Washington DC question....LEOSA.

[octagon]

You can't carry in the Holocaust museum but they will let you lock it up and go in. Also you can carry on the Library of Congress tour but not on the library floor if you are doing research. You can lock it up in the LoC PD station. You can carry in the Washington monument you just have to sign in on the ground floor and sign out when you leave. The Spy museum was fine. Native American museum, Forestry museum and the Natural History Museum are all OK. The rest already mentioned I had similar experiences. I went on 7 week to weekend visits while my wife worked there a few years ago. I did have better experience with wallet badge and ID better than just ID.

[JRB]

I'm glad they treat LEO's with respect. I was forced to surrender a pocketknife at the Smithsonian despite being military.
So if you're meeting friends, etc there in DC that aren't LEOSA eligible, their mileage may significantly vary.

[TGS]

I'm glad they treat LEO's with respect. I was forced to surrender a pocketknife despite being military.

There's no statute in DC that exempts military from any laws regarding weapons, fwiw, nor does military status confer any authority to carry weapons when out and about on your own business. "I'm military" isn't really an affirmative defense to anything. In addition, the topic of the thread is LEOSA...and LEOs have statutory authority to carry their guns. If you were a qualified LEO from the .mil side, this would be pertinent.

The crusty, sassy old woman security guard called me an idiot for bringing a knife to DC, and said that I'd have to surrender it. No option to lock it up and retrieve it later, period. No option to leave, walk about a million blocks away and lock it up in my friend's car.
Surrender it or they'd call the cops. Those were my choices.

Did you make a complaint about this after leaving? If not, you should have. You carrying the pocket knife is not illegal in DC, provided it has utility purpose. A purpose built fighting knife is a different story. There was no reason for them to seize that property from you when you could have simply been escorted off the property. I visited the holocaust museum prior to becoming a LEO and they simply had me leave...whatever I did with the knife when not on their property wasn't their business, I just couldn't come in with it and they weren't rude about it, thankfully.

[Dagga Boy]

At the airport getting ready to process to leave. Basically...stated out of Washington. Stayed in Virginia and Annapolis. Did the NRA museum with a special guide, and had an amazing tour of the Naval Academy. Figured with my interests, that was pretty good. Amazing differences of folks and laws in this whole area depending where you are.

[JRB]

There's no statute in DC that exempts military from any laws regarding weapons, fwiw, nor does military status confer any authority to carry weapons when out and about on your own business. "I'm military" isn't really an affirmative defense to anything. In addition, the topic of the thread is LEOSA...and LEOs have statutory authority to carry their guns. If you were a qualified LEO from the .mil side, this would be pertinent.




Did you make a complaint about this after leaving? If not, you should have. You carrying the pocket knife is not illegal in DC, provided it has utility purpose. A purpose built fighting knife is a different story. There was no reason for them to seize that property from you when you could have simply been escorted off the property. I visited the holocaust museum prior to becoming a LEO and they simply had me leave...whatever I did with the knife when not on their property wasn't their business, I just couldn't come in with it and they weren't rude about it, thankfully.

I'd hoped that I'd edited my post before anyone read or responded to it. I'd thought it was relevant at first, but when I saw this was in the LE subforum I felt I was out of my lane, and regretted it. I apologize for that.

I'm keenly aware that being mil is basically a fart in the wind. But I'd like to think it'd show that I had no hostile intent or ill will, and that I could be spoken to like a reasonable, lawful adult.
I did not make a complaint. I've only ever seen complaints make things much worse in those sorts of cases. Losing a $65 knife wasn't worth an LE interaction or further disrupting the trip.

I'm rarely upset and few things surprise me anymore, but the condescending attitude and open disrespect from such an unexpected place got under my skin a little.

Again, my apologies for the thread drift and I'll pay closer attention to a thread's location before responding in the future.

[Kan S LaTrans]

There isn't for active LEOs...and there is supposed to be an exemption for LEOSA/HR218 retirees...but...I got a lecture from DC Metro last year after I retired when I went to DC for a medical conference with my wife (She's a surgeon). It was impossible to get the same answer twice, so I erred on the side of caution and carried a Glock 30.

I didn't want to be the poor bastard who caught a case in DC.