Responding to a state Supreme Court ruling that he clearly questions, Circuit Judge Morgan “Chip” Welch has issued a temporary order allowing attorneys to carry guns into only the “common areas” of the Pulaski County Courthouse. And for now, he concluded that’s the building’s first floor and nowhere else — at least not yet.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in April that state law allows attorneys to bring guns into courthouses. This really did happen.
This week, Welch released a temporary order outlining how to enact the Supreme Court’s decision in the short term at the Pulaski County Courthouse, pending further proceedings in his court, scheduled for Aug. 1.
“The Court anticipates more than one hearing may be necessary to implement the vision of the Supreme Court,” he wrote.
Vision or political grandstanding? It’s a fair question. After all, the divided Supreme Court’s ruling was appropriately hailed only by lovers of guns and bullets.
Welch’s order raises several significant questions that the high court would have been wise to address in its April decision as well.
He noted, for example, that the Supreme Court’s order applies to attorneys “regardless of training or certification” and that the Pulaski County Courthouse contains jail facilities. He said he would let the Supreme Court decide when to apply its own decision to its own courthouse in Little Rock even though that building is also in Welch’s jurisdiction.
Welch noted that the Supreme Court’s opinion did not address issues such as sensitive courthouse areas that sometimes include jails or other areas where detainees and inmates are transported or arrested.
“The Opinion begs the question: Within what proximity of any inmates should armed attorneys be allowed?” Welch wrote.
Other questions Welch advised lawyers to anticipate at the August hearing:
–How should armed “Lawyer Officers” be required to initially identify themselves to court security personnel, who likely will not know which armed people are lawyers?
–What should be the role of these armed lawyers in the event of an active shooter?
–Should these lawyers participate in the apprehension of suspects or in firefights?
–Are a judge’s chambers considered a courtroom?
–Should the high court’s opinion apply to district courts located within a police or sheriff’s station “through which armed lawyers will have to traverse?”
–Are armed “Lawyer Officers” immune from liability?
–If implementing the high court’s order requires renovations or other expenses, what agency will pick up the tab?
Lay people like myself might also ask a couple questions. What if the defendant is a lawyer representing himself in a criminal case? And can these lawyers carry an assault weapon into a courthouse if their bruised egos demand such weaponry?