Rick Christie of the Palm Beach Post
courtesy grovewatch.com

“The regular sight of people walking in the mall with long-guns will make it difficult for security officers to keep up, he told Peters. Plus, a well-meaning Good Samaritan with a concealed carry permit could decide to take matters into his or her own hands, Stepp said. “They may say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be the hero’ and take out this guy they perceived as a threat,” even if it’s someone who just bought a gun or is returning one, he said. There are already too many ways for a bad, or careless, guy with a gun to hurt people. Do we really need to make it any easier for them?” – Rick Christie in Guns, shopping malls are a bad retail mix [via mypalmbeachpost.com]

 

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83 COMMENTS

    • You need to understand the article is probably a favor to the property owner. They don’t want Dicks. Sears holds the lease and is subletting to Dicks. The owners don’t want something so lowly in their ritzy mall (why Sears???). They lost in court and are now trying to sway public opinion.

  3. Someone somewhere read that and thought to themselves :

    “It worked! Our brainwashing, er, ‘educating’ really worked!”

    *mutter*…

      • Very few gun stores do repairs. Big Box Retail, as far as I know, never.

        Only Gun Store I know has a Gunsmith on site is McBride’s in Austin. I took a handgun to change out stock front sight out for different one. Had handgun in original box with new sight.

        25 minutes and $25.00 back in box with original sight in it.

        Here’s a tip, call before you take a weapon back call firearms department and ask if they have a Gunsmith in house or could recommend one. Might just keep lockdowns at a minimum and avoid having SWAT team show up!

      • When you guys buy a gun at a store, don’t you immediately throw away the box, then run around pointing the gun at people yelling “Pew! Pew!”?

    • On those occasions where I need to take a rifle to a non-rifle friendly environment I use a soft sided guitar case. No one bats an eye.

  6. I didn’t think big box stores accepted firearms returns. I didn’t think CCLs were in the habit of shooting long gun carriers. Dick’s moved into the mall up the road a couple of years ago and I know nothing has happened. I’m unimpressed with Rick Christie and I believe he should try harder next time.

    • Avoid being in a vehicle or walking. Any movement could cause you to cross the path of a wayward projectile.

      • -Don’t go to work for fear you might get killed in your vehicle.
        -Don’t go to work for fear someone will come to work with a handgun in their coat, lunch bag to take out their frustration on the work place.
        -Don’t go to work for fear of catching the flu from someone whom should have stayed home because they had the flu. They came to work for fear that the boss wound fire them because the books have to be closed by the end of the year.
        -Don’t go to work and hide under your bed for fear the wife and kids my disturbe your work at home schedule and you’ll still get fired even though you never miss a day of work 🙂

        Can anyone think up another excuse for not going to work because of FEAR ! ?

        • Don’t go to work for fear of an aircraft falling out of the sky.
          Don’t go to work for fear that Amtrak will derail…

        • Don’t go to work for fear of_________Well____________Work!

          Wouldn’t you rather be sitting in your recliner sipping on a margarita, watching the game?

  8. They don’t even sell those evil AR’s or handguns at Dicks. Worried about pa with his hunting shotgun…priceless😖😫😋

    • Depends on the jurisdiction. The Dick’s near us (southern Oregon) has well stocked archery and firearm departments with everything from blued steel and walnut, to all the modern gadgets. Even a few narrow-market items like a PTR, and both a Ruger Precision Rifle and a Savage 110BA Stealth, and a Remington R51 that’s been in the display case a looong time. They occasionally run sales with prices that rival online.
      My major complaint is their policy of only one firearm on the counter per sales person. If you want to fondle a Shield, G43, XD-S, CCP, and LC9s side-by-side to decide between them, go when they’re not busy.

      Back to the topic: It’s not in an indoor mall. It’s in a row of attached big boxes, each with its own doors to the parking lot – like a large-scale strip mall.

  9. Don’t remember the author of this one, but;

    How to tell the good guys from the bad guys;
    Does the person have their gun holstered or slung? Then for all intents and purposes = Good Guy/Person.
    Does the person have their gun pointed at others, or are they making threats, or actively shooting at people? = Bad Guy/Person.

    It ain’t rocket surgery there gomer…..

    • Sometimes it is even easier because the Bad Guy is yelling and screaming. And event if they aren’t yelling and screaming then their firearms is/are making that really loud bang noise. The bang noise is the real tip-off as to who the bad guys are.

  10. Rich Christie must have some sort of financial stake in not having a Dick’s at that mall.

    At least, I hope for his sake that he does and that’s why he is spouting this specious horse crap. Otherwise he is an idiot.

    Or both.

    • wouldn’t it be glorious to find out that he is a stakeholder in the under armour outlet or the nike store.

  11. This is the comment I posted there:
    “Fried chicken joints, hair weave beauty parlors, McDonald’s, pot dispensaries, liquor stores, 7/11’s and methedone clinics are exponentially more dangerous. Everyday there are armed Robbie’s and murders committed in places like that. Can the author list even one example of that happening at a gun store, ostensibly the safest retail stores in the country? And no, pawn shops don’t count.”

  12. When I’ve purchased guns at Dick’s or Academy, I’ve been escorted to the exit and one time even to my car as a courtesy.

  13. Does anybody else here remember when Sears, basically the Cornerstone of every Mall ever, used to sell firearms? Maybe it’s just me but I sure as heck don’t remember a whole lot of shootouts and Duels at new high noon in the middle of the Mall during that time.

  14. It warms my heart to know that a store like Dick’s, who threw their customers under the bus during the gun control scare of ’12, are now getting screwed over by the same people who they tried to appease with their politically correctness.

    • Excellent observation. Liberal Terrorists™️ can never, nor should they ever be appeased.

  16. I live in Washington State. Several years ago, I was going to go shooting with a friend, who lives on the Olympic Peninsula. Getting there involved a ferry ride. I went as a walk-on passenger. I carried my rifle in a case. No one even raised an eyebrow.
    I wonder what the reaction would be today. The funny thing is that it’s not a firearm, but an expensive German air rifle.

    • In my jurisdiction, any object (maybe even a spoon? slingshot for sure) that can propel another is considered a firearm. (haven’t heard of anyone’s hand being declared a firearm, yet)

      • Hold on there Button! My wife has no reason to shop at Dick’s to gain “upsmanship”, so she shops at Floormart, I mean Walmart. And when I say shop, I mean SHOP! When she’s ready to check out, she gets in the “Three Cart Minimum” line.

    • Re: “And Dick’s gun department would differ from Walmart’s gun department exactly how?”

      Location, for one: Walmart always goes big-box, which typically requires them to pick locations that have a large amount of available land, including their own parking lot. They would never be able to cram all of that into an existing mall such as The Garden Mall in south Florida, whereas Dick’s can. This would let Dick’s sell guns in tony places where Walmart couldn’t.

      The article does mention the bit about escorting to cars: “Dick’s does take some precautions. When someone buys a rifle and ammunition, the standard procedure is to have an employee walk the customer to the car.”
      This means to me that if a lunatic concealed carrier saw a gun-buyer carrying a bagged or boxed rifle in the company of an escorting Dick’s employee, and the CC’er decided anyway that the buyer was a threat, and opened fire, that CC’er would himself or herself be committing attempted murder by opening fire on such a gun-buyer.

      Frankly, I think the police chief is borrowing trouble where little or none would actually be present — and is likely doing so for political purposes.

  20. Maybe someone will panic at the sight of a Ruger, S&W or (even worse someone think of the intersectionality) Savage box, hit the gas in their car instead of the brake and it will careen into a gasoline tanker causing a huge explosion next to a bus full of small children. No, seriously it could happen.

  21. We have a Dick’s and Field & Stream store at the Columbus Ohio mall and I have not read a single article in the newspaper of a incident at that mall.

  22. There’s a massive Dick’s Sporting Goods store in the Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas Strip.

    It doesn’t sell guns in a gun-friendly state. But it does sell kayaks in the middle of the desert.

    And you wonder why Dick’s stock is down 30 bucks from its all-time high.

    • Maybe those kayaks have hidden wheels and the loco’s harness up a gaggle of coyotes to pull them around the desert??

  23. Christie is the epitome of a neo-socialist elitist. He’s made a career of bashing conservatives, fiscal economic policies and most recently President Trump. He’s been made obsolete of the internet, now that the common man has been freed from the tyranny of lies and manipulation by the press.

  24. In Littleton, there used to be a sporting goods store in the mall and another branch across the street because the mall one couldn’t sell guns or ammo, but the strip mall one could. Now, the mall one is still there, but like most malls, the anchor stores are closing, and the traffic is really falling off. Except for the newest malls, the rest have gone downhill, and 2 have already been torn down or converted.

  25. The WTF is strong in this one. There are Dick’s stores all over the deep blue Portland OR metro area and not one peep. Even the one attached to Washington Square has a gun department and nobody screamed.
    The Dick’s near me does an OK gun and ammo trade but Sportsman’s Warehouse is in the same shopping center and they have better prices, a full line of pistols and black rifles and no history of pandering to Shannon Watts.

  27. Several years ago, I got my hunting license, a deer stand, and ammo at a Dick’s in a mall in a suburb of Albany, NY. If they can handle it there, so can your delicate snowflakes.

  28. In Montana and Idaho it is extremely common for gun stores to be in malls. Off the top of my head just in places I’ve been to in the last few years, Great Falls MT, Cutbank MT, Butte MT, Idaho Falls ID, Pocatello ID, American Falls ID, and Lewiston ID. No issues. Hell, Vegas even has a casino with a full size Cabelas in the lobby and nobody is wasting nobody, can you dig it?

  29. “The mall hasn’t been just about shopping for decades. It’s considered a “safe space” for residents, who might otherwise never see one another, to gather with little fear of the social and political tensions of the outside world.”

    That is, how you say, the warm leavings of a male cow.

  30. We’ve had a Bass Pro shop in the local outlet mall for dang near 20 Years. Even has a shooting range upstairs.

  31. Admittedly this was pre-Mandalay Bay, but here in Vegas I’ve walked right through a casino floor with a rifle over my shoulder and nothing more than a tag tied through the magazine well and ejection port to show that it wasn’t loaded. Got a couple of glances, but nothing more.

  32. Dick’s in the local mall in Garden City, NY never had a problem, or a shooting. Christie’s just another “Chicken Little” crying the sky is falling when there is no problem! He must have had one depraved childhood!

  34. My local Rural King is attached to a mall. They sell a lot of guns—-the most guns of any Rural King in the state of Florida.

    How do they prevent the issue this idiot mentioned? Well, first of all,they only sell NEW guns—so they all COME IN BOXES. But secondly, they don’t allow gun purchasers to walk out the mall entrance. All guns purchasers are walked to the outside exit by an employee.

    This guy’s dumb.

    • I’ve never heard of Rural King in my life before now. I looked it up and there’s one right down the road from me in Zephyr Hills. I’m going to have to go check it out.

    • All gun purchasers are walked to the outside exit by an employee.

      The WalMart Perp March?

      Thank you for making a major purchase. We now show you the door. Good Day!

  35. I’m still shocked that you could get a sales clerk near the gun department at the Dicks stores I have encountered. Can’t seem to find anyone around to sell one when I visited in the past to worry about getting a chance to walk out with one.

  36. The stupid, it burns. Dick’s isn’t some little boutique, it’s a big-box store with its own entrances. And they don’t stack the rifles like cordwood and just hand them out without a box. Still waiting to find a gun control advocate who’s not dumb as rocks.

  37. “The regular sight of people walking … with long-guns…” is actually kinda boring, that is, unless you are a reality-challenged adrenaline addict, looking for an excuse to get all wee-wee’d up.

    I too, can make up a story, starting with people with words, who might say any darn thing, who must be banned from the malls. What’s a rent a cop to do? Then someone might have an opinion. Indeed, some clueless idiot might slime an entire demographic for what they *might* do, which stuff BTW, this particular segment is remarkably less prone to than the population. (Viloence and stupidity among legal gun owners vs. the population as a whole.)

  39. I know the left hates data, but concealed carry people do not go around opening up on casual carrying of long guns. You are far more at risk from mall security and law enforcement and even more so from the psuedo law enforcement crowd of park rangers national park rangers.

  40. Several years ago, our local mall took down all of it’s “No Weapons” signs from the entrance doors. On a couple of trips I have noticed open carry in the mall. No issues from anyone.

  41. Typical leftist paranoia, replete with “what if” scenarios. There are 2 Dick’s stores near me, both sell long guns and ammo. No problems.

  42. Ducks opened a store in Sawgrass Mall ft. Lauderdale area, no firearms dept. Every couple weeks we go there just to leave empty handed. The greeter at the door always asks what we’re looking for…guns and ammo. BTW, no black guns at any Dicks in S.FL…poor ammo selection too.

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