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Frequent mass shootings are leading many employers to revisit their policies involving guns.

Most offices ban firearms, but the debate about whether to arm teachers, as pushed by President Donald Trump, is now spilling over into the workplace.

Josh Blake, a county commissioner in Lake County, Fla., about 225 miles northwest of Parkland, Fla. where 17 people were gunned down Feb. 14, spent his first board meeting after the shooting proposing changes to the county’s employee handbook.

Mr. Blake decided employers needed to take the lead in protecting workers by allowing more guns. By unanimous vote, county commissioners repealed rules that barred brass knuckles and ammunition and added language to allow people with concealed-carry permits to bring their guns to work. The move covers 776 county employees, from librarians to laborers who fill potholes.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gun-issue-comes-to-the-office-1521633601

MANAGEMENT & CAREERS

The Gun Issue Comes to the Office Some employers say their workers should be allowed to carry, but most stick with no-tolerance policies

Students attending Stuyvesant High School in New York City were among those across the U.S. who walked out March 14 to advocate for stricter gun laws. PHOTO: DAVE COLE�THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated March 21, 2018 9�47 am ET

By Rachel Feintzeig

“I don’t want my life, my family’s lives or my employees’ lives dependent on someone else’s response time,” said Mr. Blake, who noted that tips to the Federal Bureau of Investigation

about the Parkland suspect had fallen through the cracks.

Some business leaders who want to ban guns entirely on their sites are constrained by so-called parking-lot laws. The laws, in more than 20 states, stop companies from declaring their parking lots and garages as gun-free zones, according to Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun- control advocacy group based in San Francisco.

In Ohio, where such a law went into effect last year, many employers worry about the safety implications, including at plants where there are dangerous chemicals, said Don Boyd, the director of labor and legal affairs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Other firms see the new requirements as an infringement on their property rights.

“There’s an enormous amount of anxiety,” Larry Barton, a workplace violence consultant who helps Fortune 500 companies create gun policies, said of the current mood in American corporations.

In the days after the Parkland shooting, Mr. Barton said he fielded 40 phone calls from employers in retail and financial services asking for help talking to employees. Workers wanted to know if their colleagues were armed and if guards could carry guns.

Mr. Barton said he believes workers are safer when organizations have a clear policy banning firearms. Many firms are reminding workers of their zero-tolerance policies. Others are adding new screening measures, said Jonathan Wackrow, a managing director with advisory firm Teneo.

Jasmine Brown, a manager at a regional chain restaurant in Seattle, Wash., spotted a pistol holstered on the hip of one of her workers earlier this month. She felt uncomfortable and reminded him he wasn’t supposed to bring the firearm to work.

He took the gun home on a break, but when Ms. Brown’s boss got wind of the incident, he threatened to fire the employee.

Ms. Brown hopes it doesn’t come to that. “I didn’t feel threatened at all,” she said. Still, she added, “I wasn’t okay with it.”

Mike Kahoe, the president of Group Management Services Inc., a human- resources outsourcing company in Richfield, Ohio, prohibits his 300 employees from bringing guns inside. The company’s office sports a “no weapons allowed” sticker on the front door. An employee was fired last year after carrying a gun in a company vehicle.

But Mr. Kahoe has tweaked the company’s gun policy to allow an exception: People with permission of the president can bring a weapon to work. So far, the only person afforded this special dispensation is him.

Mr. Kahoe brings a handgun to the office when he anticipates situations with clients or employees could get violent. For instance, when firing a burly sales rep who slammed a chair down during the uncomfortable conversation, his gun was in a nearby drawer.

“It made me feel a little better,” he said.

Some company policies go ignored. Sharp Communication Inc., a security firm that sells radios and body armor, bars employees from bringing guns into its three Alabama locations. Even so, an employee brought his gun to work to sell to a colleague and it accidentally fired, injuring both workers.

Sharp fired the two employees and now makes workers sign its no-weapons policy. Rex Reynolds, Sharp’s president and a former law-enforcement officer, keeps his own handgun in a lockbox in the middle console of his car.

If there was ever a threat of violence at the office, “I would certainly return to my car and retrieve my weapon,” he said.

—John Simons contributed to this article.

Write to Rachel Feintzeig at [email protected]

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