Off duty police taking their guns to school
I was at my daughter's Christmas concert last night at her school. I noticed a police officer, in uniform, with his gun holstered on his hip. I'm pretty sure he was not on duty, as the school is not located in the town he works in, and he was alternating between holding a young girl, presumably his daughter, and filming the performance. This seems like a violation of the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, as the officer was not "acting in their official capacity". This is in North Carolina, but I'm not sure if that matters, as it's a federal law, which, as I understand it, supersedes state and local laws. Am I correct in this assessment?
Posted Dec 18, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC
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The challenge to your assessment may be that the officer, while in uniform, is acting in his official capacity. Even while on a break watching his child perform.
In any event, there is no reasonable likelihood that your effort to apply the federal statute this way would be successful. You would almost certainly find no judicial, legislative, or law enforcement will to disarm police officers entering schools.
To add to that, North Carolina specifically allows police officers to carry off-duty, even in schools, which the GFSZA allows them to do.
Please help me understand, what part of the GFSZA permits NC to make such an allowance? H.R. 2513 (Police Officers Protecting Children Act) seems to be an effort to explicitly allow this, which would lead me to believe that it's not allowed currently.
What are you aiming to accomplish here? Is it really seeing sworn law enforcement officers disarmed before entering the school? Is it your belief the school becomes less safe when occupied by an armed officer?
I’m not sure that’s a very compelling end game.
When an officer is on duty, it is presumed they have some level of situational awareness. This would also include paying attention, at least on some level, to the fiream on their hip. When they are acting as a parent, with a toddler crawling all over them while trying to film another child, their attention is elsewhere.
The officer introduced a gun to a school event, filled with curious little people, and no one was paying attention to it.
Exceptions
Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)(B):
[18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)(A)] does not apply to the possession of a firearm—
(i) on private property not part of school grounds;
(ii) if the individual possessing the firearm is licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located or a political subdivision of the State, and the law of the State or political subdivision requires that, before an individual obtains such a license, the law enforcement authorities of the State or political subdivision verify that the individual is qualified under law to receive the license;
The state of NC exempts on-duty and off-duty from the restrictions of carrying firearms that are applied to open carry and licensed conceal carry.
Sworn law enforcement officers, when off duty, provided that an officer does not carry a concealed weapon while consuming alcohol or an unlawful controlled substance or while alcohol or an unlawful controlled substance 13 remains in the officer’s body; Found it here. (Page 12 at the bottom)
Yes, that legislation is intended to do that broadly across the board in all states, much as LEOSA does now. GFSZA allows for this in in 18 USC 922(q)(2)(B)ii):
In short, a state can exempt anyone it wants from GFSZA provided it gives them an express license to do so. In most states, law enforcement officers are licensed, so it's a minor step to say that license qualifies as an exemption under GFSZA.
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