Judge of the Day: Minnesota Jurist Grabs Glock, Subdues Intruder

onJanuary 4, 2011 at 5:30 PMJanuary 4, 2011 at 6:57 PM

Which would you rather wield: a gavel or a Glock?

Who says you have to choose? Not Judge Shaun Floerke, of Minnesota’s Sixth Judicial District, who used a .45-caliber Glock from his safe to protect his wife and five children from a home invader on New Year’s Day….

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From THOMSON REUTERS

At 3 a.m. on January 1, an apparently inebriated 26-year-old man broke into the Floerke family home in Piedmont Heights. Judge Floerke grabbed a .45-caliber Glock from his safe, apprehended the intruder in his foyer, and detained the miscreant — with the help of the gun (yay Second Amendment!) — until the arrival of the police. (Read the full story in the Duluth News Tribune.)

I’ve poked gentle fun at state-court judges before, calling them “icky” (at least compared to their exalted federal-court counterparts). But in view of how bad-ass state judges are — in addition to Judge Floerke, see also Judge Ira Robinson of New Mexico, who fought off a knife-wielding mugger — perhaps I need to revisit that assessment.

At least if I know what’s good for me.

P.S. Federal judges, who are usually better at staying out of trouble than state judges, haven’t been acquitting themselves very well as of late. To the contrary, they’re getting convicted. See, e.g., former judge G. Thomas Porteous (convicted on four articles of impeachment); former judge Jack Camp (convicted after pleading guilty to drug-related charges).