Mall Ninja

About

Mall Ninja is a slang term for a person who is overly enthusiastic about weapons, particularly firearms, and claim mastery over them despite having little or no experience with combat.

Origin

The term "Mall Ninja" comes from a since-deleted 2001 thread on gun-owner forum Glock Talk. According to a March 1st, 2006 post on lonelymachines,^[1] the term was first applied to Glock Talk poster Gecko45, who posted to the thread asking a question about being properly protected with a bullet proof vest. It was later revealed he was a very over-enthusiastic mall cop who always carried firearms and wore a bullet-proof vest, believing himself to be a potential target of a shooting at all times. When people in the thread mocked him, he responded by getting more defensive (ex: below; bolded emphasis added).

I do not understand the “joke” or the “Rambo.” I am in a high-risk job. It is not the Mall of America, but Ill tell you what its no podunk mall either.I am a responsible citizen who has made the choice to carry at all times. I defend others. If something happens at the Mall then I would be the hero, not those of you who are making fun of me for no reason. Yes Im not a Green Beret but guess what neither are you and unlike you I have to face unruly shoppers every day.My REAL problem is that, like any LEO, I have enemies because of my job. They may have access to high-powered rifles. My job starts and ends at the same time every day. Although I use four rotating routes to drive to and from work, I am still vulnerable during the walk to and from my car. This is the time that I load up on the trauma plates because I DO NOT WANT TO BE SHOT DEAD! Also, someone said that my Tac Team doesn’t get training. Not true. We meet at the range every night and shoot 400 rounds each through weapons that closely resemble our duty setup. We also practice unarmed combat. I am a Master of three martial arts including ninjitsu, which means I can wear the special boots to climb walls. I don’t think any of you are working as hard as I am to be prepared. I asked a serious question about tactical armor and I wanted a serious response. If you want to laugh at somebody, try laughing at the sheep out there who go to the mall unarmed trusting in me to stand guiard over their lives like a God.

He would later go on to claim that in an operation, he saved the life and "possibly the virginity" of the mayor's nephew, but the mayor had paid off the press so there was no scandal. Further posters chimed in in response to Gecko45 posts, though many in the thread suspected these were alternate accounts Gecko45 created to corroborate his story.

Spread

After the Gecko45 incident, the term "Mall Ninja" became an umbrella term for those who are overly enthusiastic about their weaponry and firearms. On February 27th, 2005, xd-40 provided a definition of "Mall Ninja" to Urban Dictionary ^[2] that gained 1148 upvotes (shown below).

In late 2012, a subreddit devoted to mocking the "Mall Ninja" subculture, /r/mallninjashit,^[3] was created by cowboy-up. As of April 2017, the subreddit currently has over 62,000 subscribers.

The subculture has also been documented by RationalWiki,^[4] who point out that in addition to firearms, Mall Ninjas can also be identified by their love of Japanese weaponry, particularly the Katana. The type of person associated with the I studied the blade meme would fit under the category of a Mall Ninja.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References