Trolley Square Mall and Concealed Carry
February 15th, 2007 by Syd
The attack at the Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City reminds us that we are facing a new kind of terror in the world we live in. The new terrorist, be he Sulejmen Talovic in Utah or Dylan Kleibold and Eric Harris in Colorado is characterized by chaotic motivations and mental disorganization. He may or may not have a cause or political affiliations. He may not be a member of any terrorist organization or see himself that way. He is often completely off the radar of traditional law enforcement.
What these folks do have in common is a desire to create mayhem and chaos, often including their own death. More traditional terrorists, such as Zarqawi may have stronger political affiliations with known groups, but they still share the primary agenda of creating chaos and fear, and undermining modern civilization. Unlike the previous generation of terrorists, drawing attention to the “cause” seems subordinate to the destruction of civilized society and traditional political institutions.
I don’t know why these people do what they do, what kind of satisfaction they derive in ending the lives of complete strangers. Perhaps they have defined the rest of the world as the enemy or they’re acting out some jihadist fantasy, but this is guesswork. I think it’s important that we try to find some answers, but it is often difficult since the perpetrators usually die in the course of their crime. (I will say parenthetically, that I think the Muslim connection with Talovic is a complete red herring. He wasn’t Al Qaeda.) While the psychologists parse out the motivations, our more immediate concern is in protecting ourselves from the new terror and ultimately, putting a stop to it.
Noteworthy in the Trolley Square shooting and others like it is the denial often voiced by witnesses, usually in the form of statements like, “Nothing like this has ever happened around here before,” and, “This is a nice, quiet neighborhood.” The implication is that terrorist attacks happen to someone else, somewhere else, but not to us. The result of this denial is that most remain woefully unprepared to survive and repulse such an attack, regardless of how many times we may hear of them on the news.
“Part of the shattering impact of the shootings, many residents said, was the setting. Mass murders and terrorist attacks have long since robbed other places of their sense of sanctuary. Schools, factories and office buildings carry their security consciousness like a badge these days, as reassurance.
But for millions of people, the mall has become the American Main Street, a thoroughfare of pedestrian commerce that echoes many of the old values and perceptions that car culture and sprawl have supplanted.
“It feels like somebody has invaded our small, safe community,” said Ann Jensen, the manager of the Desert Edge Brewery Pub at Trolley Square. Source
Another having trouble grasping reality was…
Accountant Jeff Barlow was on a date at another restaurant when he looked outside and saw the gunman firing from the hip.
“I thought it was some kind of joke — some kind of movie or stunt,” Barlow said. “I didn’t believe it was happening. And then I saw a man go down in a courtyard. I realized this was serious. These are real bullets flying around.” Source
Fortunately, off-duty Officer Ken Hammond had a better grasp of the situation and was prepared to respond:
Ken Hammond, an off-duty officer from Ogden, north of Salt Lake City, jumped up from his seat at a restaurant after hearing gunfire and cornered the gunman, exchanging fire with him until other officers arrived, Burbank said.
“There is no question that his quick actions saved the lives of numerous other people,” the police chief said. Source
Officer Hammond was off duty and out of his jurisdiction having supper with his wife at the mall. He was functioning essentially as an armed citizen with a concealed handgun, albeit with the benefit of his law enforcement training and experience. Fortunately, he ignored the “No Guns” signs on the doors of the mall. Apparently Talovic ignored the signs, too.
Prepared, armed and understanding the situation, Officer Hammond was able to bottle up the shooter in a shop and stop the rampage. Hammond offered an interesting observation:
“We were there for a reason. I had my gun on me for a reason. We decided to eat dessert, which we never do, for a reason,” Hammond said. “Everything happened for a reason.”
Sadly, Officer Hammond appears to be the only person on the scene who was able to respond to the attack. Had more law abiding citizens been armed and aware, perhaps fewer people would have been injured and killed. Apparently, the denial at Trolley Square was quite strong.
Incidents such as the Trolley Square shooting make a strong case for “shall issue” concealed carry by legally armed citizens and off duty police officers. Opponents of concealed carry often make the argument that CCW proponents want to turn the country into an armed camp. “Do you really want every qualified adult running around with a pistol on their hip?” they complain. I am an advocate, but also a realist, and I know that there are folks out there who lack the disposition and inclination to get armed and trained to provide for their own self-defense. And no, I don’t need to see every teacher, cocktail waitress, and checker at the Kroger with a gun on their hip, but I do think they all should have the right to be armed if they choose, that they shouldn’t be fired from their jobs if they choose to go armed, and that their workplaces and other public areas should not be made “gun free zones.” “Gun free zones” are just “free fire zones” for bad guys.
Some things we can do to make our public places safer:
- Break out of the denial. It can happen here. It does happen here. We face numerous threats from “new terrorists,” traditional terrorists, and garden variety criminals.
- Take down the stupid “No Guns” signs. They only stop the law-abiding from being able to defend themselves.
- Stop creating “gun free zones.” It’s a myth. Criminals don’t respect your signs and rules.
- Stop stigmatizing legally armed citizens who choose to exercise their 2nd Amendment right to self-defense. Instead, acknowledge them as a valuable adjunct and support to local law enforcement.
- If you can, get armed, trained and aware.
- Carry your gun. It won’t do you any good locked in a cabinet at home.
Nothing will completely eliminate these sorts of attacks, but we can do something about their frequency and severity by being armed and aware.
Oh, I forgot one more…
- Tell the blood-dancing Brady Campaign to go to hell.
It looks like the citizens of Utah are doing some “clear thinking” on the matter:
Concealed-gun demand skyrockets after shootings
“…I think the Muslim connection with Talovic is a complete red herring. He wasn??t Al Qaeda.”
You may very well be right, but the fact that he was Muslim can’t be denied (except by the MSM). Who knows what was going through this young misanthrope’s mind when he decided on his murderous course. He was, no doubt, well acquainted with the exhortations to violence against non-Muslims Islamofacists fervently preach.
Just to indulge in pure conjecture, maybe he wasn’t connected to any of the known terrorist organizations. But let’s suppose that he, being of a young, impressionable mind, and not really fitting in to American society, decides he will live up to his Jihadist heritage, go out in a blaze of wacky glory, and find his dozens of concubines waiting for him in the afterlife. As a loose cannon, he didn’t necessarily need a terrorist support network to act; he already knew the basic tenents of the Jihadist cause and he acted accordingly.
There IS precendence for this sort of behavior in this country, like the moron who killed people at the LA airport in July 2002. He was, apparently, acting independently, but he was still engaging in Jihad, at least to my way of thinking.
As far as the rest of your essay, I agree completely, especially the points you made at the end.
DAL357
I agree. It’s possible that he had bought into jihadism and that was his motivation. As a child he lived through the genocide of his people in Bosnia, then migrated to the US. These facts combined with the ordinary stresses and emotional rip tides of being a teenager must have created an absolute witch’s brew in his head. I do think we need to be careful about jumping to conclusions in a case like this since there are so many other factors at work.
Syd.
This kind of attack will happen again and again, until more of the people become aware of their surroundings and become armed. I have been telling my wife for years to be aware of everyone around her and not to make mistakes when shopping. I am armed and have a CCW permit and when i go out i am armed. People do not know that i am armed,and that is the way it should be. When i see a sign that say’s no guns allowed,i ask the shop owner if he is ready to defend his shoppers in case of attack. They don’t have an answer,because it won’t happen to them or our mall.
Syd; I agree with your take on this incident. So many of the grabbers agendas preach complete disarmament without consideration of whether the Ogre obeys their silly little “Gun Free” zone signs. My feelings: If I see a sign on a store I ignore it. I carry concealed and have done for 35 years. I can find inventive ways to conceal it and I don’t take it out in a store rest room and play with it. (Ahem…the weapon). If I need to engage an armed bad guy I shall do so immediately. Then let the silly twit who owns the store bar me from coming back. Bottom Line? I don’t intend to sound gung-ho, hard core or aching for trouble. But, If the moment arises I prefer to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.
I must admit to a degree of conflict regarding the disregard for ‘no guns’ signs. I got my first CCW more than forty years ago and have often gone places where it was prudent to carry more than one firearm. I can’t count the number of times I’ve carried into a courtroom or school.
But I’ve also had the experience of being jailed by an ‘over-zealous’ law enforcement officeer because I had a gun in my car and no CCW on my person. They were in a ‘tough’ mode and it took two years of pro-se effort on my part to get out from under the difficulty. And every time I renew, I have to explain it all over again. The fact that the Detonics in question wasn’t loaded was easily fixable. The cop simply loaded it. I spent five days in jail. And I lost the Detonics—one of the very first batch made; before they were even announced to the public.
I usually carry anyway. ‘Rather 12 than 6′ as mentioned above. But my twelve was, in fact, only one—a Judge who called herself, with glee, ‘Hangin’ Alice’. It’s no fun.
It has come time to sue those who have put you in Harm’s Way. It is sad that America responds to the Pocket Book but it does. Those families of the dead and those wounded individuals need to sue the mall and its Holding Company. This doesn??t bring back the dead nor heal the wounds but it does make you think twice before you start hanging up signs declaring a gun free zone. The Mall has given people a sense of security with these signs. My self I avoid these places for this reason, criminals are cowardly creatures and are opportunistic, create an environment that is conducive to their craft and they will practice it. Create an environment that is difficult and they move on.