With the recent shooting in Las Vegas at a Jason Aldean concert and the bombing in Manchester at an Ariana Grande concert, more states are looking for ways to ensure protection of their people. In Nebraska, they started these restrictions in Lincoln.

Each year new rules are made on what can be allowed into Memorial Stadium. Last year, a no food and drink policy was put into place. This year, they’re focusing on the purses.

Typically, a simple scan of women’s bags was all the security Memorial had for them. Now, the only way one can enter into the stadium is if they have a fully clear bag.

At their gates, everyone with a purse had to make a quick decision on what to do: either go back to their car, throw the purse away or hide it somewhere. With most purses being so expensive now a days, this was a tough call for some.

“I wasn’t aware of the new rule and I already had my purse on me at the gate,” senior Ashtin Young said. “We were too far from our car, so I tossed it in a bush.”

The rule was only put in place at the beginning of the 2017 season, confusion came from not having this restriction during the Spring Game earlier this year.

The way they got the news out was a Facebook page which was for everyone who said they were interested in or attending the first football game. The only other place it was posted was on their stadium website.

Although the security tried to notify as many people as possible to avoid the tough decisions, some people still didn’t get the memo.

“I think they should’ve notified everyone when they bought their tickets,” Young said. “Then this wouldn’t have been such a big problem.”

After the season opener, the bag policy became stricter, but people were then heavily prepared. The bookstore in Lincoln started selling fashionable clear bags along with always having Ziploc baggies on hand.

Then it was applied to the Pinnacle Bank Arena, but in a different way. People could still bring their purses in, but they had to be a certain size. Only small clutch purses or wallets measuring no larger than 4.5 inches by 6.5 inches would be allowed into the arena.

“I used to work at CenturyLink Center so I know how long the whole process takes to let people in,” security guard Jim Looram said. “This would make it a little faster because then you know nothing bad is making its way in.”

Pinnacle Bank was known to take over an hour to get into because of checking bags and using metal detectors, now it would be cut short because of the smaller bag rule.

The only way they checked bags there was to see if it fit into a green basket. If it didn’t, that person wouldn’t be allowed in.

As safety is a concern for all people, most attendees became more fond of the higher security, no matter how much of an inconvenience it was.

“I think that with everything going on around the world, they shouldn’t trust anyone,” senior Ashley Glantz said. “Taking the right safety measures by having the restrictions on bigger bags is needed.”

With these prohibitions on purses and other things entering public events where mass amounts of people reside, they hope to reduce the amount of malicious attacks.