Because the workplace is the company’s private property, the company could choose, if it wished, to allow employees to bring guns not only into the parking lot but also into the workplace itself. Are there ever circumstances in which doing so might be reasonable?

Or would the presence of guns automatically violate the rights of other employees to be guaranteed a safe working environment?

ORGA NIZAT IONAL THEORISTS AND EMPLOyee advocates frequently emphasize the importance, from both a moral and a practical point of view, of companies’
respecting the rights of their employees. Many employees spend long hours at work and remain tethered to the job by phone or computer even when they are off-site; not just their careers but also their friendships, social identity, and emotional lives are tied up with their work. All the more reason, it seems, that companies should recognize and respect their moral, political, and legal rights. But enshrined in our Constitution is one right that frequently gets overlooked in discussions of the workplace: the right to bear arms.