Mall shooting casts dark cloud over holiday shopping

In order to shop for everyone on their Christmas lists, many people go to the malls. But how will they get their holiday shopping finished if they are too afraid to go this year?

After a gunman shot 13 people, killing eight and injuring five, and then himself at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska last Wednesday, people are worried about their safety while shopping.

Meagan Brightwell, a frequent shopper at Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., said she does not feel safe anymore when she goes to the mall.

"After the shooting, I’m kind of scared to go back because I know there are copycats out there who might do the same thing," Brightwell, 21, said.

While this is a valid point, there is no reason that we should live in fear of what is to come because, sadly, there are too many crazy people in the world to try to avoid them all. Plus, someone’s next door neighbor could be the crazy one and wind up killing him at his own home.

In efforts to prevent and protect shoppers against occurrences such as this, mall authorities are reviewing the different options they have to tighten security, according to an article from www.CNN.com. The International Council of Shopping Centers conducted a study to find out how people feel about the implementation of magnetometers and bag checks, and found that shoppers would accept the changes if the national threat advisory system was raised to the highest level, red. Mall operators, however, wish to keep this option as a last resort.

Raising security measures at shopping centers is a good idea, considering that most only have unarmed private security, but to the level of a red advisory warning seems a bit extreme.

Although this airport-style of security would lessen the chances of violence in malls, it also opens up a larger issue. If these measures were to be implemented in malls, then wouldn’t it also be necessary to put them in at schools, after the Virginia State massacre earlier this year? Then, wouldn’t they be needed at banks since those get robbed all the time? Let’s not forget about grocery stores because there have been store shootings in the past.

While it is scary to imagine that virtually everywhere we go, we are in danger of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is the reality of the world today and there doesn’t seem to be much we can do to prevent it. However, small changes may be able to bring down the frequency of these horrific events.

The article from www.cnn.com reported that mall security at the time of the shooting, noticed the shooter Robert Hawkins’ odd behavior from the cameras when he entered the building. He was said to have entered, exited immediately and then reentered about six minutes later with an odd-looking sweatshirt wrapped up under his arm. Security said there was not enough time to act on their suspicions because he immediately began shooting.

From the report, it does appear that there was not adequate time for mall security to make a difference because they only had someone watching from the cameras. But a good way to expand on this type of surveillance would be to have a guard at each entrance that could be contacted and warned of any suspicious activity. That way, once the workers in the surveillance room saw Hawkins enter, they could have radioed to warn the guard in the area.

It is too late to make a difference in the Hawkins case, but there is time to work towards change for the future. The best way would be to tighten up loose ends in security, instead of going "balls-to the-wall" and strip-searching everyone that walks through mall doors.