OPINION: It Is Time For Malls To
Abandon 'No Firearms' Policies

In the aftermath of the Greenwood Park Mall shooting in which a legally-armed private citizen named Elisjsha Dicken was able to quickly take down the killer, stopping the attack and preventing further bloodshed, it is time for shopping malls to abandon their “no firearms” policies, which have left other victims around the country disarmed and dead.

Firing across the mall food court, and gradually moving closer to the heavily-armed killer, the 22-year-old Dicken hit the attacker with eight out of ten rounds fired.

Reportedly shopping with his girlfriend at the mall, Dicken was carrying under the state’s newly-enacted “Constitutional Carry” statute, which no longer requires a permit. His quick action dramatically affirmed the benefit of having armed citizens in public places.

Downplaying the significance of armed common defense in this case, the New York Times felt compelled to report—while lauding Dicken’s “act of pluck and composure worthy of a scene in the movies”—that the action “was also a statistical unicorn.”

“An examination of 433 active shooter attacks in the United States between 2000 and 2021,” the Times reported, “showed that only 22 ended with a bystander shooting an attacker, according to data from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas StateUniversity.”

So what? Last year, the FBI noted six incidents in which armed citizens intervened in mass shootings, including four where the perpetrator was killed. .....