Response to a Comment on the "Parking Lot Law"

I wanted to respond to the following comment that I received on my earlier post on the passage of what is referred to as the “Parking Lot Law” in Arizona.

Here was the comment of one of my readers…

“OK I read the law and I am shocked. Are we in city that has a high morality rate for people getting into their car in the parking lot from being car jacked at gun point? Do we have such a high crime rate and several people are being shot at their doctor appointment due to gangs?

This law is ridiculous now the people that were upset that they had to leave their guns at home while going to the grocery store won and now Governor Brewer signed it into law, people like me who do not condone in violence and now I have to worry if a drunk person in a bar or leaving a bar is going to pull out a gun.

So even though a company wants to provide a safe and comfortable work environment for their employees they cant unless they get a security guard, parking garage or attack dogs. Otherwise Mad Max will pull his gun out and blast someone away. I expected this from Texas not Arizona

I am all for people being able to protect themselves but as I am a HR Manager and I have had employees make threats to other employees and all I would need is someone to go to their car and get their gun and settle the fight. It happens all over the US and now we are giving them the green light”

My response to this gentleman’s comment can be found below:

The point of the “Parking Lot Law” is this.  Each person has the constitutional right to bear arms in order to defend themselves and their family while going about the normal course of their lives.  The “parking lot law” restores a right to an employee that their employer took away from them by prohibiting them from bringing a firearms with them to work and storing it in their vehicle.

Violent crimes occur every day in the Phoenix area.  All you need to do is take a look at the Arizona Republic on any given day to confirm that.  In certain parts of the Valley, gang crime IS pervasive despite what you might think.  I would suggest you have a conversation with the gang units in Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale or any other jurisdiction in the Valley.  Just because you aren’t aware of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  A little less than two weeks ago, Mesa PD arrested 127 persons for gang related crimes in Operation Summer Surge.  The arrests involved over 33 gangs in Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Apache Junction and Scottsdale.  In fact this multi-agency task force has made over 400 arrests of gang members since the beginning of the year.

Just so we are clear, I don’t “condone violence” either, but that does not mean that violent crimes don’t occur.  If you are expecting the police to protect you from violent crime, you are being incredibly naive.  In the City of Phoenix there are a total of just over 3800 officers and support personnel.  The population of the City of Phoenix is approximately 1.55 million.  Even if half of the entire force is on duty at any given point in time (which I doubt is true), that would mean that there is one member of the police force protecting 815 people on any given day.  The chances of a police officer ‘coming to the rescue’ in time to actually stop a criminal act is almost zero.

People have the right to defend themselves in the event of a violent criminal attack that might occur during their travels to and from work.  If they can’t leave their guns in the car and they can’t take them into the workplace, their right to self defense is compromised.  This law simply gives an employee back that right of self defense.

I would also challenge your assertion that there are large numbers of people shooting each other in the work place.  According to USA Today the average number of people killed in workplace violence in 2004 was approximately 50 persons.  Compare that number to the 14,180 persons that were homicide victims in 2008 or the 1,382,000 violent crimes that were committed in 2008 (FBI Uniform Crime Report – 2008).  To me, nearly 1.4 million violent criminal attacks is a significant number.  Workplace violence represents approximately 0.3% of the total homicides in 2008.

I remember the arguments that have been made over and over again when concealed carry statutes were introduced and when the assault weapons ban was about to sunset.  Those that don’t understand or appreciate our Second Amendment rights predicted that ‘blood would run in the streets’ and there would be gunfights all over the place.  In fact, the exact opposite occurred.  In states that have implemented concealed carry laws, crime rates drop almost immediately.  The expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban was a non-event.

My final comment would be this.  Do you really think that any law, including the parking lot law would be obeyed by a violent criminal bent on committing homicide or mayhem?  No, only law abiding citizens obey the law.  Criminals don’t.  Let’s stop trying to pass laws that make otherwise law abiding citizens break the law to protect themselves and their families.

Doug Little

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