Can You Carry A Firearm In The Workplace? (Avoid This Mistake)

So you're thinking about carrying a firearm, whether concealed or open, at your workplace and you've got some questions. Well, you came to the right place. Let's go through this in a quick guide. Step one, we need to identify whether or not your location is what we might call a sensitive place. No, this isn't some sort of HR training that we're talking about. We're talking about whether or not you're going to go to prison or breaking the law if you're carrying there. Now, a lot of this is going to vary from state to state, so you're going to have to check your local listings, but let me give you a few examples so you can follow along. Number one, we're talking about places that are prohibited by law. So in other words, this is not something you can generally negotiate around with your boss, your supervisor. If you choose to carry, you are risking prison. You are risking arrest and jail time. Be aware of that. Number two, again, understand that sometimes there are exceptions around these within the law and you need to make dead sure that you understand what those are and that you follow them so you don't risk yourself out there. All right? So that's kind of the sensitive locations part. But the truth of the matter is that most of us do not work in a sensitive location. We work in an office, a factory, retail, whatever the case may be. All right. Number one, again, we need to understand what the law is. A number of very anti-firearm states have recently flipped the carry laws where the default used to be everything's going to be allowed to carry in a non-sensitive location unless your workplace or that particular private property opts out. That opt out could be by way of posted signage by the doors, prominently around points of entry, or could be through your employment contract, your workplace manual, whatever the case may be, your employee handbook, all that kind of stuff. All right? So there's lots of different ways that you as an employee could be hit. If you live in one of those states where the government did flip things and now suddenly everything is going to be illegal unless your workplace opts in, you have to be incredibly careful to understand, again, what are the legal repercussions and what are your rights in those situations. You need to always understand, of course, what your limitations are regardless of where you're looking at carrying and what are those possible risks and penalties should someone catch you. And folks, this can vary wildly from state to state. So you need to be mindful of this fact and be very cautious about it or else, again, suffer the consequences. For most people in most states, though, unless your employer or unless your building or anything like that winds up posting, you're probably going to be allowed to carry if you're in a non-sensitive location, at least if you're the general public. Again, you're going to have to be careful about what's your employee handbook, your contract, what are supervisors saying, what are the possible consequences if you're caught in violation of that. Oftentimes it can be discharged, but many times it may not be discharged. If you are going to be in a place where they have posted as being prohibited, are you allowed to leave your firearm in your car, in the parking lot? Oftentimes the answer for that can be absolutely yes. Other times it may not be. So you can see there's lots of important variables here that, frankly, you're just going to have to work through and figure out what they might be in your particular state, in your particular jurisdiction. In general, let's go through it again. Number one, am I in a sensitive location where it's always prohibited by law? And if so, is there going to be some sort of exception that fits me in my time and place? Number two, if I'm in a private property that is not prohibited by law, am I going to be allowed to carry here as an employee? If not, what are the consequences? If not, can I at least carry in my car? Can I leave it in there or is that somehow prohibited as well? I hope this crash course was very helpful for you. If you stuck around this long, guess what? You get to learn about something. We've got a secret giveaway going on right now. It ends really soon and it's for something that may punch remote holes and goes in a holster. So be sure to check that out in the description box below for you to learn more. My name is Tom Grieve. Thanks for sticking around this long and we will see you in the next one.