Shooting At Augusta Mall – Austin’s Daily Commentary

Austin: Last night I was part of a chaperone group for my flag football team attending the Columbia County Fair, and as we were entering, we walked through a very secure gun checkpoint station, firearm checkpoint station. You walk through that, make sure that you're not carrying a gun. You go in and you have a great time.

I don't mind being checked for a gun when they tell you not to have one because. Or you're not allowed to carry one because that means that all of us were on equal ground. That's right. Everyone walking through the gates. We have been checked and there are police officers all over the place.

Here's where it's never a good idea to do something like that Augusta Mall. Because they don't check anyone. They put a sign up that says no guns and they trust you not to carry a gun. Now, the good guys, law abiding citizens for the most part, do not carry weapons because they feel like they don't want to break the rule.

Here's the bad news. The bad guys carry guns all the time. They don't care about signs. They don't have to check through a checkpoint and there are no cops around. Or at least not very many.

Well, a shooting occurred yesterday at Augusta Mall yesterday afternoon in Dillard's. There are two females that need to be questioned. Call them suspects, call them people of interest, whatever. Their photographs are at the Austin Rhodes Show page on Facebook, courtesy the Jail Report and surveillance camera.

Bottom line if you want to have a gun free zone, have gun checkpoints, metal detectors. If not, don't tell the good guys not to carry them. Plain and simple.

In the meantime, Augusta Mall does what Augusta Mall does. They, close the thing down the entire mall and say, come back for business tomorrow. We're closed for today. Yeah, good luck with that.

Folks, again, the bad guys are never going to read the signs that say, don't carry a gun in here. Most of the time the good guys will. And that puts you a good guy at a decided disadvantage. God bless us all. And that's the comment. I'm Austin Rhodes 95.1 FM Newstalk WGAC.