The bill that presently seems stalled in the Indiana General Assembly, the one that'd let you carry your gun to and from work as long as you kept it locked in your car? John C. Lechleiter, President, Chairman, CEO and Priest-King of the Eli Lilly empire loathes it -- which he is free to do -- and is tellin' lies about it in the newspaper, which is kinda dirty pool. Or at least not accordin' to Hoyle.
You see, the bill specifically shields employers from anything that might go wrong from letting you keep your legally-owned gun locked in your legally-owned car in their legally-owned parking lot; he claims instead that, "A corporation can be held civilly liable for violating the law as written, but also civilly liable for any injury or damage resulting from the use of a firearm on its property." Oh, really? Funny; that's not what the bill says. The bill protects corporations from being sued over "injury or damage resulting from the use of a firearm on its property."
Of course, the good, the great, the so very honorable (more so than you or I, of course) Mr. Lechleiter also believes the rights of a corporation trump the rights of individuals -- a belief much easier to hold when you're the fellow in charge. Just ask Louis XIV of France, "L'Etat, c'est moi." Or "...the corporation;" as Clair Wolfe was fond of pointing out, they all wanna be governments when they grow up.
He's got one vote, same as you. Better use yours -- his has a hemi!
Update, from the comments on the news(ick)paper's site: "I say again, why are their armed guards on the 13th floor protecting Mr. Leictleiter? Why am I not afforded the same protection? And, why does he need armed guards if he forbids guns on the Lilly campus? It's obvious he doesn't believe his own tripe." Yep, Mister you-shouldn't-carry-a-gun has his very own armed guards. He can be protected by a gun...the gal that mucks out the executive washrooms and walks out to her car in the dead of night to drive home, though, he wants her defenseless. For the chilllldren. Ass.
Lilly, far from being the great benefactor of this town, is probably one of the most evil things that ever happened to it.
ReplyDeleteI deal with Lilly people all the time. They are simply not rooted in reality. Well, except maybe one of them. But she's the exception that proves the rule.
My dad (a pharmaceutical chemist by education) worked for Lilly years ago, and quit when he realized that they were not actually interested in innovation. Later, when they started getting sued left and right over some of the drugs they put on the market, he noted that they had started innovating, all right, but clearly hadn't put too much thought into the consequences of what they were doing. Like, y'know, killing people.
The company is richer than Croesus, but doesn't have a clue. Bad combination. Unfortunately we're stuck with them, and they (like the Indianapolis Colts) pull far too much weight in the corridors of power.
Whether it is legal firearms in parking lots or in national parks, when your side is losing momentum, the lying starts.
ReplyDeleteI have friends who work in pharmaceutical chemistry R&D at Lilly, and from what they're telling me about impending layoffs, they're not going to have to worry about anyone having firearms in the parking lot.
ReplyDeletePhil
That was perhaps too obscure - I mean that the parking lot will be empty.
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that a building full of synthetic chemists don't need guns to go on a spree, they have t-butyl lithium, and peroxides, and chlorine, and poisons, and other items too awful to list in public. See Derek Lowes Things I Won't Work With series for inspiration.
And then, there are the biologists!
We all should pray the biologists only use a gun when they go crazy. And yet, they won't trust them with a .22 target pistol locked in the trunk of their Chevy.
Phil
Phil-
ReplyDeletePyrophorics FTW!
We have a similar bill cooking in the Alabama Legislature. Our Eli Lily equivalent is currently Alabama Power. They want their own little exemption, and are currently getting it, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the bill survives. We'll fight the AL Power clause next!
Yep, take any gun liberalization you can get - and after the violence rate drops go back and get some more.
ReplyDeleteIt's like "The cat that ate the grind rock. A little bite at a time."
Unfortunately, I go to work every day for this chemical bonehead and his staff at his self-defense-free zone that doesn't even use the metal detectors they have there... they only use them on guests... so... yes, he could be sued if someone comes in and starts shooting up the place, even now, especially since they have a very strict no-gun policy that they don't take measures to enforce.
ReplyDeleteOh... did I mention that they announced this past fall that they were going to cut 5,500 jobs over the next two years? Way to set up a "safe" non-volatile work environment there, Lechleiter. You and Mayor Daley should be friends if you're not already.
Yet another elitist D-bag. What a jerk.
ReplyDelete