TexasCHLforum.com

KBCraig wrote:Just to clarify, 30.06 doesn't apply to guns that are locked inaccesibly in the trunk.

Good point. I'm sorry I forgot about that.

Also, 30.06 applies only to handguns, not long guns.

I can't figure out whether an employee who brings a weapon other than a concealed handgun onto the employer's property in violation of company policy is committing any crime, under Texas law.

- Jim

Isimanica wrote:Does this apply to my keeping my arms in my private car in their parking lot?

I'm not sure what you mean by "this."

If a company has 30.06 signs at the entrance to a parking lot that they own or lease, and they catch you with a weapon in your car, and they want to press charges, they can have you arrested and charged with trespassing.

If they have 30.06 language in their policy manual, they can also have you arrested.

If they gave you spoken notification, for example, during new-hire orientation, they technically can have you arrested; but it might not stick.

In any case, they can fire you.

- Jim

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 564 workplace homicides in 2005 in the United States, out of a total of 5,702 fatal work injuries.

Almost 10% of workplace fatalities were homicides.

What they conveniently don't say is that most of these homicides are related to robberies of retail workers, and most of the remainder are murders of women by estranged husbands and boyfriends.

Altercations between coworkers that escalate to homicide are extremely rare.

- Jim

Xander wrote:I do not agree that it's ok to tell people that they can't be arrested, only fired, unless there's a §30.06 sign. The sign is only one of several ways that company can notify employees that carrying a handgun on premises is illegal.

I agree.

The scenario most likely to get you arrested is that someone "makes" you and calls 911 or the company security guards, who call 911. In that case, the responding police officer may well arrest you just to get things sorted out.

Charges would probably be dropped in that case.

Many CHL holders who were doing nothing illegal were arrested in the early days of CHL, and in some cases bogus charges were pressed against them.

- Jim

frankie_the_yankee wrote:So what did they say when they gave you VERBAL notification?

Also, does the manual say people would be prosecuted for tresspass if they carried, or that it was merely cause for termination?

In my case, they had an oral presentation with PowerPoint slides, in addition to the printed manual.

IMHO, people overthink this issue. Few companies are going to have you arrested. Every arrest is on the police blotter, and the news services check it. The company would risk having news stories about an employee being arrested with a gun. If it's a walk-in business like a retail store, that could affect sales.

A Weyerhauser plant in Oklahoma fired eight employees at once for having weapons in their vehicles, and it backfired big-time (from the employers' point of view: Oklahoma passed a law allowing employees to have weapons in their vehicles in company parking lots.

I think they will offer to let you quit, and then fire you for cause if you don't.

- Jim

I don't see an exception for employers here:

(b) For purposes of this section, a person receives notice if the owner of the property or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner provides notice to the person by oral or written communication.
(c) In this section:...
(3) "Written communication" means:
(A) a card or other document on which is written language identical to the following: "Pursuant to Section 30.06, Penal Code (trespass by holder of license to carry a concealed handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (concealed handgun law), may not enter this property with a concealed handgun"; or

- Jim

When this topic has been discussed in the past in this forum, the consensus was that any oral (spoken) warning was sufficient to make you liable to 30.06 prosecution, and written notice had to conform to 30.06. It doesn't need to be a sign. It could be the company policy manual or a web site.

The company that I work for has orientation where someone talks through the policy manual, and I specifically recall them mentioning the no weapons policy, although the written policy does not conform to 30.06.

In any case, they're unlikely to prosecute you if you're caught. Few companies want the publicity. They're more likely to persuade you to quit.

- jim