INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana businesses cannot stop employees from keeping guns in their cars at work under a new law signed Thursday by Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Starting July 1, Hoosier companies are prohibited from enacting rules that ban guns in cars on their property, so long as a gun is stored out of sight in a locked vehicle, trunk or glove box.
Daniels said the right to bear arms is protected by the U.S. and Indiana constitutions and, as such, "should be infringed only for the most compelling of reasons."
The governor said an office shooting at the Department of Workforce Development in Portage earlier this month did not make him reconsider his decision to sign the legislation.
In that incident, a state employee, reportedly upset by a poor job performance review, got a gun from his car and shot out an office window allegedly trying to kill his supervisor. Edgar Tillery, 60, of Portage, has been charged with attempted murder and criminal recklessness.
Michael G. Rippey, president of steelmaker ArcelorMittal USA, urged the governor to veto the legislation, saying it could make work sites less safe.
"There is no legitimate reason for employees to bring firearms into the workplace, either for safety or recreational purposes, and every employer should have the right to stop weapons at the plant gate or office door," Rippey wrote in a letter to Daniels.
The new law does allow some workplaces to continue to prohibit guns in cars, including schools, colleges and universities, child care facilities, emergency shelters, homes for the developmentally disabled, prisons, federal buildings, homeland security sites and utility companies.
During debate in the Senate, state Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, suggested the exemptions might make the law unconstitutional because the Indiana Constitution allows an unlimited right to carry a gun anywhere, Wyss said.
Rippey called the exemptions "arbitrary and capricious."
While the governor admitted future General Assemblies may want to reconsider some of the exemptions, he said, "the understandable concerns raised against the bill do not suffice to justify a trespass on a fundamental right so expressly protected by our founding documents."
State, municipalities cannot halt gun sales, possession
The new law also takes away the governor's power to limit or stop the sale of firearms during a declared disaster emergency. Local governments also can no longer halt the sale or possession of weapons during an emergency.
Lawmakers said they wanted to prevent Indiana police from confiscating guns after a disaster, as New Orleans police did in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina.
How they voted
Northwest Indiana lawmakers were among the few no votes on the guns-in-cars-at-work legislation, which passed the Senate 41-9, and the House 75-20. The list below shows how region lawmakers voted on House Enrolled Act 1065.
Voting yes:
State Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte
State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso
State Rep. Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte
State Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville
State Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield
State Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake
State Rep. Don Lehe, R-Brookston
State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage
State Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond
State Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City
State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso
State Rep. Dan Stevenson, D-Highland
Voting no:
State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary
State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster
State Rep. Earl Harris, D-East Chicago
State Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond
State Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago
State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary
State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary
State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes
State Rep. Shelli VanDenburgh, D-Crown Point, did not vote
