I need to head down to the Ramsey County Courthouse today to contest a parking ticket, two actually. Now from everything I remember, carry in the courthouse buildings is perfectly legal. However, haven't some judges declared them "gun free zones." Does this just apply to the court rooms themselves? I'm not worried about a noncompliant sign, just the straight legal issue.

Who would of thought you need a parking permit to park in front of your own house?

Based on my visit last year, in Ramsey County, the judges have declared the entire courthouse a "gun free courtroom." BUT, the security guards are very nice about it. They provide a lock box for you to place your holstered gun in while you are in the courthouse. Just tell them you need to secure your firearm.

That's pretty cool of them. It's a much better option than leaving it in the car.

IF there isn't a court order to the contrary ,
AND IF you have notified the county sheriff of your intent to carry,*
THEN it is legal to carry.

Ramsey has that court order.

* See MN Stat 609.66

Or, if you want to be a little pissy, tell them you need to secure your fire<I>arms</I>, then pull a half-dozen out of concealment. That's what I plan on doing next time I have business there.

Of course, I may not be the best example to follow . . .

Camera crew in tow?

and a BIG HONKIN one out of "not concealment"!

Perhaps better would be a couple of folks who 'just happen' to stop by with <a href=http://www.scdlink.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=1385&category=18 target=new>discrete video recorders</a> in hand . . .

Just got back. I wasn't hassled at all. I parked across the street from the hotel next door, at a meter. There were a few people in line when I got there. I put everything besides my gun in the tote and then told the guy I had a firearm to secure. He looked at my permit and DL. I took off the gun/holster and put it in the lock box. I came back about 15 minutes later and got my gun back. The only questions I was asked is what I carried, not that it matter, they were just curious.

The only problem I had was it took forever for the guy to get the lock box open and closed. The lock didn't want to cooperate. They said they've only used it a handful of times. They'll be using it again when I go back next week.

Glad everthing went well when you secured except for the lock. Bring some WD-40 next time.

WD-40 will stick up a lock over time, use powdered graphite instead.

Congrats on the firearm results. Seems reasonable.

Any luck on the parking tickets? In our last house, one of our cars continually got tickets from Metro Transit for some reason, not that a bus ever drove by, but whatever. I can understand how you may have issue with that.

I went back down there today. I was heading to campus afterwords, so I wasn't carrying. I did beep going through the metal detector. He wanded my RIGHT pocket (which pocket matters later), didn't deep. Then wanded my LEFT pocket, beeped. Forgot my cell phone in the LEFT pocket. Took that out and he wanded my LEFT pocket again, good to go.

While waiting to appeal my ticket I went to put something in my RIGHT pocket. I noticed I had my pocket knife clipped to the little pocket on the RIGHT side. On days when I can't carry, I make sure I have at least a pocket knife on me. I think it is a 3 inch blade. I always attach it to the little pocket on the RIGHT so I have fast access if I need it. I'm not sure what they would have done had they found that when I walked through.

I got my tickets thrown out, and I got the hell out of there!

Oh, and they made me fill out this survey stating what race I was. I thought that stuff was purely optional? They gave me the survey and asked for it back before I left, so I didn't have much of an option. Only I Ramsey County I guess.....

I was unaware there was anything but the human race. I leave the ethnicity boxes blank as a general rule.

I usually check Native American as I was born in this country.