There are numerous things one expects to have to deal with when visiting Walt Disney World. There will be massive Magic Kingdom crowds. There will be expensive, but hopefully delicious, food. There will be an annoying theme park reservation system and an overly complicated Genie+. But there’s one thing that’s becoming far too common at Disney World: people with guns.
To be clear, nobody is walking inside the parks with weapons, but it has become oddly commonplace to learn about incidents at the various security checkpoints where people are found to have guns in their possession, and it has now happened twice in a period of a month.
The most recent incident was only recently revealed but it took place on June 25 when a man named Nathaniel Franco Freeman put his bag on the table to be expected at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As he did so, Fox News, says he asked a woman he was with if she had taken something out of the bag.
The “something,” it would appear, was a 40mm Smith and Weston handgun, a magazine, and 13 rounds of ammunition. She had not taken it out of the bag. The gun’s serial number was traced, but the Orange County deputy who conducted the search reportedly did not find a permit issued to Freeman for the weapon.
This followed a similar incident that reportedly took place May 27 at Disney Springs. At around 10pm at the Orange parking garage security checkpoint Aaron Josue Lopez was referred for additional screening of his bag. According to Fox News, Lopez did not hand over his bag.
He admitted to having a knife in the bag, and said there was something else he wanted to put back in his car. He tried to walk away but was stopped by a Disney employee and taken to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. He was in possession of a gun, two magazines, and ammunition. The weapon was reportedly a “clone gun” with no serial number. Lopez said he still needed to submit paperwork to have a serial number assigned to the gun.
What’s utterly bizarre is that two gun arrests in a month at Disney World isn’t even a lot. At the end of 2021 we had five separate reports of guests with guns in their possession at Disney World in a period of two months, so two arrests a month apart is honestly a slow period. There were at least 20 arrests of Disney World guests with guns in 2020.
While the state of Florida allows for the concealed carry of firearms, Walt Disney World bans weapons from their property. Hopefully, as stories like these continue to get noticed, we’ll see more people start to at least pay attention to where their guns are.
