Federal Court Upholds Oklahoma Workers' Right to Guns in Cars

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/southcentral/2009/02/20/98063.htm

February 20, 2009

A federal appeals court has ruled that Oklahoma's law protecting employees' rights to have a guns in their locked vehicles at work is constitutional.

The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 3-0 to overturn a Tulsa federal judge's 2007 court order preventing enforcement of the law.

"We're pleased with the court's decision," said Charlie Price, a spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. "It was our opinion that the law is constitutional, and the court agreed with us today."

The appellate panel ruled that U.S. District Judge Terence Kern erred in deciding that Oklahoma's law - passed in two stages in 2004 and 2005 - was pre-empted by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The judges ruled that the law did not conflict with any OSHA standard.

"We disagree," the judges wrote in a 23-page decision. "OSHA is aware of the controversy surrounding firearms in the workplace and has consciously decided not to adopt a standard" banning firearms from the workplace.

FULL story at link.

[elocs]

1. Great news. I once worked with a nutjob who had a house full of guns.

The people at work would have been even more paranoid if he had been able to keep guns locked in his car. He was eventually fired for threatening to kill a fellow employee.