[Glenn E. Meyer]

Attacks on the mall are certainly in the realm of possibility if you look at other countries, loonies that have done exactly that here and listened to presentations of possible terrorist scenarios.

My focus was not as much as the classic interventionist conundrum as to how you might interact with other armed citizens.

Some folks have advocated carrying a long arm in the car for such incidents. While discouraged by some, it is not out of the realm of possibility that we could see many focused attacks on public places.

The idea that a terrorist couldn't be late or that such folks might not stage outside is not realistic. At one school shooting, the kids staged outside and pulled the fire alarm and shot at those fleeing. That certainly could happen at a mall. Start a fire fight at one end and then have a team at the other to nail those exiting.

Thus, if you were faced with someone taking out a long arm - can you be sure that it is a good guy? I don't know.

If you did carry your long arm - would you then be at risk from arriving law enforcement - damn right you would be.

If I were a cop and arrived at a mall with teams of folks carrying ARs and shooting at each other - that would be just delightful.

As I pointed out, in our diverse society, one can't have any clear sign of who is the terrorist. I worried that a minority good guy would be at significant risk. As I pointed out, after Diallo, there are clear studies indicating that minorities are at risk. Interestingly, the risk seems more from civilians than trained LEOs.

So, God forbid that we face such firearms based terrorism in the USA. If a mall shoot starts, it's going to be a mess.

Do CHLs really deter as Lott suggested? Who really knows now?