Word: guns
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...political events have begun showing up bearing arms may be disquieting, but it's perfectly legal - and the Secret Service, charged with protecting the President, insists that it is not unduly alarmed by the development. That's because while the Second Amendment guarantees Americans the right to carry guns, federal law also gives the Secret Service the right to keep gun-toting folks away from the President. (See pictures of gun culture...
While protesters in certain states may have the right to carry weapons to spots near presidential visits - and the Secret Service may blanket the President with protection - Petro says the guns' presence changes the atmosphere surrounding such events. "They're intimidating people like it's a western saloon," he says. And the weapons could turn a verbal clash between demonstrators into a shoot-out. "In a heated atmosphere," Petro argues, "it's a recipe for disaster." Most critical, according to Petro, author of Standing Next to History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service, is the message the guns...
...police arrested Richard Terry Young for having a loaded, unlicensed gun in his car near the Portsmouth, N.H., school where Obama would speak hours later about health care. A second man outside that event displayed a gun holstered to his leg. "I wanted people to remember the rights that we have and how quickly we're losing them in this country," William Kostric later told MSNBC. "It doesn't take a genius to see we're traveling down a road at breakneck speed that's towards tyranny." Kostric, who used to live in Arizona, said he voted for Ron Paul...
Both Arizona and New Hampshire are "open-carry" states in which it is legal to carry visible weapons in public. But every gun-bearing protester requires the attention of the Secret Service and the local and state police who reinforce their efforts. "If the local police are drawn away to deal with these fools, then there's a vacuum somewhere," Petro says. "Perhaps one of those cops was supposed to be in a critical place where he or she could have stopped someone from doing something to the President. That's a real problem...
...protesters carrying weapons to presidential events. But it doesn't appear to be the result of any organized effort. The National Rifle Association, whose website encourages its members to attend and speak up at congressional town-hall meetings, didn't respond to a request for comment on protesters' brandishing guns. But Paul Helmke, who heads the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says such an act "endangers all in attendance" and that even if their actions are legal, "common sense" should dictate that gun owners keep their weapons away from such gatherings. "Loaded weapons at political forums endanger all involved...