AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — In Texas, where they love guns and pickup trucks with equal fervor, people could soon have the right to keep them together all the way into the company parking garage.
The Texas Senate has given unanimous approval to legislation that would allow people to carry firearms to work and then store them in their parked vehicles outside. Businesses could still keep guns out of their offices and company-owned vehicles.
But the bill would no longer let employers ban guns in company parking facilities — as long as they remain locked up inside an employee's vehicle.
The bill is a top priority of the National Rifle Association. But the measure is drawing criticism from business leaders, who call it an affront to property rights. The president of the Texas Association of Business warns that it could also spark more workplace gun crimes — particularly at a time when more and more people are losing their jobs.
