Education on laws, safety go hand-in-hand

By Roger DuPuis,

Central Penn Business Journal

Alan Bernardi doesn’t need to watch any TV or read any newspapers to know that gun ownership is on the rise in the midstate.

Vice president of the Harrisburg Hunters’ and Anglers’ Association, Bernardi sees that interest reflected in growing club membership, and in new faces signing up for the association’s gun safety and training courses.

Bernardi has heard it all: Fears about terrorist attacks, workplace shootings and urban crime as well as concerns about the impact of President Barack Obama’s proposals on gun ownership.

Bernardi also has the same message for all who want to arm themselves, and it goes hand-in-hand with safety: Educate yourself about what’s legal, and that includes what is permitted in businesses and workplaces.

U.S. Post Offices, federal buildings, courts and schools are all off limits for guns, Bernardi notes.

As for non-government private property, that’s a different story.

“A business owner has a right to say, ‘not on my property,’” Bernardi said during a recent interview at the association’s shooting range in Lower Paxton Township.

And that’s where some complicated situations can arise.

Carrying a weapon onto private property against the owner’s wishes — or refusing to leave when asked — could theoretically lead to a charge of defiant trespass, even though a firearms owner who is otherwise complying with gun laws would not be liable for prosecution under those laws, Bernardi noted.

No guns allowed

Some high-profile companies have taken a public stance on the issue.

In 2013, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wrote an open letter to customers asking that they leave their guns at home, intimating that weapons would not be welcome in the chain’s stores, but stopping short of an outright ban.

Furniture retailer IKEA also bans guns, a policy that led to controversy in 2014 after an off-duty Maryland police chief, who was still in uniform, was asked to lock his weapon in his car or leave a store in suburban Washington, D.C.

How many midstate companies have a ban? There’s no easy answer.

“I think that’s an unknowable number, simply because of how many companies there are,” said Harrisburg attorney Justin McShane, whose McShane Firm LLC publishes the Pennsylvania Law Abiding Gun Owner Blog.

The firm also participates in U.S. Law Shield’s Firearms Legal Defense Program, which offers participating gun owners legal defense in cases where their Second Amendment rights may have been violated.

The program also offers gun law seminars, which McShane said have been popular not just with gun owners and would-be gun owners, but gun-control advocates who are looking to keep abreast of the law.

Like Bernardi, McShane has seen interest in gun ownership on the upswing in recent years.

“I think people are terrified — of the next terrorist attack, the next active shooter,” McShane said. “It isn’t because of anything else.”

Not only does McShane carry a firearm every day, “several of my employees do, and I thank them for it,” he said.

Signs and the law

Absent a specific policy prohibiting guns at work, McShane said law-abiding gun owners have no obligation to tell their bosses they are carrying.

As for those businesses that have no-guns-permitted signs, McShane said the signs “don’t just turn a law-abiding gun owner into criminal because they enter.”

McShane said that before being charged with defiant trespass, a gun owner would have to be asked to leave by the owner and then refuse to comply with that request.

“Those signs have no legal enforceability,” he said.

Gun-rights advocates also stress that it is essential for law-abiding gun owners to respect the wishes of managers who may oppose people bringing guns onto their property.

As a case in point, Bernardi recently visited a movie theater, and only learned from small print on a sign as he was leaving that guns were prohibited there.

He’ll respect their wishes, but he won’t be back.

That’s because Bernardi feels safer in an environment where trained and responsible gun owners, such as himself, may carry their weapons.

“I have no problem with anyone carrying in any business, as long as they’re qualified,” he said.

Who’s looking to get qualified? Bernardi said the association’s courses have welcomed everyone from youths to people in their 80s, although many of the newcomers tend to be in their 40s and 50s. They’re also, increasingly, female.

Some come with no experience, others come looking to refresh their skills.

“When I started teaching, I realized I didn’t know as much as I think I did,” Bernardi said.

From gun handling to legal issues, that’s exactly the point.

“We want people educated. We want people trained and qualified,” Bernardi said. “That’s the way to protect your Second Amendment rights.”