Sunday, July 06, 2008  
 
On July 2, 2008, Governor Bobby Jindal signed Senate Bill 51 into law.
SB 51 allows all law-abiding employees, invitees, and customers to keep firearms locked in their vehicles while parked on publicly accessible parking lots, unless state or federal law already prohibits the possession of firearms on the premises, or the vehicle in question is company-owned or leased. While SB 51 primarily affects parking lots that are accessible to the general public, businesses which provide secure parking for its customers or employees (parking that is inaccessible to the general public) must also provide storage facilities, such as lockers, for their customers or employees to temporarily place their firearms, or provide alternative parking for customers or employees who wish to transport and store firearms in their private motor vehicles. That alternative parking area must be reasonably close to the secure parking area.  SB 51, now ACT 684, is effective 8/15/2008.

Any amendments were added? Does the law have penalties if the the employer fires you for a locked gun in your car?

Read the bill yourself here:
www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=501776

Basically, your employer has to let you store your gun in your car in the main lot or they have to provide a storage place at work, or they have to have a secondary lot nearby where you may have your weapon.  There are no penalties listed (the proposed penalty was amended out) but that just means it's up to the judge or jury to decide, which could potantially mean a stiffer penaty than had been originally proposed.

There are a few exceptions listed in the bill, but they will not apply to most places.

Kick ass. Vote well spent.

Is there a list of states with similar laws?

Does this apply to college parking lots?  LSU lots?

Quoted: Does this apply to college parking lots?  LSU lots?

Interesting question.  The law exempts places where you are not allowed to carry by state or federal law.  However, state law calls carrying inside of your own car a "constitutionally protected activity."  Looks like some future court case will definitively decide this one.  My own employer's lot falls within a "Gun Free School Zone" 1000 foot range, but I don't think that 1000 foot zone will stand up to the level of scrutiny that is sure to follow from the Heller ruling.

I am having a senior moment about section C.
".....................However, nothing in this Section shall prohibit an employer or business entity from adoting policies specifying that firearms stored in locked, privately-owned motor vehicles on property controlled by an employer or business entity be hidden from plain view or within a locked case or container within the vechicle."

Okay does this mean that if there is a written policy 'No Firearms"also means the parking lot is no weapons or does it mean that other parts of the place besides the parking area are off limits? Because if a written policy can keep you from storing(car) in the parking lot then this law is not worth the bytes saved to my computer.

No.  It means that they can require you to hide the weapon in your car either sipmly where it can't be seen or, if they choose, in a lock box.  This provision is intended either to placate the people who cower at the sight of guns or to prevent tempting car break-ins in the lot.  

The new law does nothing about any "No weapons at work" policies which prevent you from carrying INSIDE the place where you work.  I suppose that if you are a parking lot attendant, that would mean that you could store the weapon in your car on the lot, but you couldn't carry it outside of the car, IMHO.

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Quoted: height=8 Quoted: Does this apply to college parking lots?  LSU lots? The law exempts places where you are not allowed to carry by state or federal law.

From what understand from the concealed carry law, it is LSU's policy not to have guns on campus.  Whether or not that is a state or local law, I don't know.

You are not allowed, by law, to CARRY on LSU's campus.  Storing inside your car is a gray area - remember, state law DOES define having a firearm in your car as a constitutionally protected activity.  If you keep it there, out of sight, and don't go bragging about it to your friends, you'll have no problem.  If Campus Police find out and decide to give you a hard time, you'll have plenty of trouble.  I think you'd ulltimately prevail, but my opinion doesn't count in court.  You need to decide if it would be worth the rather large amount of time and money you'd have to spend to defend something like that.  

Also, considering the distance away from most campus buildings that you must park, a gun in the car would be virtually useless in any type of "active shooter" event like VA Tech.  By the time you ran to the car and ran back, the place would be swarming with cops and you'd likely be arrested as a suspect rather than have the chance to help defend your fellow students.  That's why it's a shame that the "carry on campus" bill failed.  If this is your main concern, you might want to rethink things.  If your main concern is that you live in or travel through a rather nasty part of town and that you want protection while doing so, then you might just go ahead and keep a gun in the car; but remember what I wrote before, the Campus Police may not take kindly to you  if they find out about it.