
Do you want to know what really happened during the false shooting at Walt Disney World Resort?
When guests visit Walt Disney World Resort, not only are they in the most magical place on earth, but they are also in one of the safest places on earth due to the extended precautions Disney takes when it comes to guest safety. No matter where you are, there are always medics, security, and officers close by with a shockingly fast emergency response team.
While there are certain things that Disney cannot prevent, such as medical issues that guests may have that pre-date their theme park visit, guests are meant to be kept safe at Disney, and Disney has ensured that there are lots of rules in place for that.
For example, if you even have so much as a headache at Disney, each of the theme parks has a first-aid center with over-the-counter medicine to ensure that that migraine or acid reflux attack does not ruin your day. Disney also has in-park rules on how guests can behave and treat others, and while some of Disney’s rules, such as guests pestering or bothering others in the park, are not “illegal,” with Disney being on private property, they have the power to eject guests who break their rules that they have created.
The Disney security team is also top-notch.
What Happens if Guests Bring a Gun to Disney World
Whenever you go into any Disney theme park (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom) or Disney Springs, guests must walk through a top-of-the-line security scanner that can detect all the items in their bag or on their person just by walking through, with certain metals triggering the alarm.
Guests who do trigger that alarm will have to undergo a much more thorough and extensive bag search to ensure that the item that set off the scanner was not dangerous in any way. Of course, at Disney World, no weapons are allowed in the park. There have been instances in which a guest has attempted to bring a gun into the parks before, and Disney has a specific protocol for that.
In one previous example, the guest had their firearm on them but forgot to leave it in their car. Disney ran the registration of the gun, and once they confirmed it matched the guest, they spoke to them and learned that they genuinely did not mean to bring it inside, but they were able to return it to their vehicle.
That being said, it is clear that guns or other weapons will always be caught before any guest enters the park.
False Active Shooter Alarm Triggered at Magic Kingdom
In a post on X, the sheriff’s department clarified that there was no active shooter at the Orlando theme park.
“ALERT: There is NO active shooter at @WaltDisneyWorld’s Magic Kingdom. A fight occurred, and a “popping” sound was heard that we believe was a balloon. Guests began running and that’s how the active shooter rumor started. There is no active shooter.”
ALERT: There is NO active shooter at @WaltDisneyWorld’s Magic Kingdom. A fight occurred, and a “popping” sound was heard that we believe was a balloon. Guests began running and that’s how the active shooter rumor started. There is no active shooter. pic.twitter.com/TRKLs3NglC
— Orange County Sheriff’s Office (@OrangeCoSheriff) August 30, 2024
“A fight occurred, and a ‘popping’ sound was heard that we believe was a balloon,” they explained. “Guests began running, and that’s how the active shooter rumor started.”
Videos shared on social media captured the chaos that ensued. One clip from the X account HorrorMann67 showed a large crowd trying to exit the park, with police cars and officers present. Another video from X user anxrosa showed a gift shop in disarray, with people hiding behind shelves, souvenir cups scattered on the floor, and an abandoned stroller.
#magickingdom #disneyworld #disneyincident pic.twitter.com/W2crwJUU9r
— HorrorMann (@HorrorMann67) August 30, 2024
A Walt Disney World spokesperson confirmed that normal operations have resumed following the incident.
“We appreciate the immediate response of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to quickly assess and clear the situation,” Walt Disney World said in a statement Thursday evening.
But what was Disney’s response while this was all happening? While this was a false alarm, it certainly terrified thousands of guests while they all believed that there was a real active shooter in the theme park that is flooded with kids.
Employee Tells Inside the Magic What Really Happened During the Lockdown
Inside the Magic spoke with a cast member who works at one of the dining locations near Main Street, U.S.A. While they prefer to remain anonymous, they have given permission to share what protocols were taken.
Firstly, many locations went into lockdown.
So that means if you were in the Emporium, guests were kept in there, and the doors were all locked; the same went for many other locations. The cast member we spoke with noted that hundreds of guests swarmed into their work location, screaming that there was a shooter. The cast member noted that guests were in tears, some had lost their children and were in a panic, and overall, the park was in a state of disarray.
Some cast members actually brought guests backstage and underneath the park into the utilidoors to keep them safe. This is not typically protocol, but it appears some cast members went above and beyond to ensure guest safety.
When a safety concern like this happens, we were told that protocol would lock down areas of the park; in this case, Main Street, U.S.A., was locked down. Once police and emergency response teams confirm that all is safe, the park is evacuated section by section. Once all the sections are cleared out, cast members can leave.
Buses to the cast parking lot ended up not running for two hours after the shutdown, as guest removal was prioritized. The cast member thought that with some of the guests also in the utilidoors, it may have taken longer to ensure that the park was entirely clear of all guests.
Luckily, while much of the Magic Kingdom looked ransacked, no guests were reported as injured at the moment, and there was no real threat, which is fantastic news, even if the situation caused a lot of unfortunate panic.