ErinElizabeth
Rookie
The CSI's who aren't cops do have badges for identification purposes and they carry guns for protection since they will be at crime scenes. So it isn't so weird that Sheldon would have both even though he's not a cop.
I can understand him having identification, Hawkes had an ID when he was an ME and Adam had an ID in SD. But Hawkes was wearing a detectives badge. He's not a detective... As for the gun that doesn't bother me at all and like you said, makes sense.
A badge doesn't only signify a cop. Security guards wear badges and they aren't cops. A CSI would carry/wear a badge that clearly identifies them as a Crime Scene Investigator.
Well that's obvious but what I said was that it happened to look just like a detectives badge that the other characters wear. Not all badges in the NYPD look the same so I was thinking that his might look different since he's not a detective (see where I'm going with this?). But I looked around a few websites and the "investigator" badge looks similar to the "detective" badge. At least according to this site: http://police-badges.de/hidden/nypd.html
So I suppose he could have an investigator badge.
Either way, pretty interesting stuff. I've enjoyed the research.