Malls Stepping Up Security After Omaha Shooting

U.S. shopping malls, jammed to the rafters with holiday shoppers this time of year, are taking steps to improve security after the Omaha mall shooting that left 9 people dead:

Shopping centers across America have stepped up security to protect shoppers during the busy holiday season in the wake of a deadly shooting in a Nebraska mall that left nine people dead.

While several shopping malls increased patrols after a lone gunman fired an assault rifle into a crowded store in Omaha on Wednesday, industry officials acknowledged that such tragedies are difficult to prevent.

Shopping centers, which are considered by security experts a "soft" target for terrorism, already implemented tighter security measures following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

But American shoppers are reluctant to accept even measures that would force them to go through metal detectors or be frisked by guards to enter their beloved malls, said Malachy Kavanagh, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers.

"We hope that we will not get to that point in this country because we live in a free society and respect people's right to travel unimpeded," Kavanagh told AFP.

While Shoppers who were surveyed in focus groups indicated they would rather not have to go through metal detectors, they appeared willing to accept them if the government raised the terror alert level, he said.

I had lunch with the Mrs. at a local mall yesterday and watched with some amusement as the mall cops ran around with an obvious sense of great self-importance. Like most mall cops in Orange County they are unarmed and would probably be useless in an armed attack. Since it's nearly impossible to get a concealed weapons permit in Orange County (unless you're a crony of the Sheriff), you can't count on any good citizens being in position to resist an armed suspect.

As far as securing malls with metal detectors, it'll never happen unless Omaha-like attacks start occurring every couple of weeks. The mall we visited probably has 40 or 50 different entrances. They couldn't afford to put detectors at all of them, and restricting access to a handful of entrances would cause massive lines...for a brief period before the mall goes out of business. The first mall to put in metal detectors and restricted access will be the first mall to go out of business. The shoppers just won't go for it.

UPDATE: Scrappleface paints a picture of what might have happened had some of those shoppers refused to be victims and violated the Omaha mall's "gun-free zone" policy.