No Guns at Iowa Forum: Secret Service Will Protect
The FAMiLY LEADER’s Presidential Family Forum isn’t the last chance for voters to hear from the candidates before the first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican Caucus in February, but it will likely be the most enlightening.
Friday evening, seven GOP candidates will sit down at a family dinner table—a very large family dinner table—to discuss the issues that matter most to the largest voting bloc among Iowa Republicans: Christian conservatives. Politics will take a backseat as their worldviews are stripped bare, and their hearts are opened up for all to see what’s really inside.
The pro-family organization promises the 2015 installment of the event will “purposefully examine and assess each candidate’s stated pro-family vision. Observers will learn what candidates believe about an issue, why they believe that way, how their beliefs frame their ultimate vision for America, and the level of sincerity for implementing their stated vision.”
But, for the first time ever, the event will take place under some of the most intense security ever. Following recent events, the U.S. Secret Service—charged with protecting not only the existing constitutional chain of authority, but the future chain, as well—is providing additional security for the event.
Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center, a part of the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa, will be evacuated and sealed Friday afternoon as the Secret Service performs a sweep of the entire facility. After that, admission to the building will be strictly controlled and everyone will be required to go through a Secret Service security line before entering.
Doors will open for the public at 5 p.m., about 90 minutes before the event begins.
Iowa allows anyone with a state-approved permit to carry concealed firearms, but Secret Service security protocols will not allow any “lethal weapons” to be brought inside the convention center. And, according to The FAMiLY LEADER officials who have been briefed on the security protocols, the Secret Service is taking that requirement very seriously.
“DO NOT carry any lethal weapons to the event,” the organization’s communications director, Drew Zahn, told working media in an advisory Wednesday evening. “If you are discovered with a weapon, you may be asked to return it to your vehicle. If you protest, you may well be arrested on the spot.”
