Have there ever been any surveys? Are most Judges (criminal and civil) armed while outside of the courtroom? I would think most of them would feel rather vulnerable not being armed, being that they Judge some pretty hardened people all day. Hardened people that carry grudges.
Hey, we’re lucky if they’re wearing pants. If they want to carry a gun into a courtroom, that’s fine with me.
However, they also always have an armed bailiff right there. And, even though the possibility for eventual apprehension, trial, conviction and prison time isn’t necessarily enough of an incentive to keep people from committing crimes, having already failed steps 1 and 2 is usually enough to keep things pretty quiet in the courtroom.
But I mean outside the courtrooms. Are they armed?
They can be. If I recall correctly, all Federal judges are allowed to carry concealed anywhere in the United Staes, including Washington, DC.
To me, that’s all I need to know. That’s really all anybody needs to know. The whole idea of concealed carry is that nobody knows. Otheriwse it would be open carry.
I agree, and I realize my question is a paradox in nature. But yeah, I guess this question would also be hard to answer.
Looks like that legislation has not passed yet. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04477:
Speaking for one federal judge of my acquiantance: he’s always armed on the bench, sometimes with more than one pistol in reach. When not working, he’s got at least one in the car and will squeeze another into his manbag if he’s dealing with a litigant that he thinks is particularly dangerous or unstable. He also has an ankle holster, I don’t know how much he uses it though.
As far as I know, there aren’t any surveys; U.S. Marshal don’t keep records on who carries and who doesn’t, although I do know of one federal judge who testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee that many of them do. The concealed carry provision for federal judges has been bandied about quite a bit in the last few years, but it hasn’t passed yet. Senator John Cornyn has recently reintroduced it. Here’s the text of the Bill.
Federal judges do occassionally get a crazy after them; I can think of two murdered federal judges off of the top of my head, and some nutjob once tried to hire a hitman to kill my old boss.
I know at least one of my local Judges carries when on the bench. Can’t say I blame him. Of the other Judges I know, at least two are hunters, and I’d be stunned if they did not carry something most of the time.
Frankly, I’m pleasantly surprised that my state has not been on CNN for a courthouse shooting recently. We have decent to good security in the bigger towns, but once you get out to the rural counties, there really is little security. Anybody that wanted to could enter the court with an aresenal, and cause mayhem before much could be done to stop it–unless the Judge or the lone baliff manages to pop a cap in the shooters. They do beef things up a bit during felony trials, but family law cases seem to me to be equally likely to result in violence…particularly hotly litigated custody/divorce actions.
Then why not start in in another forum, one that doesn’t ask for a factual answer.
Think before you post your OP’s.
samclem GQ moderator
Moving to IMHO.