Woman with handgun arrested outside White House after Obama immigration speech

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

Maybe the Secret Service should make a public-service announcement about leaving your guns at home when you visit the White House. On Thursday night — a day after an Ohio man was booked outside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with a rifle in his car — Secret Service agents arrested 23-year-old April Lenhart of Mount Morris, Michigan, for walking around the White House fence with a 9 mm handgun holstered at her hip. She was charged with possessing an unregistered firearm and ammunition.

Ed Donovan, spokesman for the Secret Service, said Lenhart is not cooperating and won't discuss her motive for packing heat outside the president's residence. NBC News says she was participating in a demonstration during President Obama's speech outlining his executive actions on immigration, and was arrested soon after the speech was over. Agents are applying for a warrant to search her car. A man with Lenhart was questioned but not arrested.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.