On the declining use of gavels in the courtroom

This delightful story on the declining use of gavels in the courtroom comes from South Dakota but could have been written in Southwest Virginia.

One of the South Dakota judges explained that his only use for a gavel was to let kids play with them while he held adoption hearings involving small children.

I once heard Judge Glen Williams say the only time he took the notion to use a gavel to bring the courtroom to order, he looked around the bench and couldn't find one.