At least in most jurisdictions, the egress to a gathering area can __never__ be blocked, there is some provisions for delay on emergency exits, but those require NRTL certification, and are actually usually mechanical.
You might be able to lock it down during periods of limited occupancy, and you can rig it to an annoying alarm, and maybe try to identify the person, and ban them from future. It is possible to get variances for this, but you usually need to either be a medical or penal facility.
Thanks for clarifying the finer points, my exposure to these systems is sending people to wire them up (mostly electrical but sometimes the control wiring) and not so much on the code side.
I looked up a wiring diagram for a similar gate and saw it had a fire alarm input so I assumed the AHJ in this case approved it based on the ability for the gate to open when an alarm condition is detected. That being said, it seems like a danger to me.
A regional hardware store chain has turnstiles at the entry points and swing gates at exits, which seems much safer for access control in a big box store.
You might be able to lock it down during periods of limited occupancy, and you can rig it to an annoying alarm, and maybe try to identify the person, and ban them from future. It is possible to get variances for this, but you usually need to either be a medical or penal facility.