Exactly! Because we all know that criminals don't use guns in places where they aren't allowed!
Lol. Yes, criminals are criminals. Thats why I have a Texas license for a car, and a Texas license for my Kahr.
Nothing can guarantee safety, certainly not to the 100% threshold we would like it to be. All we can do is lower the chances.
Malls are open, have lots of places for people to run (after giving you an unexpected right hook, for example) and while they have cameras, these are generally mounted very high up, have piss-poor coverage, and get "watched" and "maintained" by minimum wage teens if at all.
Banks generally have better cameras, with better coverage, and staff will tend to pay attention to people who walk into the lobby, sit down and start looking around. They also have more ways to set off silent alarms than you have fingers and toes, so there's that.
What this means is that a would-be robber, armed or of the smack and grab type, would be
more likely to pass on that meeting than for a meeting with an easy mark who will meet him in a store parking lot. Again, not a guarantee, just a likelihood.
A mall would be better than said parking lot, but not by much.