Amusing angle: the judges got the guns from the local police dep't, and the sheriff, who provides courthouse security, is a bit perturbed. Not at the idea of their packing, but at the thought that nobody bothered to let him know.

Here in Tucson it was known that some judges packed. One gave it away when a defendant/mental case rushed the bench, and it was observed that the judge's reaction was to pull up his robe on the right side while reaching for his waist level. It's a safe bet that he wasn't fishing for a pocket edition of the Arizona Revised Statutes.