To the editor:

Hutchinson Mall manager Dan Flores is quoted in Saturday’s Associated Press article regarding Kansas concealed-carry licenses as saying he supports prohibiting duly licensed citizens from bringing weapons on mall premises. He further is quoted as saying “Just look at what happened at the Trolley Center.”

Mr. Flores needs to sign up for a basic logic class. Unless I am seriously mistaken, Trolley Center (and hopefully Hutchinson) is governed by laws that make killing people illegal. Plainly, the shooter in Trolley Center did not have high regard for such laws, and therefore was not dissuaded by them. Having decided to kill people, the relatively trivial act of violating any laws prohibiting bringing concealed guns into the mall plainly are easier for such a person to ignore. After all, society labels them criminals because of their disregard for laws.

Posting a sign, like a lot of the inane “feel-good” policies we see, fails in its ultimate goal and succeeds only in making state-licensed, law-abiding citizens stay away or leave their concealed guns off the premises. So to my mind what such a sign really says to the criminal element is: “Nobody here will resist – do as you please.”

George Pisani,

Lawrence