Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy asked State Rep. Chris Hurst (D-Enumclaw) Monday to study a state law requiring county officials to take knives and other dangerous weapons into safekeeping while their owners visit courthouses.

In the meantime, a safety committee is reviewing plans to increase security at the county’s three courthouses in compliance with state law, McCarthy said.

County officials announced earlier this month they would no longer hold Mace, knives, clubs, flammable liquids, toy guns or replicas, handcuffs or handcuff keys and a long list of other objects for visitors.

There is an exception, under state law, for guns, which can be checked at the door. But that exception also applies to other kinds of weapons.

It’s long been a practice to receipt guns, knives and similar items that are banned from the courthouse and allow their owners to retrieve them on the way out.

The county’s new security procedures were designed to increase courthouse safety and make the visitor screening process less costly and more efficient, McCarthy said.

People entering the busy County-City Building in Downtown Tacoma and other courthouses are subject to airport-style scrutiny, which includes walking through a metal detector and putting your bags on an X-ray machine conveyor belt.

You can read about courthouse screening procedures here.

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Moments after pulse-pounding music and ear-defeaning cheers to welcome the Seattle Mariners onto their home field for Opening Day at Safeco Field this afternoon, the crowd was instantly silenced.

Some three dozen officers from the Lakewood Police Department, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office and Seattle Police Department fanned out across the field, holding a giant American Flag at waist level.

And when public address announcer Tom Hutyler asked the already standing crowd for a moment of silence for “six police officers who served and protected others” and died in the line of duty, the big crowd instantly hushed.

Hutyler then read …

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