Three years after the Brevard County Commission enacted a policy banning guns from county-owned property and vehicles, one commissioner wants to loosen that ban for those who have concealed-weapon permits.
Commissioner John Tobia, whose district includes the South Beaches, was scheduled Tuesday to propose an amendment to the Human Resources Department’s policy against guns.
The county’s existing policy, “Zero Tolerance of Workplace Violence,” does make an exception for security and law enforcement officers on duty, and also allows employees to leave their own guns secured in their private cars in a parking lot.
Tobia said he reviews county policies often, between commission meetings, to see if there are any that are old and need to be updated.
And in this case, Tobia said, he found the county’s policy runs counter to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.
“What I found out is your Second Amendment rights are infringed (upon) by taking a county job,” Tobia said last week.
County Tax Collector Lisa Cullen’s staff could not be reached to say just how many of the commission’s 2,000-plus employees have concealed-weapon permits, or even whether they could break out that number.
But Tobia stressed those are the only employees he is talking about, not those who don’t have concealed-weapon permits – and also not employees of the county’s five elected constitutional officers: the sheriff, clerk of courts, tax collector, supervisor of elections or property appraiser.
And he’s also not addressing employees of the elected Brevard County School Board, whose members have heard Sheriff Wayne Ivey suggest having armed employees as a program of “marshals” to deter school violence.
That’s a far different idea from Tobia’s, he said.
“As I understand with a marshal program, you’re getting paid to provide a service,” he said. “This is completely voluntary. If you have a concealed-weapon permit, and you want to bring your firearm Monday and Tuesday, and leave it home Wednesday and Thursday, you’re not getting paid extra.”
He said he would hope an employee with a concealed-weapon permit would at least take it out in case someone else caused violence in the workplace. But it wouldn’t be an obligation, he said.
Also, he said other employees shouldn’t be concerned if they find out one is carrying a concealed weapon.
Tobia pointed to a 2015 report from the Crime Prevention Research Center, which found that concealed-weapon permit-holders are more law-abiding than police.
That report pointed to 16.5 firearms violations per 100,000 police officers nationwide, compared to 2.4 such violations per 100,000 permit holders in Florida and Texas.
Tobia’s proposal cites numerous references to Chapter 790 of the Florida Statutes, “Weapons and Firearms.” He said his amendment would simply incorporate the provisions and prohibitions from state law, not add any new ones.
For example, the state already prohibits the public from taking open or concealed weapons into sheriff or police stations, courthouses, jails, polling places or County Commission meetings. And Tobia’s amendment would carry those restrictions, as well.
“This is not John Tobia saying you can’t take your gun into a jail or a courthouse or a commission meeting, it’s the state,” he said.
Tobia’s amendment also would:
n Require an employee to conceal his gun at all times.
n Prohibit an employee from leaving a gun in an unoccupied county vehicle.
n Prohibit an employee from carrying a gun on a workday when he would likely enter one of the gun-restricted buildings.
n Grant County Manager Frank Abbate authority to bar specific employee groups from carrying guns if their duties would render it unsafe.
Tobia, who was elected in 2016, wasn’t on the commission when the current policy was enacted. But one of his frequent voting opponents, Commissioner Curt Smith, did vote for the current policy in 2015.
Smith, however, couldn’t be reached to comment on Tobia’s effort.
