imported post
This is a blatant attempt at violating the intent of the law.
However I was wrong. The only definition I could find
actually defined 'court' only, and that definition actually states
a room where court is being held is a courtroom.
So the law decides a courtroom by the act of court being held.
so a courtroom used for other purposes, is during that time,
legally not a courtroom.
For courthouse however, there is no legal definition, however
there are laws regarding courthouses, including the
renting of
unused rooms in a courthouse.
This means you can't infer courthouse from courtroom.
legally, if a word is not defined by law, then the
common definition can be assumed
to be the intent of the word
This would lead us to the broader interpretation.of
Merriam-Websters:
1 a : a building in which
courts of law are regularly held
b : the principal building in which county offices are housed
2 : county seat
Wiktionary:
courthouse (
pluralcourthouses)
- A public building housing courts of law.
- (US) The public building where most American counties have their county offices.
Princeton Universities WordNet:
Noun
courthouse (a government building that houses the offices of a county government)
courthouse (a building that houses judicial courts)
So lets recap! I've been unable to find a
common definition that did not INCLUDE the offices of a county gov't. I even found a few other sites that, like wiktionary, noted the county offices/seats were an american-only courthouse definition.
Therefor this Sheriff STILL HAS NO LEGAL GROUNDS to bar entry to those bearing arms. I don't care if the judge holds court there once a year, as long as the County Seat is in the new courthouse, it only counts for prosperity, not for legalities.
Oddly enough, most counties, like KING & QUEEN, only bar firearms in the courtroom, and not in the whole courthouse where the county seat is located. Also City Seats are generally in a City hall and seperated from the courthouses, yet they can only ban weapons in the courthouses and not city hall.
This might mean it actually is legal to ban guns in city hall, Go figure.
