The social security offices I have visited actually keep their employees behind bullet proof glass. The office in Colorado Springs comes complete with an armed guard, as well. When I had the occasion to visit the offices of the regional district for disability determination hearings, everyone was behind the bullet proof glass, complete with guard there, as well.
I doubt if they're worried about Classic, though. There are quite a few folks who have to apply for SSI/DI due to mental conditions like paranoid schizophrenia, psychosis, etc. If they're not on their meds - and often they're not because they don't have access to health care - they can be very spooky.
I have watched people who I sat beside, waiting for hours to be called - and you don't dare leave for a break because if they call your number when you're gone, you have to take a new number and start all over again. Then you get up to the window and you don't have form GVT666 which no one had ever mentioned the existence of until now - back to the old drawing board. The employees at those windows take a lot of abuse which actually the local Congressman should be getting since Congress is responsible for this mess.
Another lovely rule social security has about disability hearings is that yours can be expedited if you threaten to harm anyone who works for social security. So, go to the window, scream at the clerk and make violent threats, and you are rewarded for this behavior by having your case jumped to the head of the line, saving you a wait of a year or more. Brilliant rule, that.
