MS: Northrop worker opens fire in ''no-guns'' workplace

MSNBC.com is reporting that an employee opened fire Monday at the Northrop Grumman Ships Systems shipyard, critically wounding two co-workers.

From the story:

The alleged shooter, Alexander L. Lett, 41, of Escatawpa, was been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and was being held without bond at the Pascagoula Municipal Jail.

Investigators identified the two wounded employees as Ben Gaffney, 63, and Donald Eddins, 53. A hospital spokesman said they were in critical condition after surgery.

After the shooting, Lett tried to leave the building at the large complex that builds ships for the Navy and the Coast Guard but was stopped by other Northrop Grumman employees, police said.

Lett was a quality assurance inspector who had been at the shipyard for more than 20 years, and the wounded men were also longtime company employees, Leonard said. Officials said both were believed to be managers.

A 9 mm semiautomatic pistol was used in the shooting, Leonard said. He had no details on how it was brought into the building.

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems is Mississippi’s largest private employer, with more than 12,000 workers.

OFCC can report that Northrop Grumman enforces a “no-guns” policy on site and in vehicles on company property, ensuring that its employees are defenseless not only while at work, but while traveling to and from work.

When the Ohio House of Representatives passed Sub. House Bill 12 in 2003, a specific exemption prohibited companies from telling licensed customers and employees they could not store a firearm in their own automobile on the company parking lot. This provision was stripped from the final bill by the state Senate, rendering people defenseless (even on the drive to and from work), and making a repeat of the life-saving actions of Pearl High School Assistant Principal Joel Myrick at a Mississippi school shooting in 1997 much less likely here in Ohio.

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