Call for Ban on Guns Near U.S. President

Washington, August 22 (RHC)-- A delegate to the U.S. House of
Representatives has called on the Homeland Security Department and the U.S. Secret Service to provide tighter restrictions on citizens carrying weapons, openly or concealed, while in the vicinity of President Barack Obama.

The request was made after news reports have shown groups of people brandishing firearms while outside of events held by Obama over the past several weeks.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is a non-voting delegate to the Congress from Washington, DC, said that "if the Secret Service can temporarily clear all aircraft from air space when the president is in the vicinity, the agency has the authority to clear guns on the ground that are even closer to the President."

But the Secret Service insists that Obama was never in danger when a group of about a dozen protesters brandished their firearms outside the Phoenix convention center earlier this week where he was speaking. One man carried an AR-15 assault rifle, but Arizona law allows people to carry unconcealed guns and police made no arrests.

Some observers say that the atmosphere in recent days has taken the whole issue of gun control and the right to have and hold their loaded weapons, and mixed it all up with rampant racism and right-wing ideology.