Fired Up Over A Gun Law

Homicides in U.S. workplaces have fallen nearly 40% in the past decade. Even so, Oklahoma passed a law forbidding employers to ban guns from company parking lots. State legislator Jerry Ellis says law-abiding hunters should be allowed to stow firearms in their cars at work. Employees with violent intent, Ellis says, "are not going to be stopped no matter how many laws you have." The Whirlpool appliance company, backed by other Oklahoma businesses, is suing to keep from complying with the law, which was supposed to take effect Nov. 1. Whirlpool, which employs 1,500 workers at its Tulsa, Okla., plant, says protecting them means banning guns completely from company premises, including the parking lot. U.S. Judge Sven Erik Holmes, who hears the case this week in Tulsa, faces a balancing act-- the citizen's Second Amendment right to bear arms against the right of a private business to operate as it sees fit. --By David E. Thigpen