apollosmith said:
Well, they would carry no LEGAL weight, but you could certainly get fired for violating work policies. For many, the constitutional and moral right to defend oneself is more important than maintaining a job with an employer that has a feeble-minded, misdirected no-guns policies. Concealed is concealed.
ApolloSmith,
I was having this almost identical discussion with my dad last night. Except the topic wasn't one's right to self-defense but one's right to privacy. Apparently, as he was telling me, there is a current push to develop a national employee registry which will permit employers to input who has worked for them and why they were let go/quit/etc. In addition to that an employer will be allowed, based on your application for a job (you sign an agreement), to search that database for your previous employment records.
Now, at face-value, this makes a lot of sense. For example, it would be nice to know you aren't hiring a perp or something.
BUT during our discussion it occurred to me that a larger issue is at stake -- and it seems to apply to this discussion as well:
In Utah, and many other states, we have a "Right to Work". But if you also have the "Right to Privacy" and are then told that all employers in the state will refuse to hire you unless you sign the agreement, and thus sign away your Right to Privacy, then something has to give... you can't be compelled to sign away 1 Right in order to obtain the other Right -- it isn't logical!
From this perspective, then, the 2A would seem to be in the same position.
And what about the 1A amendment??? If the employer can make you sign away your 2A rights (at least while you are at work) along with your Right to Privacy then what's stopping them from making you sign an agreement stating you won't practice your 1A rights at work if you want to be employed there... including, you can't pray over your food at lunch-time (unless you eat out), you can't carry religious material in your backpack and read it on your breaks, you can't have little signs in your cubicle or office stating anything like "Families Forever", etc... where does it stop???
What do you think???