Bill would allow Texans to take guns to work

A proposal that would allow Texans to come to work with a gun in their car sparked lively debate at a Senate committee hearing Tuesday.

Business interests said to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that with a growing number of Texas workers getting laid off, some might start shooting if they had a gun stowed in their car. Proponents said that as crime grows with the deepening recession, they need a pistol to make it safely to and from work.

"Even though I've had a concealed handgun permit from the start ... I can't protect myself coming to and from work," said Dallas resident Stephen Johnson, a defense contractor employee, citing current law that allows employers to ban workers from bringing handguns onto their property — even if they hold a state concealed handgun permit.

State Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the author of Senate Bill 730, said that despite the opposition, "having a weapon locked in your car does not mean it will be an unsafe work environment."

Business groups disagreed, at one point prompting a lively exchange with Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, a co-sponsor of the bill.

Luke Bellsnyder, executive director of the Texas Association of Manufacturers, which represents 300 businesses that employ 900,000 Texans, said the measure would infringe on an employer's right to keep workers safe and set the rules on the property.

"It's a public safety issue," he said.

Patrick said: "To sit here and suggest this (bill) creates an unsafe environment is wrong. As an employer ... I think that argument is really weak."

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who authored the concealed-weapons law while he was a senator more than a decade ago, was among supporters who included a firefighter from Mesquite, the district attorney for Fort Bend County and a Fredericksburg family doctor.

Citing the 1993 killing of a nurse aide outside his hometown hospital by a gunman, Dr. Raymond Smith testified that, "if even one person that day had been armed and prepared, perhaps she would be alive."

Business interests said that any problems from the bill as it is now written outweigh any potential benefits.

Noting the danger that a stray bullet could pose at some manufacturing plants, Hector Rivera, president and CEO of the Texas Chemical Council, said many plants "don't even allow security guards at our facilities to carry weapons, to guard against an accidental discharge."

Patterson said that the measure should be enacted to prevent employers from restricting the rights of licensed Texans to carry concealed firearms. At least 10 other states have such a law, Hegar said.

"There's a fair amount of hysteria about this bill," Patterson said. "No-firearm zones are a target-rich environment."

mward@statesman.com; 445-1712