A Florida bill that would make it a felony offense for an employer to ban employees from keeping guns at work in their car trunks has an insurer group and a safety organization shaking their heads.

HB 129, sponsored by State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, "seems so nonsensical--it seems like a horrible public policy," Joseph Annotti, senior vice president, Public Affairs, for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America told National Underwriter. "It would surprise me if this has any political legs at all."

He added that Georgia, Alabama and neighboring states "would be putting up welcome signs for Florida businesses who decided they could no longer employ people there or comply with that law. I think it would be very damaging to the Florida economy, not to mention the public safety issue."

Diane Hurns, public relations manager for the American Society of Safety Engineers, said she believed the bill has a "70-30 percent chance" of not passing.

Ms. Hurns said the bill "flies against everything that many occupational safety and health professionals are working for--to increase safety in the workplace."

The ASSE said in a letter addressed to Rep. David Simmons, R-Orlando, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that it opposes HB 129. The Des Plaines, Ill.-based ASSE said the bill has been tabled for reworking, but if it passes, other states may consider such legislation.

The letter read, "Our members are safety, health and environmental professionals who are given the responsibility to make sure workers are able to go home safe and healthy from their jobs each day. Guns on company property--even if only in the trunks of cars--make that responsibility much more difficult."

According to the letter, in 2003 workplace homicides increased faster than any other cause of a worker fatality--with 5,559 deaths from job-related injuries. Of these fatalities, 631 died as a result of a workplace homicide. The majority of the deaths were due to shootings--and 58 were from stabbings.

A summary analysis said the bill "provides that a person or entity may not establish, maintain or enforce a policy or rule that has the effect of prohibiting the otherwise lawful possession of a firearm that is locked in or locked to a motor vehicle that is on any premises set aside for the parking of motor vehicles."

Ms. Hurns noted that anyone aware a gun is locked in a car can break into that car and take the gun, which could increase workplace violence.

According to the summary, Oklahoma and Alaska have passed laws prohibiting "persons and businesses from banning the otherwise lawful possession of a firearm in a locked vehicle in a parking lot." The Oklahoma statute, it said, has not taken effect.

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Insurer, Safety Groups Take Aim Against Fla. Gun Bill

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