Posted on 12/27/2011 7:02:49 AM PST by marktwain
A guy who makes late-night deliveries can carry a handgun for protection while he goes about his work, assuming he has a legal permit and his boss doesn’t mind.
County prosecutors, who try to send violent people to prison for a living, can’t carry a handgun anytime they are on the work clock.
The tragic shooting of a county prosecutor and a witness in a Grand Marais courthouse recently shows the need to amend the state’s conceal/carry gun law.
Cook County Attorney Tim Scannell was shot by Daniel Schlienz, who had just been convicted of criminal sexual conduct.
There have been other acts of violence at or near courthouses in Minnesota, often directed at prosecutors. While some courthouses have metal detectors and screen everyone coming in, most do not. Equipping courthouses with detectors is not financially feasible.
State Rep. Tony Cornish, who had been working on a bill to allow prosecutors to carry guns for protection has gotten more support and attention for the idea since the Cook County shooting. Blue Earth County Ross Arneson is among prosecutors who favor the change.
The current gun law prohibits county, city or township employees from carrying guns during work. Cornish says he doesn’t want to change that, except to make the exception for county prosecutors and assistant prosecutors.
Prosecutors — who would still have to go through the same process of getting a permit as anyone else — would be able to carry a handgun in the hallways, offices, interview rooms and other areas where they work. But it would still be up to judges’ discretion on whether to allow prosecutors to carry in the courtroom.
Cornish says he sees no reason to expand the exemption to city attorneys who don’t prosecute serious misdemeanors or felony crimes.
Considering there have been virtually no problems among average citizens who legally carry guns — despite predictions of blood flowing in the streets when the law passed six years ago — it’s difficult to imagine any problems in allowing prosecutors to carrying a gun for protection.
“County prosecutors, who try to send violent people to prison for a living, can’t carry a handgun anytime they are on the work clock.”
Texas has a CHL specifically for judges and prosecutors (I have one) that lets us carry anywhere, any time, under any circumstances.
I like it.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I advocate open-carry everywhere by anyone who is not a felon and is over age 18. I’d limit it to some people with misdemeanors, but only violent misdemeanors or drug/alcohol related.
EVERYWHERE ... an honest, upright, moral, virtuous Citizen isn’t going to use a handgun unless there’s a legal reason to do so.
If everyone who was eligible open-carried, violent acts would decrease dramatically. BUT WITH OPEN-CARRY MUST COME LAWS PROTECTING THOSE WHO USE THEIR GUNS AGAINST CRIMINALS. There ARE shootings which are justified ... and Justifiable Homicide must not be permitted to be prosecuted in Civil or any other Court by the PERPETRATOR or his/her family. But the perpetrator of a crime should be mandated to pay for any damages he/she has caused his/her victim.
And Moslem women would no longer be concerned with ‘honor-killings’ if they were armed.
This seems to me to be a “slippery slope” argument. If you allow prosecutors to be armed, pretty soon they will start tagging restroom stalls, staking claims on their ‘turf’ against armed gangs of defense attorneys, and selling drugs to support their gun habit.
The big contingency and divorce lawyers will get into the act, too, carrying high-powered assault rifles like AK-47s they can use for “waddle-by shootings”. Soon, “hired guns” will be brought in for expert testimony and quick draw gunfights.
The courtrooms will be littered with dead and dying lawyers, and...
Well, all things considered, this is probably a good idea.
Would it not be better to ask Why Not expand the exemption to city attorneys.
Is there some evidence to suggest that city attorneys are not trust worthy enough to carry a weapon on the job? Is a city attorney’s life less worthy of defending than a county prosecutor’s?
Regardless of the relative threat I believe that a city attorney is just as entitled to defend his life while on the job as any other officer of the court.
Would it not be better to ask Why Not expand the exemption to city attorneys.
Is there some evidence to suggest that city attorneys are not trust worthy enough to carry a weapon on the job? Is a city attorney’s life less worthy of defending than a county prosecutor’s?
Regardless of the relative threat I believe that a city attorney is just as entitled to defend his life while on the job as any other officer of the court.
LOL!!
Is there a prohibition in the law against public employees carrying, or are public employees not protected from punishment if they’re caught carrying? I work for the UofM, and although they pretend that they can ban guns on campus in reality (and this is just my understanding) they can only expel students violating the ban, and fire employees.
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