Yesterday was very emotional for many of us.

Right after finishing the post on crimes against our elderly, I headed out to Cool Springs Mall  in Nashville, with my Mom to buy candy for a gingerbread house.

It was a good outing.  She seemed to enjoy it, and  there were  lots of  happy children and many elderly people who were  shopping for the holidays.

Little did we know  that within several hours nine people would lose their lives  in the Omaha mall massacre. 

I was also struck with the knowledge at least one of those victims was over 60.

I grew up in retail.  At one time my parents had two stores in regional malls in Nashville plus another free standing drugstore.

When you work in malls you get to know the insider information shoppers rarely realize.

I'm not a security expert, but here are my tips  that can aid in  keeping your children and aging parents safe while shopping.  My disclaimer here is every situation is different, and these tips are no absolute guarantee you'll avoid all shooters. However, these  common sense tips  should go a long way toward keeping you and your family safe.  

1. Know where all the exits are.

At the first sign of trouble, get out of there.  That is not always easy with small children or an aging parent who may have trouble walking, but that should be your first goal. This is the safest thing.

2. Since malls are usually long thin avenues with few outside exits, you'll have to hide if you can't flee. 

You can't hide out in the open. 

Run into the nearest store and head for the stockroom.  Unless that door is kept locked by employees, it will be your best bet. (We always kept our stockrooms unlocked).  

Insist that the employees lock down the store.  This will prevent the shooter from entering the store.

3. Keep calm and quiet.

Even if the doors are locked, a shooter could still shoot into the shop if he sees or hears something.  Chances are he won't because,  unfortunately, there will be too many distractions for him elsewhere.

4. Never enter a door if you don't know where it leads to.

All malls have lots of passages parallel  to the main corridor.  They're used for transporting merchandise from the loading docks and trash.  Unless you work there, it's very easy to get disorientated.

All the stores will have their store names on their doors in the corridors, but these doors are definitely always locked.  You can never enter a store from the corridors, although you can probably escape from the store into the corridors.  Still, don't do that.  

 Never risk getting stuck out in the middle of a hall  or corridor where the shooter may also try to escape to. He may be more familiar with the floor plans than you are.

5. Never flee to the mall office or any  customer service area

The shooter may be angry with mall management or someone in a store  and those areas may actually be his destination.  Stay away from any place of potential conflict.

6.Stay out of restrooms

You can not hide in a restroom.  It is probably one of the most dangerous places to be besides customer service areas.

As we mourn for the Omaha shoppers, let's remember this was an isolated incident.

We should never allow one disturbed  individual to cause us to barricade ourselves and our aging parents in our homes, where we never venture out because of fear.  

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