Albany, N.Y. (WBEN) - New York State Assemblyman Joseph Giglio and Senator George Borrello introduced legislation in Albany to permit properly licensed judges and town, village justices to carry guns into court in order to protect themselves and others.
Judges were allowed to carry guns with a permit until the 2022 Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which barred justices and judges in the state from carrying firearms into court, as courts would be considered "sensitive locations" where firearms are banned under the act.
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Sen. Borrello says they've spoke with local justices and the New York Magistrates Association and they have safety concerns.
"Rural areas, like those that I represent, these are not courtrooms with metal detectors, and court security, these are typically night courts with a judge, a clerk and a prosecutor, and no security whatsoever. These folks are often the justices of the peace in our town and village courts and oftentimes, they're retired law enforcement, so they're already trained in the use of firearms.
This is just a common sense solution, because the bottom line is, when you designate some place as a "sensitive area", the only person that isn't going to consider it a sensitive area is a criminal, and that's what we're talking about here, that my Democratic colleagues fail to understand. Criminals do not follow the laws. They don't follow the rules. A sensitive area in general, is just, in my opinion, a soft target for criminals who wish to cause harm."
The Concealed Carry Improvement Act exempted law enforcement officers and private security guards from its “sensitive location” restrictions. However, no exemption was made for judges and town and village justices.
Former State Supreme Court Judge Penny Wolfgang shared her thoughts with WBEN's Max Faery on Thursday.
"I do believe there's a lot of common sense to this legislation, there's a lot of merit to it, that you have to have a caveat and understand that we're talking about judges who have the same constitutional protections under the law as everybody else. They have to apply for a permit, just like everybody else, and once they've passed the regulations and restrictions and do have the permits to protect themselves. They definitely need to be able to protect themselves in these courtrooms which do not have the same protections of law enforcement, bailiffs and security people that the big city courtrooms have."
Borello reminds us that bail reform laws have emboldened criminals to become more violent, which leads to more dangerous situations in courtrooms.
"Yes, there have been incidents in courtrooms there have been instances of people acting up. doing violent things. We have seen an increase, just like we have in any other parts of our society, in our criminal justice system. That's what this will address and like I said, the Magistrates Association, and the justices that I've spoken to are are concerned for their own safety and the safety of those folks that they work with."
This legislation, unless transferred into a special session, won't be voted on by our state lawmakers until January when they go back into regularly session.
"I think this is an important issue. I'm going to push for it. I know Assemblyman Giglio is pushing for it. My hope is that my colleagues on this side of the aisle who represent rural areas, especially, will be sympathetic to this cause, and realize that the problem in New York State is not guns and firearms that are owned by law abiding citizens. The problem in New York State, is the fact that we have literally taken the shackles off of criminals and allowed them to do dangerous things with illegally possessed firearms. That's the real problem. Putting restrictions on people like judges is not the solution. It's going backwards in a sense of public safety."