On May 21, 2013, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed legislation that will expand Alabama gun rights in a number of ways. Most significantly, SB286 allows employees to store firearms in their personal vehicles in employer-owned parking lots under certain circumstances. The Alabama House of Representatives voted 73-28 on May 20, 2013, in approval of a conference committee version of the bill. The new law becomes effective on August 1, 2013.

Under the so-called “guns-to-work” law, Alabama employers may prohibit employees, including those with a concealed weapons permit, from possessing firearms while on the employer’s premises or when engaged in work for the employer whether on or off-site. Subject to limited exceptions, public and private employers may not restrict an employee’s transportation or storage of a lawfully possessed firearm in an employee’s privately owned motor vehicle while it is parked or operated in a public or private parking lot. An employee, however, may only possess a firearm in an employer’s parking lot if it is out of sight in his or her locked motor vehicle and under the following circumstances...