RIOT AT THE MALL OF AMERICA. “I recently read Stephen Hunter’s Soft Target, about a terrorist attack on the Mall of America. While the outcome yesterday was entirely different–no one was seriously hurt, and reportedly no shots were fired–the beginning of the riot, with screaming shoppers fleeing from gangs of ‘youths’ amid the sound of broken glass, and people being herded into the back rooms of stores for safety, was eerily reminiscent of Hunter’s novel. The moral, I suppose, is that civilization faces various threats against which we do not yet have adequate antidotes.”

Actually, we do. If “youths” felt they were at serious risk of being shot when attacking innocents, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen. And, in fact, not so long ago they were, and it didn’t. If these problems become widespread, the antidote will present itself. “Youths,” in general, do what they can get away with, and don’t do what they can’t.

UPDATE: Reader Richard Kaul writes: “Minnesota has a shall-issue concealed carry law that’s worked well, despite the metro DFL’s prediction of street bloodbaths. But the law does allow establishments to ban concealed carry, and the Mall of America does so. Which is one reason I rarely go there. I figure I can go other places that choose not to make me an easy target.”

And reader Eric Klaus writes:

It wasn’t too long ago that when a plane was hijacked, the “expert” advice was to sit quietly and acquiesce. We all know how that worked out on 9-11.

Robberies and rioting youths are still in “acquiesce” mode. Things that can’t go on forever, won’t.

Indeed.