Crist signs 'guns-to-work' bill

Gov. Charlie Crist has just signed the controversial bill (HB 503) prohibiting businesses from barring workers from bringing guns to work and leaving them in locked vehicles. Only employees with concealed weapons permits would be allowed. Businesses could also not post signs banning customers from doing the same.

And with that, the Florida Retail Federation and Florida Chamber of Commerce will be filing a lawsuit challenging the law, scheduled to go into effect July 1. More on the suit here.

Comments

[Disgusted Republican]

He is a pandering a**.
SWITCH PARTIES!!!

Does Cristi believe in anything? As soon as a disgruntled worker kills someone with a gun they were storing in their car, he'll be the first to push for banning weapons in business parking lots!

Hell. Hand. Basket.

You think if a disgruntled employee wanted to bring a gun to work in his car, they wouldn't have in the past and this bill will change anything??

When a person with a concealed weapon permit goes to their car and gets his gun and starts shooting people, then you can criticize the bill.

Again, what problem did this legislation address?

Charlie did the right thing, guns in the hands of law abiding citizens is a good thing, the bad guys will have them anyway so let the people have their right of self defence everywhere that is reasonable.

If you wish don't get a licence to carry a fire arm and if you or you family are attacked call 911, they will respond ASAP. Hope it's not to late for you.

Gun owner

Charlie did the right thing, guns in the hands of law abiding citizens is a good thing, the bad guys will have them anyway so let the people have their right of self defense everywhere that is reasonable.

If you wish don't get a licence to carry a fire arm and if you or you family are attacked call 911, they will respond ASAP. Hope it's not to late for you.

Gun owner

This makes me bitter.

Woo-hoo. Big surprise. Charlie Crist stands for nothing substantive and forgets the actual "people" of Florida in order to cave to Marion Hammer.

[Don Mott]

I know I feel a lot safer knowing that property owners rights are trampled on for a bill that does nothing to protect employees. Think you can get to your locked car and retrieve your weapon before someone harms your fellow employees? I doubt it. The cops will probably be there before you get the car door unlocked. If you make it that far.

[Dale]

This is one of the stupidest things the Governor and legislature of Flori-duh has ever done.
Business is against it.
The voters are against it.
The courts are against it.
Remember Bushes Terri Schiavo law?
This is just as wrong.

When are Republicans going to realize that this will be NEGATIVELY used against them this November?! The Florida Dems are chomping at the bit to start printing the mail pieces... remember Sheri McInvale?! FDP used HER guns vote against her. Hell, Bryan Miller is already using the guns vote against Rep. Domino.

Wake up, R's... this is NOT good for you for re-election. Just because the NRA screams loudly and sends a lot of emails doesn't mean that they represent the greater amount of your constituents.

Beware...

Anyone want to take a wager on how many seats Republicans lose in November?

With crap like this, I say 8-9...

FDP Wunderkind Steve Schale is frothing at the mouth...

[KC]

Great...we're reverting to a Wild Wild West mentality. I'll get my six-shooter and saddle up my horse...

[Bob]

Let's see... Vegas-style slots...guns at work...legalized prostitution and marijuana should be up next.

The Tan Man sounds like a civil libertarian in disguise.

[Brent]

All it takes is one of these so called "law abiding citizens" to have a bad day and them BAM!!!! Another office shooting. Idiots!!!!

[Tingler]

I expect a lot more armed teens this summer as car burgler is what a lot of kids consider their "summer job". What good will a gun do you if it's locked in your car while you're at work? Chuck Heston didn't need a handgun in his chariot on the set of "The Ten Commandments" neither do you...

[Rodger]

Oh No! there goes the neighborhood. when something goes wrong lets all remember that christ is an accessory to the crime.

Guns are not the answer....Crist is not the answer....this is not the wild wild west

[Lee Ann]

Just imagine if there was no concealed weapons law and guns were not available to law abiding citizens.

CRIME WOULD BE TEN FOLD IN PARADISE!

DIAL 911 AND SEE HOW LONG IT TAKES TO GET THE SHERIFF DEPT TO RESPOND; LET ALONE ANSWER YOUR EMERGENCY CALL!

THE OUT OF CONTROL CRIME IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND PHILADELPHIA IS SO HIGH, BECAUSE THE GUN LAWS ARE SO STRICT.

[Revenge of McCain]

I hope McCain rescues FL from the Prom King (queen) and picks little Fidel as his Veep on the Repub ticket. He will surely be exposed for what he is....I'm not sure what he is.. .. he's not sure either! Yup the perfect politician - Florida Style!

Badges! We don't need any stinken badges! WE got our own guns.
Thank God for the second amendment, thats the amendment that supports the first amendmend folks. 911 is great if someone isn't crashing down your door so if you don't want a gun, then don't have one, but my life is worth something!

Charlton Heston Forever!!!

Corks are popping at FDP tonight. Karen, there's your wedge issue. And Charlie, there's your sign...

[Dave]

Disgruntled workers don't care about the law (they will have a gun in their briefcase rather than their car). So this law is great.

CHARLIE... I am FINALLY proud of you for something... Thanks buddy!

GOD BLESS CHUCK HESTON... ANGELS WERE BEHIND THIS

Hey, look, the RPOF staffers arrived!

[Ignatius]

Dale 5:02,

Explain to me how "voters are against it" when there are (according to the article) 487,000 CCW permit holders in Florida.

By statute, all of these permit holders are eligible to vote (over 18, non-felon) and I guarantee nearly every one of these 487,000 individuals is registered to vote.

[Dave W]

This doesn't seem like a good idea, thus continuing my bewilderment at how things function down here. Let's see how long until someone dies from this. The over/under is 3 weeks. I'm taking the under.

And Lee Ann, do you have any proof at all, or just coincidental statistics? Because I study this stuff frequently and gun laws are not the cause of high crime; societal, pyschological, and cultural (you know what I mean) factors are more important in creating high crime. Criminals can get guns. How does this law stop that? Or how does having a gun in the car help when you're at work?

[Ross P. Alander]

Governor you ought to be ashamed for your pandering to the NRA. This is a sad sad day for Florida. Our only hope is that someone will challenge this infringement on business owners property rights. I am embarassed to be a Florida resident. Sorry, sorry, sorry! Another one term governor perhaps.
Ross
Tampa

[CP]

Yeeeee Haw!! Heck, they should just let us have guns inside work. It's not going to do any good in the car. Then when my fellow employee makes me angry, I can just shoot some holes in him. Also, I think they can pry the gun out of Heston's cold dead hand now.

[Steve]

Good for Christ, stand for something...It takes guts to make decisions. Have any of you read the Constitution and our right to bear arms?? unfortunately there will always be idiots that prey on people..thats exactly why you don't strip a citizen of his right to bear arms and protect himself and his family.

[jay (gunowner)]

i cannot believe that our state rulers have wasted their efforts on thsi stupid issue when property taxes and insurance are killing us more than gun control or lack of gun control.

Respond to our reall issues you stupid idiots !!!

[steve]

The law is intended to protect the right of individuals to have the weapon to and from work.. I wonder if you cry babies would feel the same while you or a family member is raped at gun point or your wife or children were harmed by a bad guy.

You are likely the same people giving money to the panhandlers on the median thinking your helping them.

Try to see the big picture..there is alot more information if you take your blinders off.

[Marc]

Gotta love those one-sided Republicans, marching lock step like a bunch of Nazi's. God, Guns and Gays that is all the Republicans are good for. Let's get some Dems or Independents in office so we can fix our Taxes, Insurance and Energy issues. God Help us!

[Simon]

Dale, it doesn't matter who is against it. The Constitution is for it and that is what we listen to. People mis-understand why guns are necessary despite the fact that they watch and read (yeah, right) the news. I'd rather have a gun in my hand than a dispatch operator on the phone.

[Dave]

You Floridians sure are a scared bunch. Seriously, what do you think is going to happen? Cowards. Go practice voting. The country can't afford your incompetent boobery in another election.

[chester]

You can either be a victim in life or learn to defend yourself and enjoy freedom as our forefathers intended.

[Billie]

Ok, so you have a gun in your vehicle way out in the parking lot, and something goes down inside your work place. Ok, so you can manage to get out of the building to your car, retrive your weapon, re-enter the building, confront the bad guy, and then shoot the bad guy. How do you justify self defense to a jury? How do you justify being in fear for your life, once you have removed yourself from the building and then chose to re-enter? This is not about being protected while at work as much as it is of having protection to and from your home.

[JM]

To Mr Alander if you you are embarrassed to be a Floridian maybe you should move back to where you came from.And if you were born here maybe you should move.Just another thing for the Dems to bad mouth Reps over.If the old HE COON had passed the bill it would have been ok.He was a hunter and had guns.Just because a person has a gun and a permit doesn't mean he is crazy and going to use it.I know the bleeding heart liberal Dems want you to believe otherwise.Can you imagine if a law abiding citizen with a gun was at the schools where we had the shootings and he killed the CRIMINAL.Would he be a hero or would you liberals want to press charges against him for shooting a criminal.The problem in this country is not the guns.We don't punish the criminals when they do use one.Remember the criminal will always have a way of killing you a defenseless person.If not a gun then a knife or bow and arrow or maybe a plain old brick or rock.We do not strongly enforce the gun laws we do have.And then we get some fancy lawyer to plea bargain a deal.So when a criminal comes breaking down your door to rob you or whatever,see if you can plea bargain with him or them just before they kill you.

[nick]

Dave: Just what we need is another loud mouth over opinionated, know it all New Yorker to listen to. Why is there 10 million of you greasy morons living here? beat it. No one appreciates your opinion..You people make good Pizza. Big Woop.

[Marc]

I just don't understand why all you loudmouthed pussies are so scared that you need to keep a gun with you at work. For Gods, sake how many workplace shootings happen each week? Four or five shooting each week? What most people forget is that 95% of shootings are driven by anger or passion. Its almost a guarantee that some pissed of employee grabs the gun in his car and takes out his boss and half of the other employees as well. If that gun was 'at home' it would give this angry individual time to cool off. Next stop, give guns to each teacher in public schools, that way they can just shoot unruly kids.

[Lana]

I love the comments against this. "Oh someone will bring one into work". If they are that determined they would do so whether it was legal or not. This way law abiding citizens can defend themselves.

An armed society is a polite society.

[Jim Shorts]

Can prison guard bring their guns to work! How about public school teachers? How about people that work at the State Capital? Watch out Charley, your secretary may be packing heat. I bet this law will not allow this to happen.

[D.Blue]

But, you can't take a gun to where the GOVERNOR works.
Talk about your double standard...

[Kyle]

Did someone bring the bill to Charlie to sign? Don't tell me he made it back to Tally finally. This Governor sucks. The worst thing McCocaine could do is select him as a snorting, uh, running mate.

[Lone Ranger]

Dude- I pack everyday. Tonto had better not tick me off.

[D.Blue]

Remember, Charlie Crist once dated Katherine Harris.
This should be a surprise to NOBODY.
Now Charlie, why don't you give a Half-Billion Tax dollars to the CSX railroad................
I think that we need a new state government..............

[Steph]

Geez, Chester you must be one of our oldest retirees if you've been around long enough to have had a conversation with them and KNOW what our founding fathers intended. I think the spirit of the second amendment goes back to an outdated time and place where people lived remotely which made it more difficult for law enforcement. That's why our founding fathers gave us the "necessary and proper" clause to give the constitution the flexibility for things they couldn't even imagine in their lifetimes such as airplanes, trains, gangs, domestic violence, school shootings, etc.. You're right, the headlines do cover a lot of the bad stuff like children getting killed in their homes. Seems that death doesn't care whether the gun owner was "law abiding" or not.Seems like the last headline I saw with someone defending himself against a crime with a weapon, heended up shooting himself in the leg. And for Lee Ann, the statistics show that a gun is more likely to get used AGAINST the owner then against an intruder. Shame on your Crist. We're going to have a perfect storm with guns being allowed at work and massive layoffs coming. The timing could not be better.

For Ignatious and the others who seem to get all their information from the NRA, here are the polling results for the guns to work law:

[quote]The poll of 600 likely voters, conducted by Tel Opinion Research on January 31 and February 1, 2008, indicated that
61 percent of voters believe, even after the passage of Amendment 1, that Florida needs more property tax reform.
77 percent of voters support a limit on government collected revenue to stop escalating spending.
80 percent of voters support a business owner’s right to decide if employees can bring a gun on their property. [/quote]
Source:http://www.flchamber.com/mx/hm.asp?id=nr080207
Republican lawmakers will lose their jobs over this and other blunders come election time.