imported post
Well I am certainly not a lawyer, but... from reading the resources that have been provided here and taking a plain reading of the code of Virginia, it sure seems to me that local jurisdictions are preempted from prohibiting the carrying of firearms in the areas of any buildings that are not used by the actual courts or court offices themselves.
The case discussed at the link provide by skidmark says "
Only that portion of building appointed for use of circuit court
constitutes courthouse", and the Virginia code is quite clear as well: "It shall be unlawful for any person to possess in or transport
into any courthouse in this Commonwealth..."
When you add those two up, the rooms in a building that are not used by the courts, are not the "courthouse" and thus, not an area that is prohibited to carry. And of course we all know that our friend
§ 15.2-915 prevents local jurisdictions from setting up their own firearms rules.
I'm sure it would be quite expensive for a lot of places to change their security setup to comply with this, and it may be conceivable that some buildings would be unable to comply at all.
Having said that, it would be somewhat entertaining when you go into a "courthouse" for non-court related business next time, to mention to the deputy, etc, who is manning the magnetometer that "oh by the way, do you know that you are in violation of State law here?"
It seems we've enjoyed a fairly good run of success with preemption by just "reminding" folks that the law is clear, and that they are in violation. It would be real interesting to see what the reaction would be to a similar letter to the Sheriff, etc, of a jurisdiction where there is a clear violation like this. I'm sure they would run it by the local Commonwealth's Attorney, and one might have to also point out the case law which defines "courthouse".
My "top of the head" guess is that they would ignore it and make you sue them to comply, and in so doing, they would hope that a current court would change their mind and establish a new precedent. If one were to do this, it would be best to do it in a jurisdiction with reasonable judges... as in not north!
TFred