Didn’t the Secret Service used to arrest people that got near the President with a gun?

By: MICHAEL ROSTON

Didn’t the Secret Service used to arrest people that got near the President with a gun?
Hey remember that guy back in July 2002 who was arrested for having a gun near a small Maine airport that President Bush was flying into? From the Los Angeles Times:

A man was arrested on weapon charges near a small airport shortly before President Bush arrived on his way to his family’s seaside home, police said.

Christopher Willey, 38, of Springvale, was on a closed road near Sanford Regional Airport. He was held on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and having a loaded 9-millimeter gun in his vehicle, authorities said.

(Later, he was released, according to the Portland Press-Herald).

Or how about this guy back in May 2001 who happened within 60 feet of a jogging President Bush in Iowa with a registered firearm, also in the LA Times:

The Secret Service detained a man with a gun in a Des Moines park where President Bush was jogging, local police and White House officials said.

Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin said the man was about 60 yards from Bush when he was spotted by officers. He said the man had a permit for the gun, but he was detained because he was so close to the president. Mackin said the man appeared to be in the park for reasons completely unrelated to Bush’s visit.

But hey, at least these two dudes had weapons. Consider the fate of Timothy Pinkston, who according to the Tampa Tribune last month will spend 57 months in jail and never even appeared to get a weapon:

Timothy Wade Pinkston, 49, is serving a 57-month prison term at a federal prison in Alabama after being convicted of threatening the president.

Pinkston was arrested after being interviewed by the Secret Service at the psychiatric unit of St. Joseph’s Hospital, in Tampa, where he had been committed under the provisions of Florida’s Baker Act, according to a complaint affidavit filed in U.S. District Court. Pinkston was hospitalized after he made threats against the president and said he was going to kill himself, the complaint states.

“When being interviewed by the hospital staff, Pinkston stated that he wanted to shoot President Bush and made the shape of a gun with his hand,” the affidavit states.

At his sentencing hearing last year, Pinkston told the judge that when he threatened Bush, he had been taking drugs and drinking and didn’t know what he was saying. He also said that he was trying to get St. Joseph’s Hospital to give him a place to sleep.

So, let’s tally that up: in the Bush years we had two guys detained for obliviously getting too close to President Bush with firearms, and a third given a lengthy jail sentence for threatening the president when he never had a firearm and was mentally ill.

In contrast, a guy showed up at President Obama’s stop in Phoenix yesterday with a semi-automatic rifle promising, “We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote.” Sounds like fighting words to me.

According to AZCentral.com’s Scott Wong, three police officers shadowed this man. The Brady Campaign’s Paul Helmke warned:

Individuals carrying loaded weapons at these events require constant attention from police and Secret Service officers, thus stretching their protective efforts even thinner.

And then we’ve got another guy with a pistol prominently displayed outside the President’s town hall in New Hampshire last week holding up a sign suggesting that it was “time to water the tree of liberty.” One wonders: would he rather have the blood of the patriots or the tyrants spilled first? My friend Declan McCullagh reported for CBS News that Portsmouth police had to keep an eye on him, too.

So what happens when you carry a firearm near our new President and make vaguely threatening statements? Apparently nothing. The Republican Party leadership says nothing about the guns, and encourages voters on their side of the aisle to express their rage (see John Cook in Gawker). And their backbenchers, like Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia, encourage citizens to show up the president’s events packing pistols, according to Raw Story:

Gingrey replied: “Well Chris, they have the right to do that. I have no fear of it. I’ve already had five town hall meetings; I have six more planned. I don’t plan on wearing a bullet-proof vest. In fact, I usually get standing ovations when I come into these meetings … I have no fear.”

“Okay,” began Matthews again. “Would you discourage Americans, no matter race, color, creed or political identification, not to come armed to public meetings? Would you discourage them from doing that?”

Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN), who has not been holding town hall meetings on health care, replied, “My answer is yes…” He was cut off by Gingrey.

“No, I would not di … Oh,” the Georgia Republican trailed, before concluding that Americans should “exercise their Second Amendment rights.”

So while the Secret Service used to arrest you for getting anywhere close to a sitting president with a pistol, intentionally or not, now Members of Congress are encouraging you to show up to President Obama’s town halls packing heat.

I think the birthers are the least of our worries. Except for the ones with guns.

But maybe the Secret Service was going too far in its Bush-era arrests of citizens who found themselves in the wrong places at the wrong times. So I’ll spot you this: remember those free speech zones? The cages where protesters could hope they might get within a mile or two of the president’s motorcade? Let’s set those up near future public presidential events, and you can take your rifle there to wave your Don’t Tread On Me flag.

But let’s maybe put up a blast wall around you in case anyone decides to take a pot shot.