OPSOMMER TO INTRODUCE "FIREARM OWNERSHIP EMPLOYEE PROTECTION ACT"
8/17/2009 4:32:05 PM
State Rep. Paul Opsommer announced today that he will be introducing a firearm ownership protection package, a group of bills designed to ensure that Michigan citizens who lawfully own firearms are not discriminated against in the hiring process or end up being fired because they are simply exercising their 2nd Amendment Rights.

"Unless firearm ownership is directly related to an established and bona fide occupational requirement for the job there is no reason for an employer to ask questions about whether a potential employee owns or knows how to use a gun", said Opsommer. "We also need to ensure that employers can not create over-reaching company policies that violate the Constitution and provide an excuse to terminate employees whose political views differ from those of management. People who lawfully own firearms and are following appropriate storage laws should not lose the ability to transport them in privately owned vehicles."

Such laws have been passed as recently as July in the case of Arizona, and have been passed in ten total states such as Florida and Oklahoma. The law was upheld there by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit after Oklahoma first passed it in response to a dozen employees being fired from their jobs at the Weyerhaeuser paper mill.

"A person who legally owns a firearm needs to have a way to store it as they are going to and from work, home, hunting, or any other lawful purpose", said Opsommer. "People shouldn't have to feel that their cars are going to be searched just because they told their boss they are going hunting after work."

Rep. Opsommer expects the bills to be introduced this week.

Quoted:
"People who lawfully own firearms and are following appropriate storage laws should not lose the ability to transport them in privately owned vehicles."


What if you are assigned a company vehicle?  Seems like you would still be out of luck.

Raffi

Quoted:
"People who lawfully own firearms and are following appropriate storage laws should not lose the ability to transport them in privately owned vehicles."


What if you are assigned a company vehicle?  Seems like you would still be out of luck.

Raffi

Thank you for your email regarding Representative Opsommer's bill prohibiting employment discrimination based on firearm ownership.  I have done some research and see that the bill has already been introduced and placed in the Labor Committee.  Although I am not member of this committee, I will watch for this bill to progress to the House floor for a vote.  And should I be given the opportunity to cast my vote on this bill, I will certainly keep your support in mind.  

Please continue to keep me informed of issues or bills that are important to you.

Warm Regards,

Dian Slavens
State Representative
21st District

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I would rather they restrict the background check to the employers. They don't have to now what we have registered!

Quoted:
If somebody was pissed at me and knew that I liked guns they could report me to security that they heard I have a gun in my car.  They search my vehicle, bam I am out of a job and on the street.