Workplaces that Allow Guns at Work More Likely to Have Homicide Occur

A new study from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that workplace murders are three times more likely to occur at jobs that permit employees to carry weapons than in places that prohibit all weapons and that risk is double if guns are involved. Dana Loomis, a professor of epidemiology and member of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center published in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health a study that looks at 87 cases where employees were killed at work sites in North Carolina between 1994 and 1998 with 177 comparable work sites where there were no murders. In places that allow firearms and other weapons, there is a 7 fold increase in the risk of an on-the-job murder. Similar to residential studies, this obviously shows that there is a greater risk for homicide in workplaces that allow guns to be carried.
This study has deep significance for recent state legislation such as in Virginia where it is legal to have a firearm on school property in the parking lot and in Okalahoma and Ohio where there is legislation to allow employees to have guns in their cars at work.