More judges carry guns, survey shows

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Judges are increasingly carrying weapons even though attacks on them remain rare, surveys and experts say.

The question of whether judges should be armed gained renewed attention last week after an Ohio judge returned fire at a man who shot him outside a courthouse.

Judge Joseph Bruzzese is recovering from the Aug. 21 shooting in Steubenville, along the Ohio River roughly 30 miles west of Pittsburgh.

“We carry guns,” a judge said in a survey that was part of the National Judicial College’s 2014 analysis of personal and on-site security measures. The report didn’t identify respondents.

“I now carry an easily accessible handgun with me at all times,” another judge said in the judicial college’s April security survey.

In 2014, four judges in Ohio’s 4th District appeals court issued an order allowing them to carry guns.

Tennessee in 2011 began allowing judges to carry weapons into courthouses after 16 hours of initial training and eight hours of additional training annually. That training requirement was later repealed. Wyoming law allows judges to carry weapons and decide whether anyone else can take weapons into the courtrooms, but limits the power of judges to ban guns in courthouses.

Judges have come to the realization they’re not immune from violence, said Lake County, Ohio, Judge Eugene Lucci, a former police officer who teaches judges about safety in his state and nationwide.

Lucci estimates that about one in 10 Ohioans have permits to carry concealed weapons, and he believes judges carry at a higher rate. He recommends that judges with guns undergo the same training as police officers.