A gunman, Jonathan Sapirman, killed four and injured two at the Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana, as per local police. An armed individual, Elisjsha Dicken, at the mall then killed Sapirman, whose identity hasn’t been made public yet. This has drawn focus to the state’s gun laws and what it means for malls there.
Indiana allows permitless carry but this does not extend to automatic guns, machine guns, or weapons with armour piercing rounds. The food court shooter was carrying a rifle and several rounds of ammunition, as per the cops.
Meanwhile, Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said in a press conference that the “real hero” was the “citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop that shooter almost as soon as he began”.
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The man has been hailed a good Samaritan and identified as a 22-year-old from Bartholomew County.
Despite Indiana allowing permitless carry, there are some places where firearms cannot be carried including but not limited to schools and places of education, and riverboat casinos.
Greenwood Park Mall, which is owned by the Simon Property Group, makes it very clear in the code of conduct that “no firearms or illegal weapons” are to be carried inside a mall. Despite a state having permitless carry, people might be prohibited from carrying guns onto private properties, and on the mall’s page, it is described as a “privately owned property.”
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If a person violates a law regarding when and where they are carrying a firearm, it results in a Class A misdemeanour charge and is punishable with up to a year in jail apart from fines going up to $5,000, but only if it’s their first time.
Second-time offenders, those with a felony record, or those carrying firearms onto school premises can be charged with a Level 5 felony, which carries a sentence of one to six years in prison, and fines going up to $10,000.
