United States: 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.

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, customers, visitors and employee family members know where handguns are kept on company property?
• What is the response time for an employee to retrieve a handgun and intervene in any attempt to stop an attacker?
• If company policy is silent on handguns at work and an employee does intervene, is the company thereby supporting or encouraging an employee counterattack?
• Who pays for deaths or injuries caused by an armed employee who intervenes in what is believed or reported to be a violent workplace incident?
• If workplace threats are made and tempers flare, could an armed employee feel the need to use a handgun preemptively to try and avoid a violent situation?
• Does a lack of company policy or one permitting handguns in the workplace change the insurance picture for the company and its employees?

If an employee in a dispute loses impulse control, as is often reported in workplace shootings where someone threatens to "go home and get my gun and come back and settle this," will the knowledge of handguns already in the workplace provide more immediate access to a deadly weapon?

If a workplace shooting takes place and employees with handguns choose to take action on their own, the responding police could be faced with many armed individuals, all in civilian clothing in a highly agitated state. How are police going to be able to determine who the original attacker is? Who is the defender? All police can know for certain in responding to a shooting call is that anyone with a handgun represents an immediate threat to their personal safety.

Handguns and other firearms stored in employee vehicles parked on company property pose additional concerns. If company policy is silent on this issue, the increased availability of firearms creates greater access opportunities, not only for employees, but now outsiders as well. There are tens of thousands of thefts of as well as thefts from automobiles in corporate parking lots. To criminals, handguns are a sought-after prize in personal vehicles. A rumor, street information or company gossip that handguns may be found in cars parked in a particular lot may increase vehicle break-ins in search of prized handguns. A shooting in a company parking lot, whether by an employee or stranger, is considered workplace violence.

Illegally possessed handguns in the workplace are the most difficult to control and monitor. It is well-established that employees, who may have or be eligible to have legal state authorization to carry a handgun, pose many safety challenges. What about those employees who bring a handgun to work illegally? Such employees are not likely to be concerned about violating company policy prohibiting handguns at work because they have chosen to commit a serious felony by being in unlicensed possession of a handgun in any location. Handguns without proper licensing are almost always carried continuously on the operator or are kept under the operator’s direct control. If handgun possession is discovered by a coworker, the employee with the illegal handgun may feel immediately threatened by loss of his or her job and possible criminal charges. What does the handgun carrier do next? What does the coworker who discovered the handgun do next?

The decision to allow or prohibit handguns on company property is a weighty one. It is estimated that in workplace homicides a firearm is the implement of choice 80% of the time. Does nearby availability of a handgun facilitate workplace violence or could it save the lives that could be lost to a shooter in the workplace with nothing left to lose?

Do the research. Learn the state laws. Involve local law enforcement in company plans. Then, whatever decisions are made, communicate them to your employees and train them on workplace violence awareness issues so they can feel safer now.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.