A summary of Mississippi laws relating to weapons and conduct that impact workplace violence.
In Mississippi it is unlawful to carry a concealed deadly weapon, except within the confines of one's own home or place of business or any real property associated with the home or business and within any motor vehicle.
However, it is not unlawful to carry a firearm or deadly weapon concealed in whole or in part if the possessor is engaged in a legitimate weapon-related sports activity, hunting, fishing, target shooting and other legal sports activities that normally involve the use of a firearm or other weapon, or going to or from a weapon-related sports activity.
An employer may not establish, maintain, or enforce any policy or rule that has the effect of prohibiting a person from transporting or storing a firearm in a locked vehicle in any parking lot, parking garage, or other designated parking area.
However, a private employer may prohibit an employee from transporting or storing a firearm in a vehicle in a parking lot, parking garage, or other parking area the employer provides for employees to which access is restricted or limited through the use of a gate, security station or other means of restricting or limiting general public access onto the property.
These rules do not apply to vehicles owned or leased by an employer and used by the employee in the course of his or her business and do not authorize a person to transport or store a firearm on any premises where the possession of a firearm is prohibited by state or federal law. In addition, an employer is not liable in a civil action for damages resulting from or arising out of an occurrence involving the transportation, storage, possession or use of a firearm covered by this statute.
The killing of a human being by the act, procurement or omission of another is justifiable when committed by any person in resisting any attempt unlawfully to kill the person or to commit any felony upon him or her, or upon or in any occupied vehicle, in any place of business, in any place of employment or in the immediate premises thereof.
A person who is not the initial aggressor and is not engaged in unlawful activity has no duty to retreat before using deadly force as described if the person is in a place where the person has a right to be, and no finder of fact is permitted to consider the person's failure to retreat as evidence that the person's use of force was unnecessary, excessive or unreasonable.
A person who uses defensive force is presumed to have reasonably feared imminent death or great bodily harm, or the commission of a felony upon him or her or another or against a vehicle which he or she was occupying, or against his or her business or place of employment or the immediate premises of the business or place of employment, if the person against whom the defensive force was used, was in the process of unlawfully and forcibly entering, or had unlawfully and forcibly entered, an occupied vehicle, business, place of employment or the immediate premises thereof or if that person had unlawfully removed or was attempting to unlawfully remove another against the other person's will from that occupied vehicle, business, place of employment or the immediate premises thereof and the person who used defensive force knew or had reason to believe that the forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred.
This presumption does not apply if the person against whom defensive force was used has a right to be in or is a lawful owner of the vehicle, business, place of employment or the immediate premises or is the lawful owner of the vehicle, business, place of employment or the immediate premises or if the person who uses defensive force is engaged in unlawful activity or if the person is a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his or her official duties.