Property rights: Your gun in your car.

Florida businesses could soon face criminal charges if they try to stop employees from bringing guns to work in their cars, thrusting the state into a growing national debate pitting individual freedom against job safety.

Backed by the National Rifle Association, two state lawmakers have filed bills that would allow workers to have guns at work, as long as the weapons remain locked in their vehicles.

Debate about guns in workplace parking lots erupted in 2002, when 12 workers at an Oklahoma paper mill lost their jobs after managers found guns in their vehicles parked on site, a violation of company policy.

The state's Legislature responded by passing a law giving employees the right to keep guns locked in their cars at work. Several companies filed suit in a case still winding its way through federal court.

The Florida bills will likely face similar opposition from businesses.

"We would be opposed to any effort that would prevent us from determining who can or cannot bring weapons onto our property," Universal spokesman Tom Schroder said.

Bill Herrle, a vice president for the Florida Retail Federation, said the group questions whether the proposal would conflict with existing employment law and property rights.

Boys and girls, that is the crux of the issue. Do the employers have the right to tell you what you can and can't have inside your private property, if such said property is on company premises. Where I work, I remember a passage in the handbook banning weapons from company property. Fine and dandy. However, the passage made mention of any vehicle parked on company property.

Whoa! Wait a second. I've done some research and can't find where an employer has the right to tell you what you can and can't have in your private conveyance. The next year, that employee handbook was updated to say company vehicle instead of any vehicle. Understood, that's their property.

So, who's property rights win out? Tell you the truth, as long as they have no right to search my conveyance, I'll tell them anything they want to hear. Otherwise, they better have proof.