Retired cop barred from taking gun into Tacoma Dome sues city

Retired Federal Way Police Officer John Stray decided to try an experiment before the Iron Maiden concert at the Tacoma Dome earlier this month to see if the stadium’s security staff are following the law.

The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush, allows current and retired law enforcement officers to carry firearms into most places where guns are banned by state and local law.

Stray wanted to see if this law would hold up at one of the Northwest’s most famous music venues.

“I think in today’s day and age, we want armed citizens,” he told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “And in fact there is case after case that shows that armed citizens have prevented [violence] and saved lives.”

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However, when he tried to enter the stadium and showed his badge, the security manager — an employee of the City of Tacoma — told him that he would not be allowed to take the firearm inside.

“He said that under no circumstances could an on-duty officer out of uniform, or an off-duty officer out of uniform, or a retired officer, or a concealed weapons permit citizen [enter] … that under no circumstances were [they] allowing anybody into this venue unless it’s on-duty, in-uniform personnel,” Stray said.

Now Stray is suing the City of Tacoma for failing to follow the law.

“We should follow the law, and if the law isn’t what we want, we should update that,” he said.

Perhaps even more alarming to Stray was in 2017, when he took his gun through the Tacoma Dome metal detectors, and they did not go off. He is concerned that the city’s security is stopping police officers who identify themselves, but not people who might try to get a weapon past guards without revealing it.

The first time he was told he could not bring his gun into the Tacoma Dome was in 2016; then, he was on the clock as a police officer, though in plainclothes.

“That was especially egregious, and basically took my back on my heels, because it was so out of the blue,” he said. “I didn’t expect it.”

Stray pointed out that it is not as though there is no accountability for officers under the Law Enforcement Safety Act — retired officers have to go through a qualification course on an annual basis to be able to have these weapons privileges. This is purely based on shooting capability without a mental health component.

Stray said that he is not a “strict, crazed Second Amendment kind of guy,” but worries what kind of precedent is set when a city begins ignoring gun rights laws.

“I think we’re on a slippery slope when we start just making up out of whole cloth our own rules and just deciding by fiat what we’re going to do, in complete disregard of what the rules and the laws are by the state,” he said.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.