PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
PA House Rep - Bryan Cutler - Co-Sponsors Bill Seeking End to Employer Gun Bans :: 08/04/2014
State Rep. Bryan Cutler remembers the special plans he had to make to go hunting after work when he was an x-ray technician in Lancaster.
He either left his vehicle at a friend's house, parked off the hospital campus he was working at that day or allowed time to drive back home in southern Lancaster County before heading north to his camp in the mountains.
What wasn't an option was leaving his guns locked in his vehicle at work, because the three hospitals he worked at two decades ago — Lancaster General, Community and St. Joseph's — all had policies against employees keeping guns in their cars on hospital property.
"It seemed pretty ridiculous, quite frankly, Cutler said.
Now Cutler is cosponsor of a bill — House Bill 2243 — which would make it illegal for most employers to adopt policies forbidding workers from keeping guns locked in their vehicles in company garages or parking lots.
The exceptions would be at places like schools and postal complexes, where federal law outlaws guns.
"I don't think it's fair to ask individuals to check their Constitutional rights at the door," Cutler said.
But that's exactly what many companies in Lancaster County and across Pennsylvania do, he said.
Since 2000, Lancaster General Health has had a policy in place that prohibits explosives, ammunitions, fireworks, and weapons — including legally-possessed handguns and rifles — on any of its properties, according to company spokesperson Frieda Schmidt.
"The policy is in place because LG Health is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our patients, visitors and staff," Schmidt said.
"If HB 2243 is passed, LG Health would revisit the policy."
