Why Uber banned guns from cars

Uber says it is banning all firearms for drivers or riders during rides arranged through the Uber platform. Previously, uber had deferred to local law on the issue.

|
Eric Risberg/AP/File
The headquarters of Uber in San Francisco.

Ride-hailing app company Uber says it is banning its riders and drivers from carrying guns.

Uber Technologies says it is banning firearms of any kind during rides arranged through the Uber platform, and drivers or riders who violate the rule may lose access to the platform. The rules also apply to Uber's affiliates.

The company said Friday it changed its firearms policy on June 10 to make sure riders and drivers feel comfortable. In a statement, Uber said it made the change after reviewing feedback from both passengers and Uber drivers. Previously it had deferred to local law on the issue.

San Francisco-based Uber lets passengers summon cars through an app in more than 250 cities worldwide, and the privately held company is valued at around $40 billion. However it's faced legal and regulatory challenges as it expands in the United States and abroad. It has also been criticized over the thoroughness of the background checks it does on drivers and other safety issues.

In April, an Uber driver with a concealed-carry permit shot a 22-year-old man who had opened fire on a group of pedestrians in Chicago. Court records say the man was shooting at pedestrians who were walking in front of the Uber driver's vehicle, and the driver shot the gunman. The driver wasn't charged, as prosecutors said he acted in defense of himself and others.

Competitor Lyft also has a "no weapons" policy. According to Lyft's website, if a driver or rider is found to have a weapon in a Lyft vehicle they'll be barred from the platform regardless of local laws on weapons possession.

As The Christian Science Monitor reported, the Uber weapons ban comes as the debate over gun control has been reignited by the shooting in Charleston, S.C. 

On Friday, in remarks to US mayors, Obama called for a national conversation about gun violence, saying he refuses to accept that mass shootings are “the new normal.”  

On Saturday, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who running for president, said:  "I lived in Arkansas and I represented upstate New York. I know that gun ownership is part of the fabric of a lot of law abiding communities," Clinton said. "I also know that we can have common sense gun reforms that keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and the violently unstable while respecting responsible gun owners."

But Country music star Toby Keith said on Thursday that stricter gun laws would not have made a difference in Charleston. Keith said that if a police officer had been praying at The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday, "maybe seven or eight of those nine people would still be alive."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Why Uber banned guns from cars
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0620/Why-Uber-banned-guns-from-cars
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe