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Knife Carry in Courthouses or Govt Buildings
- Thread starter GAgunLAWbooklet
- Start date
but he tried to drive through the front door.
And your belt buckle and wristwatch and your car keys and your cellphone ..then if you still beep?
The pack of chewing gum(tin foil)...it goes on and on..
Its ridiculous what I had to go thru the last time I went the courthouse to register a car I had bought..
I got flagged at the courthouse while I was on duty, in uniform, on official business with my big 35 ton fire truck parked out front in the fire lane in plain sight. The deputy freaked out and called a supervisor because I had a Gerber multitool in a belt pouch. He’s standing there waiving it in the air for everyone like he just captured Bin Laden red handed. I snatched it out of his hand and threw it in his trash can. His supervisor said, “you didn’t need to do that!”
I replied, “I took the same oath to protect and serve as you guys. If you can’t trust a firefighter carrying a sheathed multitool, then the public can’t trust anyone. I’m obviously not Al Qaeda”
I went on my merry way a few ounces lighter and their mouths wide open in disbelief. Ironically, the tiny one inch blade was broken and I was getting a new one anyway, but it made for a good display of my childish disdain for authori-tie.
I replied, “I took the same oath to protect and serve as you guys. If you can’t trust a firefighter carrying a sheathed multitool, then the public can’t trust anyone. I’m obviously not Al Qaeda”
I went on my merry way a few ounces lighter and their mouths wide open in disbelief. Ironically, the tiny one inch blade was broken and I was getting a new one anyway, but it made for a good display of my childish disdain for authori-tie.
I did a deep dive on this question, and here's what I have come up with.
Carrying a knife into a courthouse and even a courtroom is probably not against the law. Back in the day (and not that far back) there were more attorneys and judges carrying "gentleman's" knives than not.
First the senior judge of the circuit has probably issued an order that sets out what may and may not be brought in the courtroom, some of the orders purport to cover the whole courthouse, but that's another discussion. Judges have probably come and gone since the original order was issued, and nobody can put their hands on it, but it is floating around out there.
Secondly, what everyone relies on is the Sheriff's security plan. The "gotcha" is that the Sheriff's security plan is not a public record, and so not subject to the open records law, and so not subject to being scrutinized to see if it is legal in all regards.
Violating the Sheriff's security plan is probably against the law, unless the violation is protected by some Constitutional provision.
So I believe that there is no general law that makes carrying a knife into a courthouse illegal per se, as I did it for several decades, and there has been no change in the law that would make it illegal in the ensuing decades.
What has changed is the whole security thing, which has led to the judge's orders, and the sheriff's security plan, and it appears to me that between those two, pretty much anything they want to ban can be banned.
My opinion is that checkpoints and body searches at the courthouse entrances in the name of COURTROOM security are probably unconstitutional.
I can't carry a pistol or knife to the tax commissioner's office because it is in the courthouse, but I can drive down the road 3 miles and carry both into the tag office, which is a part of the tax commissioner's office.
It just rubs me the wrong way to put up a wall of armed gov't employees to control access to elected officials, and other offices we are forced to do business with.
I've been in the Chattooga County court house several times in the past 5 or so year. They have a metal detector and the only metal I was allowed to bring in was my keys ... and they asked why I had so many. I had to lock up my handgun, two knives and about $5 in change in a spare ammo can I keep in the trunk of my car.
I have had to appear as a witness in the Floyd County court house and they were about as strict, except I put my change in a ziplock bag because they have vending machines in the building and I can't trust them to take my wrinkled $1 bills. Federal Court (also in Rome) requires a suit and tie and the same security measures. In one adventure as a witness I found it was easier to bring in notepads & documents in my hand than in a briefcase - the latter requires someone to slowly go through it and examine each pen and marker. But that time they initially thought I was a lawyer and I almost died laughing thinking of some lawyer jokes* while going through security.
*Disclaimer: no offense to lawyers anywhere, and yes, this disclaimer was not written by a lawyer or it would be a whole lot longer and have several pages of footnotes and small print stuff at the end.
I have had to appear as a witness in the Floyd County court house and they were about as strict, except I put my change in a ziplock bag because they have vending machines in the building and I can't trust them to take my wrinkled $1 bills. Federal Court (also in Rome) requires a suit and tie and the same security measures. In one adventure as a witness I found it was easier to bring in notepads & documents in my hand than in a briefcase - the latter requires someone to slowly go through it and examine each pen and marker. But that time they initially thought I was a lawyer and I almost died laughing thinking of some lawyer jokes* while going through security.
*Disclaimer: no offense to lawyers anywhere, and yes, this disclaimer was not written by a lawyer or it would be a whole lot longer and have several pages of footnotes and small print stuff at the end.
buddy of mine has so much shrapnel in his body he sets off the detector,some times he funs em some times he aint got time for the Bull ****
To me it only makes sense to limit access to weapons in courthouses. You have very personal access to Judges who are, for all intents and purposes, taking away violent criminals’ freedoms. How many times have you seen brawls break out or irate families cause a disturbance in courtrooms? What is to stop them from just saying **** it and blasting the judge away? Sure, they can do it out in public, but that takes more work to get so close and personal to the judge. In a setting where freedoms are being stripped away from violent criminals it is only smart to keep access to weapons to a minimum. These people, and lots of times their families, are considered violent criminals for a reason.
Im all for firearms, the 2nd amendment, and carrying a firearm to protect yourself wherever you go. However, this is one of those common sense laws that protects vulnerable individuals in an unpredictable setting. Plus, when you have 10 or more armed officers in a single building where they check everyone who walks through the door you don’t have a whole lot to worry about. Research “Dennis Marx in Forsyth County” if you don’t believe me.
I have sat through hundreds of trials and hearings and have never seen a "brawl" in a courtroom. Maybe a half dozen "irate families" get a little mouthy, and they are instantly dealt with. I have never seen court disrupted more than a couple of minutes by such behavior. It doesn't make the 5 O'clock news, but the courthouse grapevine works pretty good as to when additional security is required. I have been asked by judges in advance of hearing if I thought additional security would be required.
The two or three (or 4 or 5) armed deputies serving as courtroom baliffs seem to be a pretty good deterrent.
And that's why the appropriate authorities take the appropriate precautions. Not all parties in all matters before a court receive the same treatment and scrutiny from the responsible people.
Dennis Marx was not in the courthouse. He never got into the courthouse. Even so, with "10 or more armed officers in a single building" he was able to wound a deputy sheriff, and if he had been a better shot, probably would have killed the deputy. As apparently with "10 or more officers in a single building" at least one deputy had something to worry about, and any passerby would have likewise been the object of this nut job.
The only judge in Georgia to get shot in a courthouse in Georgia in recent history was Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes, who was shot and killed by a Brian Nicols, WHO WAS IN THE CUSTODY OF THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, and who killed 3 people in the courthouse with THE DEPUTY"S SERVICE WEAPON. Courthouse security played absolutely no role in these killings, EXCEPT that it guaranteed that there was no ARMED PERSON between the courtroom where the murders occurred and the front door of the courthouse so that Nicols was able to escape and continue to kill.
For over two hundred years, lawyers and judges, and other interested parties routinely carried firearms into courtrooms. In fact, it was discussed over drinks (you know, when the lawyers are selling out their clients) that in certain rural counties, the likelihood of the depraved person you described attacking the judge were virtually nil because of all the people in the courtroom who would gladly shoot him.
Even after metal detectors were introduced to courthouses, many counties gave a pass to attorneys carrying guns to courts.
So not being allowed to carry a pocketknife or fingernail clippers is as ridiculous at courthouses as it is for TSA.
Feel free to do a search of all the recorded instances of a judicial officer getting shot in a courthouse from 1776 until say 1990.
i wouldnt even attempt it
those people at the courts are usually humorless dicks
those people at the courts are usually humorless dicks
