LOVE IT!

It's actually kind of creepy. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, outside authorized staff and VIPs are allowed near the route the President will be taking once he's in the building. Even a person with the pin needs to be escorted by a White House Communications Agency staffer. And yes, everyone on the crew does have USSS background checks performed on them prior to the event.

The rules as I've had them explained to me were pretty clear. If you happened to be in an area where the President was without a pin or escort, you ran a good risk of having a few extra holes put in you in very short order. If you were lucky that day, you'd be slammed to the ground and arrested. If you had the pin and were unescorted, you'd be slammed to the ground and arrested (but at least not ventilated). Slammed is my word, but the phrase from one agent who briefed me was, "...and we aren't too gentle with you if it happens."

The good news is that security is so tight that the chances of anyone getting into an area where they were at a direct risk of being shot are extremely small. There are more agents that you'd ever imagine at those events. The ones wearing dark suits and sunglasses are a very small number compared to those in the crowd.

-Mark

Yet another opportunity to be a test case that I will pass on. I'm not really interested in seeing the inside of a federal detention facility...

I'm too handsome for shower gang rape.

I really shouldn't share this, because it dates me in a heartbeat , but back in the day, I worked two details involving Mondale; one as the sitting VP and one as the Democratic candidate (versus Reagan). Both involved meandering our way from Mpls/St. Paul International to the Dayton complex on Lake Minnetonka. And yes, the behind the scenes activities were enormous. I can only imagine the exercise it is now.

I have an employee whose nephew has done well with USSS, having been at Bush's side for quite some time and is currently detailed to the Pope and his Vatican security force. It's been a steady stream of interesting tidbits - nothing classified obviously, but still outside the mainstream flow of info and ever more fascinating.

But if you REALLY want the stories, my wife's cousin (recently retired from MSP) was Ventura's driver while Jesse was Governor. The troop was from my neck of the woods in Central Minnesota and between him and Jesse (and his disdain for St. Paul), the two of them were twisted around and lost most of the time. Some pretty hilarious stories about those years.

Even farther back, when Hubert Humphrey was Vice-President, he came to a small campus to speak. He walked accross a commons with a big crowd of us following along.

One student sort of rushed forward and jumped up on a bench to get a picture. As he did so, he raised the hand with his camera above his head. A guy in a suit turned and knocked the student to the ground. He then appologized, he had thought the student was going to throw something at the VP.

Tough kid, he didn't get hurt.

Today they would probably keep everyone 2 blocks away.

And the kid would be at least a million bucks richer after the civil-rights lawsuit.

Whether or not the AF sign is state compliant or not is irrelevent. The AF grounds and buildings are exclusive to federal jurisdiction. I believe the wording is "No privately owned firearms beyond this point." It is different than a base that contains military housing. Those allow firearms with conditions - 1. Must be registered on base usually with your commander and the MP's 2. Family housing usually allows you to store it in your house, but in dorms it is stored in the base armory. Again commanders can impose specific requirements for their base. Additionally the firearms must be unloaded, cased, locked blah blah blah. IOW - you are't gonna have it on your hip.
Someone asked about LEO's at the VA. At the base the reg states that unless a LEO is on duty, in uniform and in a squad car they cannot have their weapon on them.
Random vehicle inspection w/o PC regularly occur at the commanders direction. I am willing to bet they would pursue any violations of this law/policy.
Hope that helps someone.
Sorry for the late post but hope that info helps someone, and yes they would pursue prosecution.