Weapons Galore at LA Courthouse

LOS ANGELES -- Security screeners at Los Angeles County's 48 court buildings last year confiscated 53,302 knives, 24,783 scissors, 21,014 razors, 8,208 pairs of handcuffs and 114 stun guns -- enough to equip a small army, it was reported Friday.

Those figures form one of the more interesting -- and unsettling -- statistical categories in the latest L.A. County Superior Court annual report, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The review found that the number of banned weapons seized jumped to 245,868 from 199,015 two years earlier, according to The Times. A total of 21 million screenings were performed in the L.A. court system, the nation's largest, in the first 10 months of last year.

Other items found included assorted hand tools, brass knuckles and a sword disguised as a cane, The Times reported. Screeners also seized seven unspecified lethal weapons, two daggers and two handguns.

In one instance at the Long Beach courthouse, security personnel found a gun hidden inside a woman's diaper bag, according to The Times. The woman had come to see her husband, who was appearing in court to face charges of making terrorist threats and who was unaware she was carrying the gun, according to the newspaper.

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