With metal detectors, schools could resemble "armed fortresses," Mayor Schmoke said.

Many of them have friends who go to schools that resemble armed fortresses with crumbling walls.

There was no doubt; the citadel was an armed fortress.

Shopkeepers complained that security measures had turned the village into an armed fortress, where the wealthy guests could barely go out and shop.

"This place is as near an armed fortress as I have ever seen."

I couldn't imagine turning my house into an armed fortress.

"Sounds like they turned the place into an armed fortress," Turrin remarked.

Mr. Powanda said the security measures were subtle because a community hospital shouldn't look like "an armed fortress."

The city center, once virtually an armed fortress, is now a thriving place of fancy hotels, nightclubs and museums.