Protect the courthouse for all of us
"Because it hasn't happened yet" is a poor reason to not take reasonable precautions, whether it's in personal behavior or governmental policy.
If we tell ourselves that we can drive under the influence of alcohol because we haven't caused an accident yet or that we don't need to pay the mortgage because the bank hasn't foreclosed yet, we're tempting fate and we know it.
We can't tempt fate with something as important as the public's safety.
Flathead County Justice Center is where people go to divorce, to face prison, to sort through emotional legal actions with the misnomer of civil lawsuits, to lose custody of children, to serve and be served with orders that keep us away from homes or people we wish to have contact with and can't. While happy occasions happen in the building, too, it's fair to say that it's an emotional place.
It's not a place where you want to wonder if the agonized person next to you has a gun.
And yet, even in the wake of security precautions after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that barricaded the parking lot at the courthouse, there is no guarantee the person next to you doesn't have a weapon.
During high-profile criminal cases, courtroom visitors might be "wanded" - screened by courtroom personnel with a hand-held metal detector. Most of the time, though, visitors walk through the main doors of the building and on to whatever office they seek without ever seeing anyone in uniform.
It makes some courthouse officials uneasy and we can understand why, after recent news of courtroom violence elsewhere.
Statistically, most violence happens in divorce cases and other proceedings that aren't criminal cases. A shooting in an Atlanta courtroom this month, though, happened in a criminal trial.
Thursday, 38 criminal defendants will appear on felony charges in District Court. More will appear on minor charges in Justice Court. A host of other people will come and go. Probably none will be screened for weapons.
The solution is a metal detector in the lobby of the building. That will take a person or two to operate during the hours the Justice Center is open, but we think it's a good investment.
So far, however, there has been no movement in that direction.
Sheriff Jim Dupont says he can't justify more staffing in the courthouse when there are not enough deputies on the street. That's hard to argue with, even knowing that the number of criminals, emotions, and volatile situations is more concentrated at the courthouse than anywhere else in the county.
But making the Justice Center safe shouldn't have to mean sacrificing other law-enforcement needs. We would hope the county commissioners and sheriff could adjust their budgets - and their thinking - to the changing world we live in.
In order to provide better security at the courthouse - and possibly save lives - we must take the simple precautions that are available now. "It hasn't happened yet," but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be prepared in case it ever does.