Crist intends to sign the bill, which allows weapons to be in locked cars.
John Kennedy
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
About 500,000 Floridians with concealed-weapons permits will soon be able to carry guns to work as long as they keep them in their cars.
The Florida Legislature handed a major election-year victory to the National Rifle Association on Wednesday when the Senate approved legislation (CS/HB 503) barring employers from banning guns on their property, provided that employees and customers with the weapons have concealed-weapons permits and leave the guns locked in their cars.
Voting 26-13, the Senate split along party lines -- just as the House did a week earlier in approving the proposal. Democrats sided with business groups that fiercely opposed the change. Republicans voted with the NRA.
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said he has no problem signing the measure into law.
"The Second Amendment is very important," Crist said of the constitutional right to bear arms. "I understand there are competing interests; there always are in this process. But people being protected is most important to me."
Wednesday's vote caps a three-year effort by the NRA to win passage of a guns-at-work bill. Its campaign included deluging lawmakers with thousands of e-mails and letters -- and making clear it wouldn't give up until the bill passed.
Just as in the past two sessions, the battle pushed Republicans into a political crosswind, forcing them to choose between two powerful drivers of GOP politics: gun supporters and the business lobby.
But after two consecutive defeats, the gun lobby won this year. Business groups said leading GOP lawmakers decided to forge a compromise to put the issue behind them.
"The business community isn't going away on this issue," said David Daniel, a vice president with the Florida Chamber of Commerce. "Legislators may think they chose the right side today, but I think the voters will be on our side."
Daniel said organizations likely will challenge the issue in court. A similar law was struck down in Oklahoma after a judge found it violated federal workplace-safety rules. Alaska, Kentucky and Mississippi also have guns-at-work laws.
About 500,000 Floridians have concealed-weapons permits. But the Legislature has exempted these records from public view, so businesses might not know who is packing a weapon, critics say.
Certain workplaces, though, still can ban firearms. Among them: aerospace and defense plants, nuclear-power facilities, schools, public hospitals and prisons.
For the NRA, it wasn't a complete victory.
The organization had pushed the past two years for allowing any gun owner to keep a weapon in his or her car at work. Last year, that bill was defeated by a House committee only two days after a gunman killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech.
Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D- Tampa, noted Wednesday that the first anniversary of that tragedy is a week away. "Nothing's changed," she said. "This is not the right thing to do."
But Marion Hammer, longtime lobbyist for the NRA in Florida, said such emotions deserved no place in the debate, calling it "a good bill whose time had come."
"I personally don't believe anyone should have to have a license to exercise a constitutional right," Hammer said. "But this bill does provide a mechanism for employees of anti-gun employers to protect themselves to and from work."
Hammer downplayed speculation that lawmakers feared being targeted by the NRA in upcoming elections. But, she added, "Every election cycle, we always remind folks of where we are on issues and why."
The architect of the compromise bill was Rep. Dean Cannon, R- Winter Park, who is in line to become House speaker in 2010. Business groups say he and Rep. ay Sansom, R-Destin, who will become speaker in November, were intent on putting the issue behind them.
Cannon said he received 1,275 e-mails in March -- virtually all urging passage of the measure. Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, the Senate sponsor, said he got 1,500 e-mails during the same time.
"Neither the NRA nor the business community got everything they wanted in the bill," said Cannon, a property-rights lawyer who has a concealed-weapons permit.
Polls conducted by Florida business organizations show a majority of voters oppose allowing guns at work.
"We hope that the governor will listen to the voices of the 80 percent of Floridians who feel businesses should be allowed to keep guns out of their parking lots," said Rick McAllister, president and CEO of the Florida Retail Federation.
But one of those who e-mailed Cannon, Matt Coryell, 54, a design engineer from Orlando, said Floridians have a right to feel protected while at work or commuting.
"Look, if somebody wants to hurt someone, they're going to figure out a way to do it," Coryell said.
Florida's longest-serving legislator, Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster, R- Winter Garden, acknowledged that Republicans were uneasy choosing between the two powerful political lobbies. But Webster, who was first elected in 1980 and in 1996 became Florida's first Republican House speaker in 122 years, said he thought the business community was not about to turn against Republicans in this fall's campaigns.
"I think if both sides add up what the Republican-controlled Legislature has done over the past 10 years, they have benefited. And I think they side with us," he said.
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