Handguns in the Workplace: Do They Make You Feel Safe?

The average American employee, working 40 hours a week with two weeks vacation, works 2,000 hours annually. That means that almost 23% of a person's life is spent at work each year. Do you know if any or how many handguns are in your workplace?

Workplace safety is a major concern of employers who recognize the cost in both human and economic terms of death and injury to their employees. Handguns at work represent a unique risk management.

Workplace violence, while a subset of workplace injuries caused by accident, mechanical or structural failures or carelessness of workers, differs in one very important way: the intent to cause death or injury. Workplace violence, specifically deaths and injuries inflicted by handguns, represents a clear polarization of safe workplace attitudes.

Employers weighing whether to allow or prohibit handguns on the worksite will have to consider both sides of the question. One side believes in the inalienable constitutional right of freedom to bear arms in any location, including the workplace. These beliefs are tempered, for legally possessed handguns, by varying state laws that regulate the possession of concealed handguns. In fact, some states require no regulation if a handgun is carried openly without concealment.

The opposing view holds that a safer workplace can be achieved if handguns (and all firearms) are prohibited from the workplace.

Many company managers are uncertain of their legal standing in making this decision. This uncertainty creates an opportunity for employers to reach out to local law enforcement and get accurate information on firearms licensing laws in their jurisdictions. This information is vital to employers in their decision-making process on this critical component of workplace violence prevention.

Bulletproofing Your Office Policies

An important question for any employer to ask is, what will make my employees feel safe?

In the aftermath of a workplace killing spree, the argument often surfaces that if only one other employee had been armed with a handgun he or she could have intervened, engaged the shooter and prevented further loss of life. This argument, makes colossal assumptions. For instance, would a coworker have the desire, skill, training or readiness to engage an armed assailant in a gun battle at the workplace?

In addition, the presence of any handguns in the workplace creates the following risk management issues:

Are all handguns secured at all times?

Do employees...