Joe, it might make sense but it is not the law. For example, leases can restrict people's ownership rights in the apartment and do so all the time. For example, how many apartments have a "no pets" clause, or limit the size of the pet? You can even find leases that say no firearms allowed (like all college dorm rooms).joe817 wrote:A valid question indeed. Think of an employer parking lot as an apartment complex. Private property, yes. But do the rights of a person who's car is in that parking lot extend to the interior of the car?......just as an apartment dweller have the rights to own what is contained in the apartment she or he rents without further scrutiny from the apartment owner? I am not a lawyer but I believe the law says yes. IMHO, the vehicle becomes the vehicle's owner "private domain", which is his and not subject to the scrutiny to the parking lot owner.
If this is a flawed logic, I do not see it. But it makes sense to me.
My analogy is that the car is just like nay other container you bring on my property. If you have no problem with me saying you cannot keep a gun in your briefcase, what is the difference between that and your car? It is just a container you brought onto my property.
While I fully understand the problem people wish to address, I cannot support the parking lot bill. It is an infringement on the private property rights of the business. To me, a much better solution (more elegant in that it gets the same message across without infringing on people's rights), is to make the liability explicit in the law. If you, either as a business or as an individual, make a rule that someone must leave their weapon off your property, you have just assumed responsibility for their well being. This responsibility starts at the last property they could reasonable have had the means to protect themselves and left that means safely, and ends when they return to the property to retrieve that means to protect themselves. Make the business liable for its decision and the decision will probably got he way you want it too.