An Oklahoma law going into effect on November 1 allows employees to store ammunition in their locked vehicles parked at work.
A key aspect of Oklahoma’s Self-Defense Act allows people with valid gun licenses to carry handguns openly as well as concealed weapons in many public places. But another part of the open-carry law affects how people can store ammunition in their cars. The bill was signed by Governor Mary Fallin on November 15.
Oklahoma law already prohibited employers from having policies banning employees from keeping guns locked in their vehicles in employer parking lots. The new law says employers also may not prohibit employees from keeping ammunition in the parking lot.
Under the new law, businesses are still allowed to prohibit weapons in their buildings. Therefore, employers can still enforce policies that prohibit employees — even those with valid licenses — from bringing guns or weapons of any type into the workplace.
Make sure you have a “no weapons in the building” policy that is distributed to your workforce and is posted. Your policy also should prohibit ammo in the building.
Charlie Plumb is editor of Oklahoma Employment Law Letter and an attorney with McAfee & Taft in Tulsa.
So once an employee leaves work and opens the vehicle , the vehicle is no longer locked – is then the stored ammo in violation of the law ?
It appears tha Charlie Plumb is advising people to have a “no weapons in the building” policy. Does this make him liable if people are disarmed in a defensless victim zone, and are then assaulted or killed?
Char,
In answer to your question, Charlie Plumb says: “The language and intent of the law and a business owner’s policy requires unoccupied vehicles of licensed gun owners to be locked if the vehicle contains a gun. I do not believe it would be interpreted as a violation of the law or of a business owner’s policy for a licensed gun owner to unlock their vehicle for purposes of exit or entry.”