My front door is always locked. WHY would the White House front door be unlocked?

[MoonRiver]

?????

[HereSince1628]

1. Because it's "guarded" 24/7/365. Yep, -I KNOW-

[MoonRiver]

2. Regardless of other security measures, locking the door for safety is a no-brainer.

I am smelling many rats, and they stink.

[HereSince1628]

4. I agree, when I was in service I worked in secure facilities--never locked the front door

The side doors, yes, locked and they even had siren alarms.

Some internal doors even were locked, requiring being "buzzed in"

But out front where people with and without clearances came and went? Never.

[GummyBearz]

3. one obvious reason

Obama forgot to lock it... making this whole fiasco one more thing on the list of what is Obama's fault.

[Lurker Deluxe]

5. Being on the wrong side of a locked door can be a problem

I am sure that you do not "always" lock your front door.

If a family member is inside and you walk outside to speak with someone, do you lock the door behind you?

Standing on one side of a locked door means your reaction time to something that could happen on the other side of that door is limited. There is no reason to lock a guarded door, and many reasons to not lock it.

[MoonRiver]

7. Well, yes, if I am standing directly outside the door, it is not locked.

But when anyone is inside, the door is always locked. We also have an alarm system and surveillance cameras. Yeah, we're paranoid! But I doubt anybody with a knife will ever come charging through our house.

[jberryhill]

6. Because it is a busy work and event place

[madokie]

8. I remember when I used to not lock the doors

When the boys were young coming and going we never locked the house up but now that its just the two of us and our pet we lock the doors. As a kid growing up in the 50s we never even had a key and if we did it would have been the same one that the neighbor had so why bother. You remember the type of keys, church keys I think they called them. Anyways it seems we live in a whole different society today than we did way back then and as recently as the 90s when our kids were growing up. Today if I go out on the back deck I make sure the front door is locked just because, why I have no idea but just because, because I have a lock and a key maybe but anyway its different today than yesterday.

I remember up until I got married at the ripe old age of 42 that the only key on my key chain was for my car and and towards the last a key to the tool box at work. Now I have several keys on my keychain.

[MoonRiver]

10. I think my parents only locked doors when we all left the house.

But they always preached caution to us kids, and I certainly listened. Always locked the doors to my apartments as a young single woman. Once, when I was about 21, I was walking up stairs to a garage apartment I rented. I automatically locked the door when I went inside. Then, through the window, I saw a strange man coming up the stairs. He turned the knob to try and get in. When unsuccessful he went back down. Never even knocked. If that door had not been locked I shudder to think what would have happened to me.

[madokie]

17. Just reading this sent chills down my spine

Being a guy I can't imagine fear and the precautions you girls have had to deal with your whole lives. I guess thats why some fathers are so relieved so many times when their babies get married, they have a guy that they can trust to help them watch over their little girls. I think in most cases. As is always the case, there are exceptions to that.
Have a great day

[MoonRiver]

20. We have to be constantly vigilant, and frankly it's maddening.

My dear father, may he RIP, was always very protective, and worried constantly about us when we became teenagers. My mother had a close call herself when they were first married. They both worked different hours, and she was followed after she got off a bus, heading for their apartment. She managed to elude the guy, but talked about how terrified she was decades later.

[unblock]

9. well, it is inside a fenced and supposedly heavily guarded and monitored compound.

the hallways don't all have doors and the interior doors don't all have locks, because you're not expected to be able to get that far without belonging there.

similarly, the front door is open because you're not expected to get there without belonging there. at some point, the nuisance of having to constantly unlock and open and close and lock a door outweighs the additional security offered.


given this latest breach, they'll have a few things to rethink. locking the front door might be one of them, but the real problems were far away from the front door as he should never have been able to get near it.

[Feral Child]

11. It isn't the same thing.

Do you have daily tours of your house?

Yes the White House is a domicile, but it's also a public building. Hence, guards.

We're giving this bullshit unnecessary traction. I can't remember a presidency that didn't have the occasional low-level security breach at the WH.

This is a non-event that the GOP is trying to balloon into a slam at Obama. Political grandstanding.

[elias49]

12. Thank you. Exactly. nt

[SoCalDem]

14. and that entrance is NOT the one most used by the First Family

That is the "ceremonial" front door

They mostly enter and leave at the opposite side ,. where the helicopter lands

[Feral Child]

18. Indeed.

They seem to forget that Saint Ronnie had fence jumpers, too. As well as a nearly fatal assassination attempt.

How come Reagan wasn't castigated because Secret Service let someone shoot him, yet Obama is responsible for someone finding an insecure door?

More Posturing from the Right.

[Ms. Toad]

22. Thanks -

I was about to say something similar to your first couple of sentences. Yes, the president lives there - but it is not JUST a home, it is also a work place. You don't lock the front door of a business.

[Iggo]

13. Because the secret service is racist.

I believe that's the answer you're looking for.

[MoonRiver]

15. Or teabaggers or both. eom

[TransitJohn]

16. Why would your front door always be locked?

I've never lived that way. Isn't it normal to lock up at night?

[gollygee]

19. Your house and the white house are two entirely different things

The white house is both a public building AND a home. The door that you are talking about is not the door to the home. There are armed guards all over the place. There is a security problem, but it's about the guards, not the door.

[rock]

21. OK, admit it: you lost the key

(Just joking with you!)