INDIANAPOLIS -- Gun rights advocates said Wednesday they plan to push to allow guns near Indiana workplaces during the current legislative session.

The bill, backed by the National Rifle Association, would not allow guns to be carried in actual workplaces, but would permit Hoosiers to have guns in locked vehicles in parking lots, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce said its 5,000 members are dead set against the bill.

"They're saying, 'We want to be able to control and have a say over whether firearms are brought onto our property or not, and we don't want the Legislature telling us otherwise,'" said chamber President Kevin Brinegar.

Business owners also said they don't want a repeat of two incidents earlier this decade.

In 2001, a disgruntled worker at a Goshen wood products factory went home to get a gun, came back and started shooting. He killed himself and a coworker and shot six others.

A similar incident in South Bend two years later left four dead.

"Employers are concerned that, you know, somebody has an argument at work, and they go out to the parking lot, to their vehicle, bring their weapon in and start shooting the place up," Brinegar said.

But supporters of the bill downplayed the risk of workplace violence and said the right to bear arms is paramount.

"That's a possibility anytime there's a gun anywhere, so that's something that 'what if,' or whatever," said bill sponsor Rep. Robert Bischoff, D-Greendale. "For someone to have their gun stored in their trunk or in their glove compartment, as long as it's concealed in there, and they want to go hunting after work, I don't have a problem with that."

The bill has passed the Senate in the past but has never gotten a committee hearing in the House. This year, it's been assigned to the House Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Bischoff.