Dan Carden of the NWI Times reported this morning that new legislation prohibiting employers from regulating or limiting the possession of guns outside the workplace was signed into law today. (ILB Entry here.) At the signing, Governor Daniels remarked:
Considering the clear language of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and the even stronger language of Article 1 Section Thirty-Two of the Indiana Constitution, protecting these rights as provided in HEA 1065 is appropriate. I also am compelled to give great weight to the overwhelming consensus of both Houses of the General Assembly as they passed this bipartisan statute. The law does contain ambiguities that the General Assembly may wish to refine at some future date, to avoid unnecessary litigation, but the understandable concerns raised against the bill do not suffice to justify a trespass on a fundamental right so expressly protected by our founding documents.
Though the law passed both houses with overwhelming majorities, the exemptions written into the law have become quite controversial. Exempted from the law are schools, colleges and universities, child care facilities, emergency shelters, homes for the developmentally disabled, prisons, federal buildings, homeland security sites and utility companies. It is a given that we can’t be toting guns into Federal chambers and prisons. But is there a logical reason why the other exempted entities can prevent guns, while others cannot?
What do you think, NWI?