Reply #21: Oh good, I'm not the only one [View All]

[Euromutt]

I guess the reason it's called the "Wal-Mart Walk" is because Wal-Mart policy is that everything is permissible in the store that is legal under relevant state and local law, so you can't get into trouble. But yeah, I don't shop at Wal-Mart if I can help it, and it does a certain amount of spice to be carrying in a non-permissive environment, provided you're not actually breaking the law. The malls around here don't have "no guns" signs on the door; the prohibition on "weapons of any kind" is buried somewhere in a rather lengthy list of mall rules posted on the wall somewhere near the doors, so it's easy to miss.

And I know security at The Commons in Federal Way, WA does enforce the "no weapons" rule, though to say they aren't very smart about it is putting it mildly. Several months ago, I was sitting at the Starbucks by the main doors; two tables over a GI from the 25th Inf. Div., in uniform, was meeting an estate agent (probably). Outside, a FWPD Crown Vic rolls up, the cop gets out and comes into the mall, and is met by a security guard. They talk briefly, and then the cop walks up behind the GI and taps him on the hip, obviously checking for a firearm. Blatantly illegal, and of course the GI wasn't carrying (I think it's against regs to carry concealed in uniform). And because they were focused on the GI, neither mall security nor the cop picked up on the guy (me) carrying a concealed weapon two tables over.

And frankly, that incident just confirmed to me that mall security isn't going to pick up an actual threats, which to my mind justifies continuing to carry at the mall.