Peace-bonding

A peace-bonding is a conspicuous lock, tie, or mark which makes or identifies something as unusable as a weapon, that is, that the owner's intentions are purely peaceful.

At some conventions or public events, attendees carry real weapons or costume props that appear to be weapons. To prevent attendees from using real weapons at such events, the security team peace-bonds anything that might look like a weapon. [Rogow, Roberta: "Futurespeak: A Fan's Guide to the Language of Science Fiction", page 244. New York Paragon House, 1991.]

The event's weapons policy may offer subjective criteria to determine what looks like a weapon. For example, a weapons policy may require a peace-bond for anything that a reasonable person might recognize as a weapon from a short distance in dim light. Real weapons, if allowed, are disabled, secured, and marked. For example, bright orange zip ties may be used to hold a sword in a scabbard or to hold a pistol in a holster. Simulated or costume props may require conspicuous marks, such as bright ribbons or zip ties, to show that security has deemed them safe to carry. Simulated weapons or props which can be used as a weapon may be disabled or secured just like real weapons.

Peace-bonding helps security control prevent attendees from bringing or using real weapons to the event; anything that looks like a weapon but which is not peace-bonded is immediately suspicious.

This term is used at science fiction and fantasy conventions.

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