STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And let's bring in Bill Gage, who, for 13 years, was a Secret Service agent. He's now a security consultant in the private sector. Mr. Gage, welcome back.
BILL GAGE: Thanks for having me, Steve.
INSKEEP: As a security professional, what stood out to you when you heard about this attack?
GAGE: Several things. You know, the most striking is that, you know, he impersonated a police officer, you know, banging on the door in the middle of the night. You know, people think there's some sort of emergency that, you know, people rush to their door, thinking that, you know, there's actually an emergency. So that struck me. Also, the level of planning. I was reading this morning before coming on some of the materials in the criminal complaint where the extensive planning, he had conducted some open-source searches - peoplesearch.org, some of these open-source search engines where you can get personal information. So that also struck me, the level of planning. So, you know, as an American, really scary that - you know, that there are these people out there that are - violent political ideologies, you know, very scary as an American, as a security professional. We really have to do a better job of doing threat assessments, and some of the state and local agencies have really got to receive some better training and some assistance from our federal partners - the Secret Service and the FBI - to really be able to find these people before they attack.
INSKEEP: I want to follow up on a couple of things that Representative Scholten said just now. She said that she postponed a town hall meeting. She didn't say she canceled one. She said she wants to be smart. She said, quote, "we, in no way, are going to stop showing up." And it makes me reflect that public officials have to be in public, have to shake hands. They work for us. I think of state capitals as public buildings. I think of the U.S. Capitol as a public building, even though there's security and so forth. How do we preserve that?
GAGE: We're having these same conversations, Steve, that we had after the congressional baseball shooting. It is nearly impossible to fully protect every member of Congress. You know, we had these same conversations after that horrific event at the congressional baseball shooting. And, you know, Minnesota has roughly 200 members in their state legislator, you know, my home state of Virginia, a couple of hundred members. We just - it's impossible to protect every single one. So - and we live in a free, democratic system. You know, that congresswoman is exactly right. Our elected leaders have got to be out in the public. Our elected leaders do not operate in secret, you know, behind closed doors like they do in a lot of countries. They have to get out, interact with the public, hear their complaints, have public hearings, you know, go to coffee shops, restaurants, meet their constituents. That has to happen for our democracy to function. So, you know, her postponing the event was probably just out of an abundance of caution. I think they're really ironing out and running out some of the clues that, you know, the shooter might have left to make sure that this wasn't part of a broader a conspiracy, that he acted alone. So I think that was smart for the Congresswoman to do that.
INSKEEP: And in the few seconds that we have, would you tell public officials to arm themselves, bring along more armed security, do anything else in particular?
GAGE: Yeah. I would not give, you know, tell somebody not to arm themselves or to arm themselves. I would just encourage America's elected leaders, both, you know, city council, mayors, you know, members of Congress, I would tell them, hey, follow the advice of your local law enforcement, you know, seek out some of your federal partners if you have questions, and I would just follow that advice.
INSKEEP: And you talked earlier about trying to spot people before it gets to this point and be able to be on top of it.
GAGE: Absolutely. You know, the Secret Service, the FBI, there's some great federal programs out there. I would encourage state and local law enforcement to really seek out some of these certified threat assessors that can sort of look at these threats and stop them before they happen.
INSKEEP: Bill Gage, retired Secret Service agent, thanks so much.
GAGE: Thanks for having me, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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