GREENWOOD, Ind. — You saw Indiana’s new permitless carry law personified in Elijah Dicken, who was legally carrying a handgun when he shot and killed Jonathan Sapirman as he began shooting inside the Greenwood Park Mall.
Dicken did not have a license to carry the handgun, which would have been required before July 1st when permitless carry became law allowing Hoosiers to carry a handgun without a license.
The incident is shedding light on how the new law impacts these situations going forward, but also is shedding light on rules put in place by private entities on carrying a gun.
“My understanding of the law is that any private property, business, or property owner has the right to say ‘you are not allowed to bring a firearm onto my property’,” said IU O’Neil School lecturer and political scientist Pierre Atlas on WISH-TV.
The Simon Malls code of conduct states that guns are not to be carried on mall property, which in this case applies to the Greenwood Park Mall. However, it’s not clear if the mall had clearly visible signage displayed to that effect.
Regardless, Atlas doesn’t see this incident impacting the permitless carry law anytime soon.
