A ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that allows Oklahomans to store firearms in locked vehicles parked on employer parking lots will stand after the filing deadline passed for further legal appeals, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said.

Edmondson’s office, in partnership with the National Rifle Association (NRA), has been defending two Oklahoma gun laws that prohibit businesses from forbidding their employees to store firearms in locked vehicles parked on company property.

In 2004, the Oklahoma legislature amended its laws to hold employers criminally liable for prohibiting employees from storing firearms in locked vehicles on company property.

The amendments prohibit companies from having policies that bar any person, except a convicted felon, from transporting and storing firearms in a locked vehicle on parking lots. Oklahoma passed the amendments after a company fired 12 workers for violating its gun policy by having guns in their cars.

Soon after the state legislature approved the changes, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of the amendments, while a group of employers sought a permanent injunction in court.

In 2007, a federal judge agreed to grant the permanent injunction, saying the amendments were preempted by the General Duty Clause of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act--that is the amendments conflicted with employers' efforts to maintain a workplace free of recognized hazards.

However, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the federal judge's decision, saying the Occupational Safety and Health Act doesn't preempt the amendments. The panel disagreed with the lower court's conclusion that guns in the workplace are a recognized hazard.

The employers could have appealed the ruling to the United States Supreme Court within 90 days, but that deadline passed last week.

The 10th Circuit includes Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.