Most workplaces do not have a weapons policy because most employers either never thought about it or felt that it was unnecessary. After all, who would bring a weapon to work? In my experience as an employment lawyer, more people than you would expect. Here are some examples:

• Employees who leave work late at night and are afraid of danger as they walk to their car or wait for the bus.
• Employees who have been threatened by or fear a present or former spouse or significant other.
• Employees who fear their co-workers or customers.
• Employees who intend to harm their co-workers, clients, vendors or customers.
• Employees who forgot that they had a weapon in their purse, briefcase or vehicle.

Employers have a duty to provide a safe workplace under OSHA and WISHA, which would include preventing workplace violence if the employer knows or has reason to know about it. Additionally, employers can be liable for negligent hiring and negligent retention of employees with violent tendencies where the employer knew or should have known of such tendencies. Having a well-reasoned weapons policy can help promote a safe workplace, provided that the employer also takes other reasonable steps to reduce the risk of harm to employees who feel a need to carry a weapon for self-protection.

Some employees may balk at a weapons policy on Second Amendment grounds. However, a strong argument can be made that the Second Amendment does not prevent employers from adopting a weapons policy for their workplaces.

Even in the public sector, some restrictions on weapons are permissible. For example, it is illegal for certain people to carry weapons at all under RCW Title 9.41 and other laws, and aiming a firearm, loaded or not, at another human being or discharging it in the air where any person might be endangered by it is illegal under RCW 9.41.230.

Additionally, there are restrictions on carrying, exhibiting and displaying or drawing any firearm, dagger, sword, knife or other cutting or stabbing instrument, club or any other weapon apparently capable of producing bodily harm in a manner under circumstances and at a time and place that wither manifests an intent to intimidate another or that warrants alarm for the safety of persons under RCW 9.41.270. Interestingly, the restrictions under RCW 9.41.270 do not apply to “Any act committed by a person while in his or her place of abode or fixed place of business.” Id. However, RCW 9.41.270 does not prohibit employers from adopting more stringent work rules for their employees.

To increase employee awareness of the issues regarding workplace violence, a weapons policy could be part of a violence in the workplace policy that includes not only the employer’s restrictions on weapons but that also prohibits intimidation and threats; that requires employees to refrain from fighting, “horseplay,” or other conduct that may be dangerous to others; and that requires reporting of such conduct and prevents retaliation for reporting, among other things.

The weapons policy itself, depending on the employer, could prohibit weapons entirely, or it could require weapons to be kept in the employee’s locker or vehicle, or require weapons to be checked at the door or kept in a weapons locker, or allow weapons but require employees to have safety training and not to use or display them unless they were in reasonable fear of great bodily harm. Other restrictions could be used in addition to or instead of these restrictions, depending on what best meets the needs of the workplace.

If you think a weapons policy is overkill, so to speak, keep in mind that it is often easier to give clear guidance to employees ahead of time than to be forced to deal with a workplace situation without an applicable policy, especially in an area as sensitive as personal harm. Sometimes all it takes to destroy employees’ trust in each other is for one employee to display a weapon to a co-worker, even if the intent is innocent. n