A gun scare in a New York mall. “The whole mall was running one way,” a witness reveals. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. If there’s a terrorist attack or active shooter, think very carefully before you follow the crowd.
While we haven’t seen it here yet, foreign terrorists often start one attack to mass their victims and drive them to a second, even more deadly assault. Sometimes they wait for second responders. By the same token, there can be more than one active shooter.
Look before you run. Or, to paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it might save your life.
“The put us in the back where it was safe, and closed the gates.”
Wow. Just wow. Nothing says safe like the back room of a mall department store. That’s my first location pick when something bad happens. I’m heading to the mall!
If i had to go to the back of any mall shop… well, wheres the nearest hunting and outdoors shop? Out here they keep guns right behind the counter and all the ammo you can shake a stick at in the isles.
That said, screw going to the back of a shop, I wouldn’t be there in the first place or Id be heading straight for the exit. No exit? I’ll make my own exit, ex, go straight up through those china harbor ceiling panels and crawl along a fire sprinkler pipe-main, shit, hiding up in the ceiling panels is safer than the back of a shop.
Shh, everyone hid the good stuff in the ‘locked’ service panels and in the ceiling panels in the barrack(s).
Agreed. I wouldn’t have been there to begin with. Why malls still exist with the advent of Amazon, I still don’t know.
Malls exist because teenagers can’t play grab-ass and brawl on Amazon. Yet. Bezos probably has a team working on that, though.
Malls exist because most people like being out in the world rather than sitting home in their basement.
And just remember when you give money to Mr. Bezos you are funding the gun grabbers. You can shop online at any store these days.
Actually, if you shop with amazon.smile you can have a portion of the profits go to the Second Amendment Foundation. That is how I roll shopping on Amazon.
Might be easier to kick a hole in the drywall at the back of the shop. Get into the service access “tunnel”.
Out of sight, out of mind. Might be easier to find an exit that’s not jammed with bodies.
Two thoughts.
1: You think DI’s don’t know all the hiding places?
2: The back of a store would be my first choice in a sudden rush, reasoning, most likely i would have my kids with me so time and distance would be a major factor, nearly every mall I’ve been in has a back door leading out. You would have better luck of evading the entire situation by slipping out the back quickly than any other exit, some stores even tie together in the back at the maintenance service way, so if you peek out and someone has the exits blocked you can gain access to areas that will at the very least be the last to be searched by the bad guy.
The more distance between you and them the better, if its multiple attackers the distance will at least thin their numbers and bring the advantage your way.
Bingo. Virtually every mall built in the last 50 years is basically designed the same way: long corridors with shops lining each side, anchored by two or more big box retailers (Sears, Macy’s, etc.), and punctuated by half a dozen major entrance ways in between.
However, every store has an exit of its own in the back, usually opening directly to the outside or at least into a non-public service hallway that runs the length of the mall between the stores and the outside wall. Through these doors and hallways is how stores take in their inventory and take out their trash.
In a well coordinated attack by highly trained terrorists, like in Mumbai or Nairobi, you’re in some serious [trouble] no matter what you do. In the typical case of a suicidal whack job opening fire at random at a mall, slipping out through these essentially unknown back-of-the-store exits is the smartest move. You avoid the shooter(s) and being trampled by the panicked masses.
Same goes for restaurants. Never mind the front door or even the emergency exits. Head straight through the kitchen and out the back door.
Re your first thought. Not all who live in barrack are under the purview of a DI. I lived in barracks for almost six years after basic training. I was a straight geeky nerd who didn’t do anything illicit but the Health and Welfare inspections we received were indicative that others weren’t as straight. FWIW, the dogs are much smarter than any DI when it comes to finding stuff.
I was, however, busted during a health and welfare inspection which still has me bitter 30+ years later. I was a helicopter crew chief and on flight status. At that time any and all medication, including Over The Counter(OTC) meds had to be prescribed to flight crewmembers by a flight surgeon. Thus, because of a small bought of diarrhea, I had a bottle of OTC Kaopectate prescribed to me which they found “unsecured” sitting on my desk. My commander gave me a week of restriction because I hadn’t secured my “prescription medicine” . Yep. Still bitter.
This is exactly why I don’t go to the mall. I can find everything I need in other shopping centers where I can bring my guns, why be cornered in an over crowded public place filled with teenagers?
Simple, sage advice.
Mall avoidance is also good advice, though this isn’t always possible.
If you can’t avoid malls, go there during “off” hours. Weekdays just after opening, and
from 5pm-7pm, malls are pretty empty in my experience. Weekends and Thanksgiving-Christmas are to be avoided unless you’re into people/eye-candy watching. Rule #1 applies here…Don’t go to stupid places, full of stupid people, doing stupid things…ie…Urban malls when they’re full of teenagers and Aholes. At 10am, the only people you see are the old “mall walkers”
All contact / reaction drills I did in army, private security and self defence classes included LOOK. All good first aid courses included this too.
I still meet people almost daily who don’t see anything except what is on their phone.
Yes, don’t follow the crowd. And try to avoid areas where groups of “teens” are around.
Worried about a bit of the ultra-violence?
It bothers me that these people have the time and wherewithal to record events like this while “running for their lives”. Reminds me of a movie from a couple years back called “God Bless America” (dark, sometimes gruesome, left leaning movie). The two main characters shoot up a movie theater and the last of the movie-goers, who’s been filming the massacre, yells out “This is going on YouTube!” before getting blasted.
I remember that movie and how the director scolded everyone for labeling it as an anti-gun hit piece. He intended for everyone in the audience realize how closely they relate to one of the fvckwits who gets shot, and stop being said fvckwit in real life. The protagonists shooting everyone are the good guys in a world gone sour. I remember laughing myself to tears when the gameshow singer said “I just tried to kill myself so I could stay on TV” at the end.
Don’t get me wrong the movie’s definitely funny (Bobcat is hilarious) and has some great satiracal commentary. However, I do remember the female lead making some comments to distance herself from a gun nut or what not (maybe I’m wrong). I dont know, maybe my description was more of a warning, as some scenes, like the opening are not for the faint or heart. Good call though.
Funny how in the hands of police, this reporter calls them “long guns”, but the weapon of mass destruction lying dormant in my safe is an assault rifle.
Just FYI, this mall is in Elizabeth, NJ, which is not in New York.
bet this sort of thing happens significant less often in states that are not part of the “evil 11”.
California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, & Washington DC.
Where gun rights go to die.
I live in Minnesota, and while I don’t care for the leftist politicians who dominate the Twin Cities area, gun rights here aren’t in bad shape. Certainly not compared to the other states you list.
No magazine limits, no background checks on ammo, no “universal” background check law, no waiting periods, no “assault weapon” bans, open carry is legal (though not common), permits are “shall issue”, and “no guns” signs don’t have much bite to them. Silencers are now legal, too, which was unexpectedly signed into law by a Dem governor.
And there’s not much traction for further restrictions, despite the efforts of a handful of Minneapolis-St. Paul area libs.
Minnesota is demonstrably better than those on this list, I would agree. Connecticut surely deserves a place of (dis)honor on this list far, far ahead of Minnesota.
Minnesota is about the same as Texas.
Illinois has shall-issue concealed carry with state preemption. No magazine limits. No bullet buttons. No state approved list of guns you can buy. No “assault weapons” ban (though a few municipalities do). No ban on hollowpoints. FOID card but no firearms registry.
It’s not exactly a 2A paradise, but it’s a lot closer to freedom than most of the states on your cute little list.
Only because the Supreme Court twisted their arm. I fly into Chicago for business a couple times a month and the atmosphere is extremely anti-gun. I know the rest of the state isn’t like that, but Chicago rules the state. Virtually every business has a “No guns” sign on its door. They must have handed those out like candy. I always laugh when I see them, because, yeah, someone who’s willing to shoot up your store is definitely going to be deterred by that sign.
Is that why IL got a “B+” rating from the anti-gun Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, who said that IL has the 8th toughest gun laws in the country?
I’m proud to live in a state that got a “D” rating, but we’re working hard to get an “F.”
Illinois is crap. No castle doctrine. No Stand Your Ground. No right-to-carry confidentiality. Unlawful for nonresidents to carry even in a vehicle, without a license, and Illinois does not recognize any other state’s carry licenses. Machine guns are illegal. Carry bans all over the place.
That’s just some of the black letter law, which speaks nothing to the intangibles like scarcity of gun shops and legal system animosity toward gun owners. Land of Lincoln? More like State of Stalin.
False: if you have a valid CHL from any state you can carry in your vehicle.
Sheeple. Sheeple everywhere.
A loud noise in an Oklahoma mall? People yawn and scratch their butt.
A loud noise in a New Jersey mall? People panicking and trampling each other to get out.
When people are that weak, even their god (the state) can’t protect them from natural selection forever.
For everyone who thinks the back of the store is safe after employees lock the gate to the mall entrance, it only takes one bullet to shatter those nice large glass panes next those locked gates.
I avoid malls, nothing there I need.
Great poem reference RF!
Find cover, with your back to the wall, draw your weapon and look for the smoke.
Step 3: Smoke-Check the source of the smoke.
In all seriousness though, keep something over your weapon, like a coat or random food-court tray.
Having the gun in hand is critical.
Also, no drawing the lemmings attention to the fact that you have a gun is also pretty critical until the threat is closer.
Otherwise the cops might focus on you first as the lemmings will assuredly tell them you’re the racist homophobic mysogenistic murderer because you have a gun.
What mall are you guys going to?
Here in South Florida we have a very nice upscale mall nearby
It has several excellent restaurants and my wife and kids like going there
I always bring my concealed carry weapon when I go to that mall
I am certain lots of other citizens carry as well
No gangs of teenagers wandering around that mall
Just lots of women with plastic surgery
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