Texas DA: Must I Let My Prosecutors Carry Guns Into Court?
Under a new Texas law, state prosecutors can carry handguns anywhere except jails and prisons. That means they are allowed to take them into courthouses and courtrooms.
But at least one district attorney is dubious about the 2007 law, and he has asked the state attorney general whether he can impose additional restrictions, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“While it may now be legal for a prosecutor to carry a licensed concealed handgun in a courtroom, I retain significant concerns with regard to the level of training that should be required in order to permit prosecutors to safely carry firearms in the volatile environment of a criminal courthouse,” says Ken Magidson, the Harris County district attorney, in a letter earlier this month to Greg Abbott, the state attorney general.
Magidson doesn’t want to ban all of his prosecutors from carrying guns into court, according to the article, but wants to approve those who do, based on their firearms proficiency. His predecessor reportedly had a written policy forbidding his prosecutors to take guns into court.
