Local Reporter Had Gun In Trunk At West Point Before Obama's Speech

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Talking Points Memo

A local reporter attempting to cover President Obama's speech at West Point this week was not allowed in when he told security officials he had a hunting gun in the trunk of his car.

West Point spokesman Jim Fox tells TPM that the reporter volunteered the fact that he had the firearm in his car, saying he left it there inadvertently.

He was interviewed by both the Secret Service and West Point's military police. The Secret Service determined he didn't pose a threat to the President, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the incident. But the reporter was asked to leave.

The news comes as the Secret Service is facing scrutiny over its role in letting two uninvited guests into the White House for Obama's first state dinner. In several incidents earlier this year, protesters carried guns outside venues where the President was speaking.

The official also told TPM that the reporter, a longtime journalist who has covered White House events in the past, had applied for press credentials to cover the speech but was denied.


Read more: http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/local-reporter-had-gun-in-trunk-at-west-point-before-obamas-speech.php?ref=fpa

[onehandle]

1. 'inadvertently'

Oh, right. A gun is just a tool.

[8 track mind]

12. Why yes it is a tool!

Hunting rifles come in very handy when changing flats! Nothing gets a stuck lugnut off like a hearty blast from a .30-06 at point blank range!

[Cirque du So-What]

2. If law-abiding wannabee reporters can't carry rifles into events where the President is speaking

then only CRIMINALS will be able to carry rifles into events where the President is speaking :sarcasm:

Anymore, that 'sarcasm' smiley is absolutely essential.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Oops.

[Tim01]

4. Doesn't surprise me at all. It's hunting season.

LOTS of people have rifles in their cars now.
I do wonder if he actually forgot, or just figured nobody would ask him before he parked his car.

[Ian David]

23. It's wabbit season!

[NV Whino]

5. Inadvertantly is certainly possible

A friend of mine who was driving me when I couldn't drive, frequently forgot that he had guns (from target shooting) in the car.

[xultar]

7. Exactly. This is crying wolf...the shit we need to be worrying about is the stuff you don't know.

[geckosfeet]

17. Don't know how forget something like that. I never do. If you forget where

your guns are, you probably shouldn't own one.

[midnight]

6. Ok. This gun issue, is an issue, that is rearing it's head.

Why does a reporter need to carry a gun to an an event where the President is speaking. Someone made a good call not to allow this loon near the President.

[C_Lawyer09]

13. A hunting rifle

It's hunting season, it was in his trunk.

[Xenotime]

29. unacceptable.

[amandabeech]

30. Because he went hunting the day before after work and forgot to take it out?

Or he had gone that morning before work?

Or he wanted to be prepared if some 10-point buck appeared near the road. Seriously, some hunters want to be prepared for something like that.

He didn't attempt to conceal the firearm.

This is a rural area and rifle deer season was on.

I suggest that a random check of vehicles around town would have turned up a few more guns in vehicles that normally don't hold them.

Really, I think this isn't anything more than a forgetful hunter judging by the facts presented.

Not to worry about this one.

[anarch]

8. I can see this being totally accidental

visited Liberty Island recently, and you have to go through airport-like security and all that...my GF totally forgot that she had some kind of mace-on-a-keychain self-defense thingy (which is evidently totally illegal in NY anyway), and I also got pulled aside after the x-ray machine and had a pair of pliers and a screwdriver confiscated, that I had absolutely no idea were in my bag. In my opinion, the damned terrorists owe me a pair of pliers.

Not quite the same as forgetting you have a rifle in your trunk, but still, I can see it.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. if you accidentally leave your hunting rifle in your carryon, you ain't boarding the plane

Your accident. Your problem. I agree, the reporter should be turned away with a polite 'next time, get your act together'. Someone else can easily click the trunk release to get the gun out. The Secret Service doesn't need to be keeping their eyes on cars now too - they would be called the Secret Valet Service.

[rocktivity]

10. So?

He didn't try to take the gun into the venue, did he? And having been denied White House credentials earlier, he must have realized how much worse it would look if he went inside and the gun was found or sniffed out. Everyone involved here did the right thing. No story.


rocktivity

[G Gordon Libby]

11. Evidently Desiree Rogers...

...wasn't holding the reins on this one.

[C_Lawyer09]

14. I know this might be hard for some of you to digest

But sometimes one can forget that he has a firearm in his vehicle. You drive all year without one until hunting season, or you have a concealed carry permit, you then drive by post to hit the commissary or some such place, and you realize at the last second that you need to go home first, etc. It's not that big a deal.

[geckosfeet]

18. If you can't remember where your guns are you probably shouldn't own guns.

[C_Lawyer09]

19. Now why is that?

The guns in my home are in my gun safe, the gun/s in my car are unloaded. I never load a weapon until I'm ready to use it. The one exception is a handgun in my home, where there are no children. If and when children are present I lock the pistol in my gun safe. Another anti-gunner with silly statements and/or arguments.

[geckosfeet]

21. You know where your guns are don't you? I know where mine are.

When I get to where I am so fucking stupid that I don't know where I left them I will sell them.

I am not anti gun. I just think people who guns should do so responsibly. Not knowing where you leave a gun is irresponsible. If I leave a gun out where it can be stolen and someone steals it and shoots themselves or someone else.

I don't know why I have to explain this to you. You own guns and I assume you are responsible. For gods sake. You go to the range and if the range officer sees you walk away from your gun he should throw you out.

[C_Lawyer09]

24. You must not have comprehended my post

Simple point. It is possible, if you spend most of the year without a hunting rifle in you car or truck, it is possible to forget that you have one in your vehicle, especially if you travel on and off a federal installation a lot. Second, I always lock my vehicle regardless. Third, and you might have missed this point, I don't load my weapon until I'm going to use it, except for the instance I mentioned. If you want to be melodramatic, be my guest.

[AtheistCrusader]

20. It's entirely possible he didn't 'forget'.

He may have been getting ready to go hunting that weekend, and got called in to cover the story, because another reporter wasn't available.

I sincerely doubt it was in his trunk from last season, and he probably didn't think it would be a problem as long as it STAYED in the trunk. That would have been my assumption.

[geckosfeet]

22. Then he should know better than to take a gun to a presidential event.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. Leaving it locked in his car, in the parking lot?

What possible harm could it do?

He was turned away, not because the President was there, but because it was a federal piece of property, wherein no firearms are allowed. He could have shown up there on Tuesday, and been sent away just the same.

[bluedigger]

15. No big deal.

Local reporter covers the President's speech at West Point. Reporter hunts and has rifle in trunk. West Point is a Federal facility and, as such, no firearms are allowed on the installation. He gets turned back at the gate. (They probably would have let him back in if he had been able to stash the rifle somewhere.) If the President speaks at a HS auditorium, then the reporter parks in the parking lot, passes security, and covers event with no problem. He just couldn't get on the facility.

[bertman]

16. thank you, bluedigger.

[JonQ]

26. This is an outrage!

When reporters with no known animosity towards the president are allowed to get that close to the commander in chief before voluntarily disclosing the presence of a gun in their trunk they had left after hunting, well . . . who knows when it will end?

This time we were lucky, but what if next time he really does forget about it, interviews the president, then drives home, remembers it and puts it back in his gun safe!! Could you even imagine?!!?!

[formercia]

27. Two things you do before you go out the door.

1. Check to see if your fly is zipped.

2. Ask yourself:If I get stopped, is there anything on me or in my car that might get me in trouble?

[tomhayes]

28. Two points

1)I have known people who store their weapons in a locked case in the trunk of their cars. I worked with a person who was a highly rated marksmen who often went to the shooting range during lunch hours and several times over the years he needed to take his car in for servicing and he placed his case in the trunk of my car for the afternoon. (I did not use my car when the weapon was stored in it.)

2)If you remember you have a weapon in a car and are going to a highly secured event-- turn the car around and take the weapon home.