Guns On The Job
GUNS ON THE JOB....A delivery guy who shot an armed robber has been suspended by Pizza Hut because company policy doesn't allow employees to carry guns on the job. Glenn Reynolds is outraged:
Good thing he didn't listen or he might be being carried by six instead of subjected to mealy-mouthed HR flackery from one.I guess this is the aspect of the gun rights crowd that perplexes me the most. It's easy to understand their view of the Second Amendment (a view that I partly share), and it's easy to understand, in general, their view that citizens should be free to own guns if they want to. But this Wild West mentality is much harder to fathom. Do they really think that, for example, pizza delivery guys should routinely wear sidearms and engage in gun battles with crooks, and that employers should (apparently) have no right to prevent it? Frankly, given the average age and disposition of pizza delivery guys, I'd just as soon not have a city full of sidearmed pizza deliverers, and Pizza Hut would probably just as soon not get sued when one of these guys ends up shooting someone who stiffed him on the bill or got into an argument over whether he ordered anchovies on his pie. What's more, Pizza Hut is in the business of making money, and I imagine that most of their customers would prefer not to deal with a company that sends armed young men to their door. Being responsive to all these issues is just sensible corporate and public policy.
My employer can restrict my speech on the job, can fire me without due process, and is not required to cater to my every religious belief. Likewise, they can also have rules preventing employees from carrying arms at work — and most of them do. The occasional angry postal worker to the contrary, workplaces would almost certainly be more dangerous on average if there were lots of loaded guns around, and surely employers have every right to make that assessment. Right?