No right to bear arms

Sam Skolnik

Friday, Jan. 12, 2007 | 6:57 a.m.

In the past couple of years, Clark County bailiffs have taken a variety of weapons from those coming into the county's two main courthouses.

The metal detectors have turned up guns, knives of all sorts and old-school hurting tools such as brass knuckles.

Local judges and court administrators are saying enough is enough, and are looking to set down more prohibitive rules disallowing weapons of any kind - including some office or personal items that could be turned into weapons.

In short, they're trying to make coming into the courthouse roughly the same as getting past security agents at McCarran International Airport.

"We're taking more of a zero-tolerance approach policy for items that could be used as weapons," said Chuck Short, the courts' chief executive officer.

Court administrators have passed around a proposal that would prohibit weapons "of any type" from being brought into the Regional Justice Center downtown or the Family Courts building at Pecos and Bonanza roads, unless the person has obtained advance written permission from Short, or is a sworn and on-duty federal or Nevada-based peace officer. Under state law, judges and prosecutors are allowed to carry concealed weapons in court.

Citizens with concealed weapons permits would be included under the ban. Under the current policy, legal weapons are confiscated and put in lockers by bailiffs until the person leaves the courthouse. Under the new policy, the owner would have to dispose of the weapon before entering the courthouse; the locker would be gone.

A sign would be posted at each entrance, proclaiming "Stop" in large letters, then noting items not permitted in the facility, including: "firearms, ammunition, knives, all pocket knives, pocket tool(s), box cutter(s), putty knives, utility knives, wire cutters, scissors, pepper spray, aerosols."

"Emotions can run high when people are in the midst of a case," Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle said. Therefore it just makes sense, she added, to prevent people from accessing anything that could be used as a weapon in a courtroom.

The proposed policy will be voted on by local judges this spring, officials said.

"It's been an issue for a couple of years, and we're trying to get a handle on it," District Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. "It's a matter of public safety."

About 15,000 people come through the security checkpoint at the north gate of the Regional Justice Center every week, Sommermeyer said.

According to court officials, illegal weapons confiscations aren't common. But it happens in enough cases that they keep boxes of such items before turning them over to Metro Police every six months or so.

In recent years people have tried inventive ways to sneak weapons into court. In one recent case a woman tried to slip a butcher knife past Family Court bailiffs by stashing it in her baby's carriage - directly under the baby. In another, a man tried to bring a gun into court by hiding it under a laptop computer.

About a year ago, a man came into the courtroom of Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Douglas Smith with a knife. Apparently the man was able to get the knife past security, and once he was on the elevator, he unsheathed it. An attorney on the elevator with him then warned Smith's bailiff that a man with a knife was coming to his court.

Smith had his bailiff detain the man, but said "we had to be creative" to figure out what charge to hold him on, because the knife was relatively small. He said he found an applicable law that prohibits people from carrying a dangerous object in a public building.

Smith said he has held on to the steel knife, which has a four-inch fold-out blade and a dark-brown handle.

Although he "absolutely" supports the proposed rule change, Smith said he wonders why it should be needed at all.

"Why should you have to tell someone not to bring a weapon into court?" he said. "I mean, come on."