Gun Ban Ban Boycott

The National Rifle Association is urging a boycott of ConocoPhillips to protest the energy company's participation in a federal lawsuit challenging an Oklahoma statute that prohibits companies from banning guns in vehicles parked on their property. The Oklahoma law was passed in response to the firing of 12 employees at a Weyerhaeuser paper mill after guns were discovered in their cars during a sweep with drug-sniffing dogs. "The end result if they win this case," said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, "is every factory, food outlet, and mall will be posted 'No firearms,' so if you take a ride with your rifle or shotgun, you can't park anywhere."

That scenario does not seem very likely to me, especially in areas where retailers and restaurants depend on the business of people who keep guns in their cars for hunting or self-defense. But if the NRA were simply objecting to ConocoPhillips' policy of barring guns from its parking lots, I would have no problem with the boycott. Instead, the NRA is objecting to the company's defense of its right to determine the gun policy on its own property. Oklahoma's law is analagous to a law that forces bars and restaurants to allow smoking, regardless of what the owners want to do.