Security guard parameters?

misque

misque

Joined
Jul 9, 1999
Messages
3,316
I guess my question is:
can a security guard at a mall or theme park legally confiscate your legal folding knife? I have a real problem since I read about people having their folders confiscated at the gates of Sea World/Busch Gardens and the like by rent-a-cops.

Thanks for your help and yes I did a search and came up with zippo! :eek:


All the best,
Mike U.
 
As I understand it, unfortunately, yes. They are there to provide security to a _private facility_. As private property, the owners can say what is and isn't allowed inside. Once you're inside the gates, you hafta play by their rules. ( You can _try_ to sneak something past 'em, but if you get caught, you're in twice as much trouble!) The simple solution is, if you don't like their rules, you don't hafta go inside. Just because they're open to the public doesn't mean they can't have their own rules about what's allowed on _their_ property. There was a big todo when Texas passed the CCW laws, then a bunch of business owners started putting up signs in the windows banning otherwise legal CCW holders from their property. Really, how they gonna know unless something happens that makes them aware of what you're carrying? (i.e. you draw your gun for defense, shirt rides up exposing your gun (which you'd then be cited for "failure to conceal" by LEOs), metal detector goes off, etc.) I'm not saying it morally right for them to do this, but they still have rights as owners to do as they see fit with their own property. The guards? They're just SOL, if they get caught not enforcing the owner's rules, they get fired.

Matt in Texas
 
txmoonwolk nailed it. Private property. They can set whatever rules they want.
 
Absolutely not. Security guards can bar you from entering with a knife, but they cannot confiscate it. They're private citizens and "confiscating" your knife = stealing.

The can tell you to leave it in the car or not come it, but stealing your property is illegal. Unfortunately, if you surrender the knife and try to get it back later the police probably won't back you if the guards refuse to return it.

As far as CCW permits, individual states decide on whether or not you can post signs and bar entry of CCW holders with their weapons. Some states require permit holders to leave their weapons outside, some allow weapons even if the sign is posted. However, if you do enter they cannot "confiscate" your weapon. If caught you'd be removed from the premisise and be guilty of trespassing.
 
Ok, granted that it would be wrong for a guard to "confiscate" your knife (AKA steal), but if you tried complaining to the cops, who they gonna believe? :rolleyes: I think the ultimate irony in this is that , unless the guard is "armed" (trained and licensed to carry a gun, spray,club, cuffs, etc.), most guard companies prohibit their employees from carrying the same "otherwise legal" knives and other things that "might" be used as a weapon. For instance, I had 3 d-cell Maglite, and was told by my supe that a 4 cell light is "considered" club- or baton-sized, and therefore a weapon, which isn't kosher for the "unarmed" guards. Nevermind that this is Texas, and most of the male guards have a pocketknife of some kind anyway. (Personally, I encouraged any females I worked with, be they guards or the ones I was "protecting", to carry a key-ringsized pepper spray. I couldn't be everywhere all the time, and I figured better to be fired and still in one piece than dead and within company rules!)

Matt in Texas
 
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