Can You Still Ban Guns in Your Company Parking Lot? What Employers Need to Know

Deer season is here. In a lot of company parking lots, that means a rifle or shotgun in an employee’s truck, on the way to or from the stand before or after a shift. For decades, most employers handled it with one line in the handbook, no weapons on company property, and some discretion in the fall.

That line needs a closer look. A growing number of states now protect an employee’s right to keep a legally owned firearm locked in a private vehicle, even in the employer’s own lot. Some also limit whether you can ask about it, search for it, or discipline over it. Below is where employer authority still holds, where it has narrowed, and what to update before the question lands on your desk. The guidance comes from employment attorney Burt Garland, a shareholder with Ogletree Deakins.

The parking lot is now its own policy question

Inside the building, employers generally still decide. You can prohibit weapons in the workplace itself, with narrow exceptions such as certain law enforcement situations.

The parking lot is where the ground has shifted. Many states now protect employees who keep a lawfully possessed firearm locked in a private vehicle on employer property. Those states also restrict employers from disciplining them for it. No federal statute governs guns in employer parking lots, so the rules come state by state. Meanwhile, the federal OSH Act’s general duty clause still expects employers to take reasonable steps to keep the workplace safe, including from violence.

Where a state protects parking-lot storage, two conditions usually matter. First, the firearm has to be lawfully possessed, which depends on the state’s carry laws. In Missouri, for example, no permit is required to carry concealed. Second, it has to be secured in a locked private vehicle. What “secured” means varies: some states require a locked container, others require the firearm to be out of sight.

Recent rulings and laws reshaping the rules

• Wolford v. Lopez (June 2026). The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Hawaii law that barred licensed gun owners from carrying onto private property open to the public without the owner’s express permission. In practice, a licensed carrier is presumed welcome in a public-facing business unless told otherwise. A business that wants to keep firearms out has to say so. Similar laws in other states are now vulnerable.
• Maryland (January 2026). The Fourth Circuit struck down Maryland’s restriction on guns on private property open to the public. It upheld bans in sensitive locations, including schools, health care facilities, stadiums, casinos, and government buildings.
• Virginia (effective July 1, 2026). A firearm left in an unattended vehicle must be locked in a container, such as the glove compartment or center console. Property owners may still prohibit weapons on their property, including parking lots, and should say so explicitly.
• Florida. Employers may post clear notice that firearms are prohibited on their premises. They cannot ban legally owned firearms locked inside vehicles in the parking lot, or retaliate against employees for lawful possession.
• New Hampshire (since January 1, 2025). Covered employers must allow employees to keep guns and ammunition in locked vehicles on company property, and may not discipline them for it.
• Florida, North Dakota, and West Virginia. Employers may not ask employees whether they have a firearm locked in a vehicle on company property. A search to determine whether a firearm is in a private vehicle may be conducted only by on-duty law enforcement, as state law allows.

For the full state-by-state rundown, see Ogletree Deakins’ analysis, State Laws Curb No-Gun Policies for Employers’ Parking Lots.

Why this matters for HR and business leaders

The exposure now sits in two places: the policy and the response. In some states, a blanket “no weapons on company property” rule may be unlawful as written. Even where the policy is sound, a supervisor can create the very claim it was meant to prevent: asking an employee about their car, demanding a search, or writing someone up.

The safety obligation hasn’t gone anywhere. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 470 workplace homicides in 2024. HR has to honor employees’ state-law rights and keep everyone safe at the same time, often with the same facts in front of them.

For multistate employers, a single nationwide rule is the hardest position to hold. A policy that’s lawful in one state can conflict with the law in the next. It’s the same multistate handbook challenge employers face with outside employment policies.

For many organizations, the weapons rule goes back to a short list of workplace “golden rules,” sometimes enforced loosely during hunting season. That approach doesn’t hold up anymore.

How to update your weapons policy

Separate the parking lot from the workplace

In states that protect locked-vehicle storage, your policy should treat the building and the lot as two different places. Keep the prohibition inside. Write the parking-lot rule to match state law.

Treat company vehicles differently

Many state laws distinguish private employee vehicles from company-owned or company-leased vehicles. Employers often keep more authority over their own fleet, so spell that out in the policy.

Write questioning, search, and discipline language state by state

This is where policies most often overreach. For each location, confirm whether you can ask, whether you can search, and when discipline is permitted. As for employer-demanded searches of an employee’s personal vehicle, Burt’s advice is to avoid them.

Map the exceptions that apply to you

State laws often carve out government buildings, courts, schools, polling places, correctional facilities, national defense operations, and locations restricted by federal law or contract. If one of those describes your operation, you may have more room to restrict firearms. Confirm it rather than assume it.

Reconcile your own practices

Some employers with large properties let employees hunt on company land while banning weapons at work. Make sure what you allow on your property and what your policy says line up.

Train the people who respond first

A well-written policy can still fail in practice. Supervisors, security staff, and HR need to know what they can and can’t ask, and when to stop and escalate.

When a coworker reports a gun in someone’s car

This is the call HR is most likely to get, and the first rule is not to overreact. Start by separating two very different situations. In the first, a coworker mentions that an employee who hunts has a rifle locked in his truck. In the second, an employee says a coworker scares them, the two argued last week, and now the coworker is talking about the gun in his car. It’s the same object, but a completely different problem.

Lawful storage in a protected vehicle may be exactly that: lawful. Threats, violence, or other unsafe conduct still call for a full workplace safety response, no matter where the firearm is kept.

A practical sequence:

• Confirm what state law allows at that location.
• Gather the facts: what was said, to whom, and whether any threat referenced the weapon.
• Assess immediate safety concerns, and involve security or law enforcement when a threat is credible.
• Keep any questioning or searching within what your state permits before taking employment action.

For the conversation that follows, AAIM’s guide to speaking with employees about security threats without causing alarm is a useful companion.

Frequently Asked Questions About Guns in Employer Parking Lots

The Bottom Line

Burt’s three takeaways for every employer:

This area will keep moving as courts apply Wolford and more states act. Reviewing your policy now, while hunting season has the question top of mind, puts you ahead of it. AAIM members can contact the Solutions Team at solutions.team@aaimea.org for a review of their weapons policy, from a quick redline to a location-by-location rewrite. Not a member yet? Explore AAIM membership.