More states are passing laws
that allow firearms to be left in
parked cars. Should you worry?
By Kim Fernandez
J
oshua Stone stopped his car in a College Station, Texas, parking garage exit lane in early
February, apparently to rummage for something in the vehicle. Drivers behind him grew
impatient, as they often do, and honked their horns to get him to move along. Stone didn’t
take the noisy nudging very well: News reports said he got out of his car ready for a fight and
brandishing a gun.
Thankfully, the 23-year-old didn’t hurt anyone, and
police arrived to charge him with disorderly conduct
and unlawfully carrying a weapon, but it’s the kind of
scenario that’s a nightmare for parking facility own-
ers, managers, and frontline workers. What happens
when someone shows up with a weapon?
Workplace shootings are a real concern for business
owners. A study by the University of North Carolina
found that oces that allow guns on site are five times
more likely to experience homicides than those that
ban firearms. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says
that in 2010 (the latest year for which statistics are
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available), 78 percent of workplace homicides were
shootings; that year, 405 people were shot dead at work.
Those numbers—and the resulting media cover-
age—are largely behind the implementation of so-called
guns at work laws around the country. And while those
laws may put many business owners’ minds at ease,
they’ve had the opposite eect for those in parking.
Guns at Work
According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,
a San Francisco-based organization that works on “the
promotion of smart gun laws that save lives,” 22 U.S.
states have passed guns at work laws since the first
ones were written in 2005. While each has its own
nuances, the basics are the same: Employees must be
allowed to keep guns in their vehicles while they’re at
work even if their employers ban weapons on the job.
The Law Center says the trend may spell very bad
news for parking professionals. “The more guns that
are around, especially in public places, including private
spaces open to the public, the more potential there is
for accidents or intentional use of a gun that could end
in an injury or death,” says Senior Sta Attorney Laura
Cutilletta. “I certainly think it’s a cause for concern.”
IN THE LOT
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There is currently
no federal law that restricts the
open carry of firearms in public, excluding
regulations specific to property owned or
operated by the government. Gun laws are
left to the states:
California, Florida, Illinois, and Washington,
D.C., prohibit any open carrying of firearms
in public.
New York, South Carolina, and Texas prohibit
open carrying of handguns but not of long guns
(rifles, shotguns, etc.).
Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey prohibit
open carrying of long guns but not of handguns.
Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma,
Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Utah allow open carry
of handguns by those with a permit or license.
While guns at work laws are designed to let workers
leave weapons in their parked cars, they do vary. Some
only mandate it on employer-owned lots; some apply only
to drivers who have carry permits; and some say guns are
allowed in parked cars anywhere at any time by anyone.
“The most broad version of this law is that you can’t
preclude anybody who comes onto your property, if
you’re a business, from keeping a gun in their car in the
parking lot,” says Cutilletta.
As more of these laws are passed, should you be
concerned? That depends who you believe.
Parking Concerns
“From a practical standpoint, this means almost noth-
ing,” says Steve Wolf, author of The Smart Citizen’s
Guide to Concealed Carry and owner of Tactical Choices,
which oers firearms and self-defense training in Austin,
Texas. “The number of guns in cars compared with the
number of cars parked is infinitesimal. You can probably
park cars for 10 years and not come across a firearm.”
Others agree. “The reality is that people who are
likely to cause trouble are criminals who by definition
don’t follow the laws anyway,” says Chicago attorney
Chris Shepherd, who studies gun laws. “They are already
armed, and they’re already coming into businesses with
their guns.”
“I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for eight years,”
he says. “Criminals are, by definition, people who don’t
follow the law.”
“There’s no reason to be nervous,” adds David Kopel,
research director, Independence Institute, and adjunct
professor of advanced constitutional law, Denver Univer-
sity Sturm College of Law. “These laws have existed in
many states for years, and there have been no problems.”
He may be right—there are no readily-available statis-
tics on guns in parked cars. Still, not everyone thinks laws
that allow weapons on the parking lot are a good thing.
“This started a few years ago,” says Cutilletta. “Some-
one took a gun to work and was disciplined for it, and it
got a lot of publicity and gave rise to these laws. When
one or two states do something, it becomes a trend. The
gun lobby was pushing for this particular law and had
model language they sent around to legislators.”
Kopel says the laws help protect employees and
drivers’ rights. “The decision is that people have a right
to carry guns in most states, usually after a licensing
process that involves a fingerprint background check
and safety training,” he says. “People also recognize this
as a social matter—people commute. It’s not like we
live across the street from the factory where we work.”
He says gun owners aren’t always looking for confron-
tation, either. “In some areas of the country, it’s pretty
common to work until 3 p.m. during hunting season and
then go out hunting and have fun after work,” he says.
The National Rifle Association—among the biggest
gun lobbies in the U.S.—didn’t respond to interview
requests for this story. But Cutilletta says the push for
guns at work laws seems to have slowed.
“States that are interested in doing this have done
it,” she says. “It seems to, hopefully, have spread as far
as it’s going to, but you can never be sure.”
Discharges
Cutilletta points out that even in states where guns
are allowed inside vehicles in any parking facility, they
must be stored according to state laws; in most cases,
that’s unloaded in a locked container. That might help
alleviate parking owners’ fears that guns in cars could
be stolen and used to commit crimes on site.
“Parking attendants have a possibility of being in a
car that contains a firearm,” says Wolf. “But if they’ve
been trained, they know they have no business touching
property in the vehicle other than the keys, the wheel,
and the transmission shifter. The temptation for theft
may exist, but parking companies have to have liability
insurance to protect against theft.”
Background checks of employees are also critical,
he says. “The theft of a firearm may be a higher order
of crime than the theft of other property, especially if
the background of the person parking the car included
any felony convictions,” he says.
And, he points out, modern weapons make accidental
discharges of guns not in someone’s hands pretty un-
likely. “Modern firearms don’t go o by themselves,” he
says. “There’s not a risk of accidental discharge unless
it’s touched.”
The most broad
version of this
law is that you
can’t preclude
anybody who
comes onto
your property,
if you’re a
business, from
keeping a gun
in their car in
the parking lot.
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Guns at Work Laws, State-by-State
State
Year
Enacted What the Law Does
Alaska 2005 Requires all businesses, property owners, and tenants to allow firearms in parking areas.
Alabama 2013 Requires all property owners to allow firearms in parking areas.
Arizona 2009 Requires employers, businesses, tenants, and property owners to allow firearms in parking areas.
Florida 2008 Requires employers to allow firearms in custome, employee, or invitee vehicles in parking areas.
Georgia 2008 Requires employers to allow firearms in employee vehicles in parking areas.
Illinois 2013 Requires any private property owner, except a private residence, to allow concealed carry license holders to possess and
store firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Indiana 2010 Requires employers to allow firearms in employee vehicles in parking areas.
Kansas 2010 Requires employers to allow firearms in employee vehicles in parking areas.
Kentucky 2006 Requires any employer, owner, or lessee to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Louisiana 2008 Requires property owners, tenants, business owners, and employers to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Maine 2011 Requires employers to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Minnesota 2003 Requires property owners and operators to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Missouri 2013 Requires state employers to allow firearms in parking areas.
Mississippi 2006 Requires employers to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
North Carolina 2013 Requires state government agencies, k-12 schools, and universities and colleges to allow firearms in parking areas.
North Dakota 2011 Requires landowners to allow firearms in customer, employee, and inviteevehicles in parking areas.
Nebraska 2009 Requires property owners and operators to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Oklahoma 2005 Requires any person, business owner, tenant, or employer to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Tennessee 2013 Provides that a concealed carry permit holder may transport and store a firearm or ammunition in his or her vehicle in any
public or private parking area.
Texas 2011 and
2013
Requires employers to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas. And, in 2013, prohibits an institution of higher education
from prohibiting a student who is a concealed carry permit holder from transporting or storing a handgun or ammunition in
a vehicle on a street, driveway, or parking area located on the campus.
Utah 2009 Requires any person or entity to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
Wisconsin 2011 Requires property owners to allow firearms in vehicles in parking areas.
SOURCE: LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE
Parking Facility Rights
Whether privately-owned parking lots have to comply
with guns at work laws is a bit murky. Most experts agree
that municipal, hospital, university, and airport facilities
are subject to regulations that govern those organiza-
tions: if the municipal or campus lot is in an area where
firearms are allowed, they’re also permitted in parked
cars. But owners of private garages and lots may have a
leg to stand on if they want to ban guns.
“As a private property owner, you’re free to do what
you want,” says Kopel. “Many state laws say that if
you’re going to forbid guns on private property or at a
business that’s open to the public, you have to post that
there are no guns or guns of a certain size. It’s really a
state-by-state thing, and the key is to consult an attorney
in your own state.”
It’s also important to bear in mind that parking at-
tendants may be permitted by state law to carry firearms
and parking operations need to have written policies on
firearms. Wolf cautions that regulations about training
and permits still apply where guns are allowed: a park-
ing worker in a state that bans open carry can’t bring a
gun to work.
Finally, Cutilletta says, lot and garage owners should
remember that overarching rules about guns supersede
parking-specific regulations. “All of these laws, no matter
how broad, require that it be a lawful possession to begin
with,” she says. “If you’re breaking the law in some other
way—you’re prohibited from possessing a gun or you’re
storing it in a way not in keeping with state law—guns
at work laws do not apply and the property owner is
able to take action.”
KIM FERNANDEZ is
editor of The Parking
Professional. She
can be reached at
fernandez@parking.
org.
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