Hoplophobes also to blame for the Trolley Square Mall slaughter in Utah

By Tim Inwood

As I watched the news reports on the shooting at the
Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City, I was saddened
but not surprised by how the obtuse, liberal anti-gun
media continues to miss the real message of what
happened. They should not have missed it, as it is
nothing new. A well meaning dullard who owns private
property (in this case a shopping mall) tells people
you can’t carry a gun here for defense and - surprise, surprise - some one with criminal intent ignores it and
kills many unarmed victims who obeyed the dullard’s
rules. In other words, the misguided policys of stupid
Hoplophobes is getting us killed.

That’s right, I blame not only that crazed idiot
Sulejmen Talovic, who was doing the shooting, but also
the fool who decided to post rule #10 on the doors of
that mall saying you could not carry a weapon on their
property. You see, the law abiding citizen obeys those
laws, deranged criminals do not. Luckily for the folks
in that mall an off-duty police officer named Ken
Hammond ignored that sign and was carrying his gun
that night. Sadly, it took him several minutes to get
to where Talovic was shooting innocents and stop the
carnage. By then 5 people were already dead and
another 5 were wounded.

Click on 'Read More' for the entire commentary.

I know some folks have commented in the past on my
writings saying that I should not say people are
stupid, but for Pete’s sakes I call it as I see it,
and they are very stupid when they do thing like this.
I have no patience with the sheer stupidity of those
who create these zones where they disarm the law-abiding citizen. It is especially silly to do so when
that citizen has been trained and licensed to carry a
firearm for their self defense. We have seen this
story of slaughter so many times in so many places
with the same sad predictable result in the end. Bad
guy kills people until good guy with a gun comes to
the rescue and stops them. It is just plain stupid
that this has to happen over and over again. Yet the
media, so quick to lecture us on so many things,
misses this common denominator in these mass
shootings. It happens in places where people are
prohibited from carrying arms for defense. Schools,
government buildings, workplaces, restaurants, malls,
office buildings etc… Where do mass shootings happen?
Schools, government buildings, workplaces,
restaurants, malls, office buildings etc… Sigh. When
will they learn?

I also have to ask, have the anti-gun ghouls no
shame? They being the ghouls at Brady Center and the
Million Mom March Chapters in Utah. Within hours of
the terrible news of a Bosnian Muslim shooting people
in a Salt Lake City shopping mall, the hoplophobes at
the Brady Center were churning out propaganda to
disarm folks yet again. The very policies they
advocate keeping CCW license holders from carrying in
that mall got those people killed. Shame on them! I
curse their stupidity as well.

The state of Utah has over 79,000 concealed carry
license holders. I would say the odds were many in
the mall that night had a license and were not
carrying because they respected the law and the
misguided policy put forward by mall owners. So I
suspect just like poor Susanna Gratia Hupp, who watched
her parents and many other folks die in a mass killing
in a Luby’s restaurant in Texas many years ago, there
were folks who would otherwise have been armed and
able to stop that crazed Bosnian but had to stand by
with empty hands and watch as he murdered and maimed
people. That is just crazy. But that is where those
who have an unreasonable fear of inanimate objects and
have no faith in their fellow citizens have left us.

Here in Ohio most of our malls are posted too. Unlike
Utah postings, here in Ohio they carry the full force
of the law. I frequent the Dayton Mall, The Mall at
Fairfield Commons and several malls in Cincinnati.
They are all posted. Heck, even the Westland Mall
where PRO has gun shows has a no guns policy in the
rest of the mall. You have to enter from the parking
lot and Mike Duve has to have staff at the door
leading into the mall to remind folks that their guns
are illegal to carry in the mall proper. You see, the
mall owner is willing to take PRO’s money to have the
show in the one empty store, but we gun-owning types
are apparently not the sort of riff raff they want in
the mall patronizing their shops. This is stupid and
insulting to gun owners on the mall owners behalf all
in the same action.

The worst example of posting near me is the Outlet
Malls at Jeffersonville who post even their parking
lots. I refuse to do business up there with them,
period. Ironically, the highway sniper a few years ago
actually shot at a car from the overpass near that
mall. Despite that near brush with disaster the Outlet
mall policy of stupidity stands. Sadly, had the
Trolley Square Mall shooting happened in Ohio the
off-duty law enforcement officer would by law not be
allowed to carry. You see, an off-duty police officer
is like the rest of us CCW license holders in Ohio.
Until March 14 they have to carry openly in the car
too. But even after that they face the same risk of
prosecution for carrying in posted places, that we at
Buckeye Firearms Association call “Criminal Protection Zones”. So next time
you are in a mall here in Ohio that is posted or has a
'no weapons' policy posted somewhere in the mall, just
remember the fool that posted that has essentially
said it is open season on their patrons. At some
point that policy is going to attract some criminal,
deranged fool, or practitioner of that peace faith of
Islam, bent on terrorism, as may have been the case
with the Bosnian Muslim who decided to send some
innocent souls to Allah on February 13, 2007.

Whether this was an act of terrorism based on the
misguided twisting of his faith or just some crazy who
wished to create chaos, we will perhaps never know.
However, I can guarantee that as long as the law-abiding, who should be able to carry a gun for
defense, are told they may not carry a gun someplace,
that is where that individual who is intent on taking
as many lives as possible will strike. That evil
person knows that they will be able to kill as many
people as they wish until they come across an armed
individual who is determined to stop them. Thank God
almighty Ken Hammond broke the stupid mall rules that
day in Salt Lake City.

I hope the property owners of
Ohio who post their properties wake up to the danger
they are setting themselves up for by being a
“Criminal Protection Zone”. How many more lives will
be lost because stupid people can not get over their
infantile fear of an inanimate tool in the hands of a
law abiding citizen? That same tool can save their
lives in such a crisis. How many more lives will be
lost in the mean time? It bothers me to think about
it.

Tim Inwood is the current Legislative Liaison and Past President of the Clinton County Farmers and Sportsmen Association, a Life Member of the NRA and OGCA, and a volunteer for Buckeye Firearms Association.

Related Story:
One gun used to kill in ''gun free'' zone; another used to stop the madness