Nearly a third of moviegoers surveyed by research firm C4 agree that they want customers' bags and purses checked for weapons before they enter a theater, Variety reports. The study asked the opinions of 250 moviegoers on July 28 and 29, less than a week after a shooter opened fire on an audience during a screening of Trainwreck in Lafayette, Louisiana, killing two and injuring nine. Thirty-four percent of those surveyed favored having armed security guards in theater lobbies while 14 percent called for armed security in every individual theater.
Despite the recent high-profile shootings in movie theaters — the 2012 massacre of 12 during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, among them — Americans do still seem to believe that movie theaters are among the safest public spaces where they can spend their time, according to the study. Even despite wanting armed guards and metal detectors installed, customers didn't want to have to pay more than $3 per ticket for the additional security, and 85 percent of 124 moviegoers in a follow-up survey said their theater habits won't change at all after the attack in Louisiana.
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