geekWithA.45]

>>>Let say hypothetically you are a small business owner.

Yes, I was. Several times.


>>>Would you allow your employees to CCW on the job?

Yes, I did, consistent w/ applicable laws.

>>>>Would you have any specific criteria outlined prior to carry?

Being trustworthy in terms of judgement intentions was not only criteria to be armed in my presence, but to be hired in the first place.

Never hire a guy you wouldn't trust with a gun.

 

[NevadaDep]

Yes I would allow my employees to carry.

 

[morcoth]

I would encourage it, along with monthly "shoot the poop" company events, offsite lunch, range time, and probabaly a movie after that.

Where I work now (as an employee) I have a firearm in my desk, for those late nights. My bosses are cool about it.

Morcoth

 

[High Planes Drifter]

Im a small bussines owner. I have absolutely nothing against my employees carying. However, the line of work that we are in makes it difficult to carry. Its very physical, often crawling & lying on one side or another. I really dont think my employees are comfortable (from a physical standpoint) wearing while they're working. I do carry while working, but Im not usually doing what they're doing.

 

[wdlsguy]

I would neither encourage nor discourage it.

 

[orionengnr]

Would you have any specific criteria outlined prior to carry?

A valid CHL, CCW or whatever they call it in your state would be enough for me...

 

[thegriz]

sure

The more carrying permit holders the better. Sadly, none of mine want to.

I would offer to pay for their permits and their 1st pistol except I'm worried about liability.

 

[Mornard]

I wouldn't allow it...I'd require it!

 

['Card]

How about insurance companies which are more flexible to CCW based upon specific criteria?

Good question, but I honestly don't know. I really only have personal experience with insurance as it relates to two industries (construction and manufacturing) and I've seen those kinds of clauses several times in those sectors. They may not be as common for businesses like retail establishments.

And it isn't just the insurance angle on this issue. I've also seen firearms prohibited in general contractor/subcontractor agreements.

One more thing that deserves a mention... I deal with OSHA a lot (too often, frankly) in my professional life, and many OSHA employees have a pretty liberal perspective on things. (shocking, I know - government drones being liberals) There aren't any specific OSHA regulations that prohibit firearms in the workplace, but there is this little thing called the General Duty Clause. Basically it says that if the employer is aware of a recognized hazard, and does nothing to eliminate that hazard, then if someone gets seriously injured or killed on the jobsite, the employer can be held liable even if there wasn't a rule on the books about that particular hazard. Liable in this context meaning not just fines, but also potential criminal prosecution.

So I can easily imagine a situation where an employee was carrying a firearm at work, and the employer knew about it but allowed it. If that employee goes off the deep end and shoots a co-worker, then the employer could easily find himself well-and-truly screwed if some anti-gun OSHA inspector decided to nail him to the wall for it.


Now, having said all of that, I don't want anyone to interpret my opinion as being against guns in the workplace. On a personal level, I'm all for it. But there are a lot of risk management and insurance issues that a responsible employer has to take into account due to the current legal environment when he makes that decision regarding his company - and deciding not to allow his employees to carry guns at work may not mean that he's anti-gun at all. It might just mean that he's doing his best to protect his company and in the process, his employees.

 

[ezypikns]

Once again, reality rears it's ugly head.

If my insurance carrier specified (and many of them do) that as a condition of my policy, that my employees couldn't carry firearms while on my dime, and that requirement was spelled out in a legally-binding contract which I signed? Then no. No shootin' irons at work.

 

[sumpnz]

A condition of hiring would be the ability to obtain a CCW permit. If they didn't already have one I would include the cost of obtaining a CCW as a part of the benifit package. If they did I'd add that cost to any signing bonus, or pay for their renewal if that was coming up soon. Maybe even a class at a place similar to Gunsite (subject to repayment if the employee voluntarially left after less than a year).

'Course I'd also provide for Financial Peace University tuition for each employee too.

 

[El Tejon]

I am and I do. However, since I mainly hire college girls (a male now and then), none do (the gun culture in Indiana is decisively male). My full-time girl carries a "tactical folder" but it's to separate matter, not defend herself.

From 2001 to 2003 I had a secretrary from rural Northern Indiana where Hayzeus left his sandals. She carried a Smith J frame, but could kill you with a look, and did not even have to take the cigarette out of her mouth to do so. I first learned this when a civil client and I were discussing firearms and my upcoming trip to Texas in the lobby. She reached into her bag and produced her J frame, proclaiming "this is what I pack . . . honey."

I almost fell over out of embarrassment, but the client looked at it and said his wife had the same pistol. God Bless Indiana.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

CCW On The Job

Lest we become too bogged down in trivia, let's just "take it as read" that insurance is not a problem. And, yes, my wife and I have owned one business or another for the past 20 years.

With that out of the way . . .

A CCW is a good way to know that the guy on your payroll is as legal and law-abiding as it gets. Therefore, yes, I would encourage CCW.

More than that, I would fund a monthly range outing for the staff.

And while we're thinking along those lines, I think I'd like to have a rifle handy for each of the guys. Might have to have a locker for them, but I'd want them there.

I figure it this way: I work with a bunch of engineers. The brightest and best of them are all shooters. We have plenty of other programmers and tech writers who are all over the place, some shooters, some not. It's not like there's a scarcity of good talent out there. Might as well get the civic-minded ones workng with me.

So, as long as I'm going to have to screen the talent anyway, the CCW thing does some of my screening for me, affinity for firearms (at all) does another part, and as long as I'm going to advocate for one part of the Bill of Rights (free speech) I may as well advocate for the others.

There's another element to this.

You see, one person alone can accomplish something of value. Another person sharing that same purpose can accomplish more, and the "force" multipliers aren't linear. If you have an entire group, mutually supportive, sharing that same purpose, then much indeed can be accomplished.

See my earlier posting on organization outperforming individual ability.

A "bright" lad can argue anything. A wise person will argue for the more important things.

I can hire "brightness" anywhere. Hiring wisdom is harder.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

Sure, they can CCW on the job. People should be allowed to CCW EVERYWHERE they go IMO.