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A friend I know told me of an incident where he was approached by several security officers at Disney Springs outdoor shopping area. At the time, he was an active duty police officer that always carried off-duty. Not thinking there would be restrictions in an outdoor shopping area, he carried his off-duty weapon (concealed). He went to a restaurant with his 3 children and sat down to eat. After he sat down, he was approached by, at least, 5 security officers (uniformed and plain clothed). They asked him if he was carrying and told him that he is not allowed to carry his weapon on the property. Embarrassed and upset about the encounter, my friend identified himself and said "yes, I carry.". He was told that he had to store his weapon at there facility and was escorted by the squad to their security office to fill out paperwork and store his weapon. He told me that he never exposed or talked about his weapon at any time before this encounter. Also, he was embarrassed about being treated like a criminal and that he had to leave his children (unsupervised) at the restaurant until he filled out his paperwork and stored his weapon (approx. 40 minutes).

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Disney World is a private entity and private property, and they are free to impose and enforce their own security procedures and requirements, and that includes restricting guns. It doesn't matter how Disney security found that the person was carrying, and it doesn't matter if he was a police officer who happened to be off duty. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/park-rules/

Also see https://thefirearmfirm.com/carrying-a-firearm-at-disney/

Some states do have laws that allow for firearms on private land and in private businesses, but Florida is not one. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3789216

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  • Would it matter if this officer was a State Trooper or FBI agent who has supervening jurisdiction?
    – Dale M ♦
    Feb 12 at 4:34
  • IDK; you can answer that :)
    – BlueDogRanch
    Feb 12 at 16:40
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    @DaleM: It seems unlikely that either of those jurisdictions would have a law that gives off-duty officers the right to remain on private property without permission, for purposes other than official business. If there's not such a law, then I don't see how the jurisdiction makes a difference. In effect, the security guards, as agents of the property owner, saw the man doing something they didn't like (carrying a gun) and said that if he didn't stop doing it, they would revoke his permission to be on the property.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Feb 12 at 16:56
  • @NateEldredge Even during the Reedy Creek Improvement District days, Disney World still relied on local police to assist in traffic concerns on the public roads within the resort property. As a fun fact, Disney World is a largely undeveloped property covering 44 square miles or twice the land area of Manhattan. Typically, Disney Security will handle matters within the park spaces (and according to family that worked at the parks, they are very good.).
    – hszmv
    Feb 13 at 14:08

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