Not only did Omar Gonzalez breach White House security last week, it turns out he’d been arrested two months earlier in Virginia with a cache of guns and a map of Washington, D.C.
No wonder the U.S. Secret Service is taking the incident very seriously and has vowed to upgrade security to ensure the incident isn’t repeated.
Gonzalez jumped the White House fence and sprinted onto the foyer of the mansion before he was stopped. Had he been carrying a gun or, heaven help us, a bomb and had been intent on mayhem, who knows how the incident might have played out?
Still, the Secret Service and National Park Service, which also has a say in the matter, should resist the temptation to turn the White House into the equivalent of a bunker that citizens can’t even get near. That might be the simplest way to guarantee complete security for White House residents, but it’s not the best strategy.
Add more guards to the premises or upgrade the fence. But don’t further restrict public access to one of the nation’s most iconic sights.
