Mall Madness

A former Minnesota policeman has an idea that might help to prevent or reduce the deadly effects of incidents like the one at the Kenya shopping mall: lock-down drills. Based on his experience with one of the biggest malls in the U.S., he proposes that malls adopt a practice of allowing customers into a back room, lowering the gate and turning down the lights whenever a shooting or similar incident starts to take place. This way, the criminal has no access to any additional victims, and is unable to barricade himself inside a store. The idea is to contain the danger until the police arrives.

The reason this isn't standard operating procedure is that store owners are more concerned about their merchandise being stolen by customers than saving lives.

You know, anything to stop shoplifting.

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